Perfect Pitch

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Bad Bets: “The odds are about one in 175 million. So, that means that you’re about one hundred times more likely to die of a flesh-eating bacteria than you are to win the lottery,” mathematics professor Aaron Abrams told NPR’s All Things Considered in an interview at the height of the Mega Millions lottery frenzy in March. “You can increase the odds that you’re the only one who wins . . . and the way to do that is to pick uncommon numbers. But, again, whatever strategy you pick for choosing your numbers doesn’t increase your odds of winning.”

I <3 U: “The faster you express your love and the more you share it with others, the less you do, in fact, love. We have gone from ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’ to smiley-face emoticons, from beauteous and painstakingly crafted one-to-one disclosures of love to quick and clichéd postings of love for all to see and ‘like,’ ” opined English professor Mark Bauerlein on the lost art of love lettering in an op-ed for CNN.com in February.

Women’s Rights: “I think one could argue that there’s a political movement to limit women’s rights to reproductive justice . . . but I think also there’s a larger sort of cultural-social issue at work . . . We’re in economic difficulties, and the world is changing. We have women advancing in the workplace, and I think this makes some people scared,” explained Pamela Scully, professor and chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory, on NPR’s Talk of the Nation in a discussion on women’s health and reproductive rights.