short subjects

Kurt always carried a guitar pick in his pocket with 37 cents in loose change. A quarter from the year he was born, a 1937 buffalo nickel he found once on a department store floor, and seven wheat pennies from various years including all those that America fought in World War II.
Kurt didn’t play the guitar, but he carried the pick nonetheless in hopes that one day he might be sitting around at a party with some of his cooler friends when someone would pull out a guitar and ask one of the people at the party to play. When the guitar player would say “but I don’t have a pick” Kurt would coolly reach into his pocket, shaking the change around and then slowly pull out his bright red Fender medium and say, “here you go man”. After that he hoped all the people gathered round would nod in approval as the guitar player said “thanks man”, to which Kurt would take a beat, then reply “no sweat”.


Bill loved his daughter Christine and her new husband Todd. And even though they now lived over 800 miles away in California, they would still return home at least twice a year, once in the summer and again at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Once during a summer visit they were all in the living room after dinner watching TV, when they discovered a new nature documentary together called “Planet Earth”. And watching it on Bill’s new HD flat screen television, they all sat mesmerized, each letting out “oohs” and “aahs” at various times during the program.
That Christmas Bill delighted especially in one of his gifts to Todd and Christine, the DVD box set of Planet Earth. And although they were both thrilled to receive this gift and agreed with Bill when he reminded them of the super time they’d all had together, nonetheless, after it returned with them to their apartment in California it sat on the shelf unwatched.
And when Bill visited them on his next Birthday and toured their apartment, he proudly made note of his box set gift sitting on display right next to the first season of Lost, and nodded to himself smiling.