We're busy tonight…too busy to answer the 7,732 e-mails I've received reminding me that contrary to the previous item I posted, April Fool's Day is Monday. I could say I posted that intentionally as a kind of early trick but you're all too smart to believe that.
I've received some interesting e-mails from folks reminiscing about playing Mystery Date, and also some discussing the reason why Milton Bradley didn't bother issuing a male version of the same game. I'll post some of these messages and my responses when I get a little more time.
A story before I go. You know how when you're in a market, there's often a shopping cart near the front full of all sorts of miscellaneous items? In some stores, they call it the Returns Cart. At the checkout counters, shoppers sometimes change their minds about some purchase and abandon the item before it's time to pay for their purchases. The employees toss all those into the Returns Cart and every so often, someone goes around and puts the items back in their proper places on the shelves.
So today I'm in a market and I want to buy some Wheat Thins. You all know Wheat Thins. Well, the shelf is bare…no Wheat Thins. I shrug, complete my other selections and head for the checker. On the way, I pass what is obviously a Returns Cart sitting unattended — a cart overflowing with miscellaneous items, among which are several boxes of Wheat Thins. I grab one, add it to my cart and go through the line.
I pay and the checker is bagging my purchases when I turn and notice a lady behind me in line, unloading the cart from which I got the Wheat Thins I just bought. It was not a Returns Cart. It was her cart…but if you'd seen the willy-nilly aggregation of items, you'd have understood why I made that mistake.
It's probably a good time to say nothing and leave but for some reason, I explain to her what happened. She says, accusingly, "You stole my Wheat Thins?" As she says this, she's unloading her cart onto the conveyor belt and I now see that her cart contains nine boxes of Wheat Thins. She wanted ten, I guess, which is why the shelf was bare.
I say, "Well, they really aren't yours until you pay for them. But I made a mistake so here, take them. On me." I try to hand her the box of misappropriated Wheat Thins.
She shoves them back at me like I've just offered her a dead pussycat. "I don't want your Wheat Thins," she says. "I want my Wheat Thins."
I put my Wheat Thins back in my cart and begin to push said cart out of the store. Behind me, I hear the lady telling people, "That man stole my Wheat Thins!"
And I hear the checker say, "If it had been me, I'd have taken your purse."