428. The Greatest

An Arkansas mayor learned this week that his brother had won the $1,820,000,000.00 Powerball jackpot.

The mayor has had this brother for his entire life. The brother has presumably been present for the various milestones of the mayor's life — birthday parties, elections, the usual accumulation of events that constitute a family relationship. At some point, presumably, the brother helped the mayor move. The brother has almost certainly eaten at the mayor's table and borrowed things without returning them on time and called at inconvenient moments. This is what brothers do. This is the brother the mayor has had for decades.

(The number $1,820,000,000.00 is written that way in the official announcement, with the decimal and the two trailing zeros, as if to make sure no one loses track of the cents. The cents, in context, are a rounding error. The cents are more money than most people have. This is the nature of the number.)

Prior to the lottery announcement, the mayor's brother was a brother. This is not a categorical insult. It is simply an accurate description of the relationship. The brother was one of presumably multiple siblings, ranked somewhere in the mayor's internal hierarchy of family members, distinguished primarily by blood relation and the usual accumulation of shared history.

After the announcement, the brother is the brother who won $1,820,000,000.00 in the Powerball.

These are different categories. The second category is narrower and more specific. The qualification for entry is more demanding. The mayor has been assigned to this category through no action of his own. He did not win the lottery. His brother won the lottery. The mayor is now the brother of the man who won the lottery, which is a different position than winning the lottery, but which is, at minimum, a new position.

The mayor's other siblings, if any, have noted the announcement. Whether they have updated any existing rankings is not known. They are reviewing the available information.