Winning in the Rain

The Price of Victory

My 8-year-old son, Nat, loves two things above all else: the Red Sox and winning. As to his first love, I plead guilty to aiding and abetting. Regarding the second, I have been doing my parental best to curb it. This spring, Nat called me at my office, screaming into the phone at the top of his lungs, "Dad, Dad, we won! We won Red Sox tickets! We're going to Fenway to see the Sox!"
I said, "That's fantastic, pal. How did we win the tickets?"
"Mom did it! Her bid won on eBay!"
The four $23 rain-soaked bleacher seats at Fenway Park cost us $301.
Bob Gordon /// Wayland

Tuned Out

My daughter and I attended a performance of the musical The Phantom of the Opera at the Opera House last month. On our way out of the theater, I overheard a young couple's conversation. The man's cellphone rang, and his date said, "Tell them it was great." His verdict, delivered into the phone: "It was pretty good, but there sure was a lot of singing."
Charlotte Wood /// Wakefield

Don't Ask Where He Left It

When I was a graduate student in Boston years ago, I lived near Cleveland Circle, where I patronized a small variety store. One day I was delighted to find that the new clerk was a former classmate from my hometown. As we were catching up on our lives, I noticed a scruffy-looking fellow doing some shopping. After totaling his selections, my friend informed the man that the $5 he had placed on the counter was not enough. The man forlornly said that he'd have to put back the oranges and milk. Thinking that he was probably a struggling graduate student much like myself, I offered him enough money to satisfy the bill. While the guy thanked me profusely, going on about the kindness of strangers, I couldn't help but notice a familiar twinkle in my friend's eye. We both watched as the fellow left the store and jumped into his double-parked Alfa Romeo. It was then that my friend told me the shopper was a physician at a nearby hospital, albeit a somewhat forgetful one, and that leaving his wallet behind was a fairly common occurrence.
Ellen Ianzito /// Manchester, New Hampshire

Ain't That the Truth

Despite being a lifelong resident of the Boston area and well acquainted with the city's reputation for superb medicine, nevertheless I had procrastinated setting up my first colonoscopy procedure. Finally, at the urging of my physician and my wife, I called my insurance company to ask if the procedure would be covered. After consulting his manual, a customer service representative responded, "Absolutely, fully covered." I then asked how much time had to elapse after the first procedure before a second colonoscopy would be fully covered. After a long pause, the man replied, "I can't find anything about that in the manual, but I've been told that you won't want another one for a long time."
Martin Aronson /// Sharon