Against the Odds

I like to enter online sweepstakes. While filling in dozens of boring entry forms, I dream of winning international vacations, pimped out cars and loads of cash. So far I've only won a Rachel Ray refrigerator message board, but there's always hope for tomorrow. Today I was happy to find an advertisement in the paper for Nestle's American "Idol Elimination" Game. The Grand Prize is a million bucks. According to the rules, contestants must log onto americanidol.com after the Top 24 announcement show and predict which contestants will be voted off. The tricky part is that contestants must make predictions for the entire 14-week elimination period. Even though I'm not much of an Idol fan, I thought I might give it a try for a chance to win a million dollars. Then I saw the odds:

1: 44,881,973,505,008,640,000

That's one in 44 quintillion, 881 quadrillion, 973 trillion, 505 billion, 8 million, six hundred and forty thousand. I think I'll pass.