An Unwise Combination

"It remains to be seen what will happen with this film, because it involves so many children and so many alligators."

-John Arthur Kelly, cinematographer, on a film he turned down

Vehicular Mailslaughter

This afternoon I walked up to Smith Street to mail a $7 check to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Over the years, I have been a major financial supporter of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, mostly through the medium of speeding tickets, but in this case, I was making a tax payment. I did a little acting-for-hire in Northampton last summer, and despite the fact that a tax payment had already been deducted (sorry, "withheld") from my paycheck, the Commonwealth apparently felt that I had not quite paid my debt to it. Hence the $7 check.

Anyway, I had reached Smith Street and was waiting to cross the street to the mailbox on the other side when the envelope, which I had tucked under my arm, came loose and wafted into the rain-soaked street, where it was immediately run over.

I waited for the traffic to let up, picked up the envelope, and deposited as planned into the mailbox.

As always, Massachusetts, it was a pleasure doing business with you.

An Observed Paradox

We are much more likely to care about people's personal troubles if they are not the sort of people who bore us with their personal troubles.