(Day 3 of a week of retelling traditional folktales.)
What a beautiful dog! But did it have bad manners or what? It walked straight into a butcher’s shop, tail wagging, and stole a leg of lamb.
The butcher asked a lawyer, “Can I sue a dog owner?”
“I don’t see why not,” said the lawyer.
“Well,” said the butcher, “it’s your dog. You owe me twenty-four dollars and eleven cents.”
“My consultation fee is eight hundred,” said the lawyer. “You owe me the difference.”
It was a tragedy when Diana and Mansell’s seven-year-old daughter, Destiny, died. It had been a medical mistake. Destiny had gone in “for a little operation” and the surgeon had left a sponge inside her when he sewed up. Destiny died.
Diana and Mansell were, of course, heart-broken.
“We have to sue the doctor,” declared Mansell. “We have to sue the hospital. We have to sue the Health Board. We have to sue…”
“I think we should remember little Destiny and the happy times,” said Diana. “To sue would simply extend our grieving forever.”
”It’s not the money,” said Mansell. “It’s the principle. We don’t want this happening again.”
“I think we can rest assured that it won’t happen again, whether we sue or not,” said Diana. “I would prefer to remember Destiny the happy way she was.”
But Mansell went on and on. He wouldn’t let the topic drop. Whenever Destiny’s name was mentioned he went on about the irresponsibility of the doctors and the nurses and the hospitals.
It was impossible for Diana to ever share memories of their daughter with her husband without a diatribe. It lasted a lifetime.
Douglas Biddle was the president of the local Flat Earth Society. The Society had three members, counting Douglas himself. The purpose of the Society’s existence had nothing to do with believing the earth was flat. It was part of a plan to make money.
Every week the three would write an article supporting the tenet that the earth was flat. They would place it in people’s letter boxes. People laughed at them. Then there appeared a public ridiculing of Douglas Biddle in the local paper. Douglas Biddle sued the paper for every cent they had.
“I believe,” said Douglas Biddle to the two other members attending the final meeting of the Flat Earth Society, “I believe the Flat Earth Society has enough money to go ROUND.”
Weave a Web 