How to Become a Shining Beacon of Moral Righteousness
This could be a metaphor for your moral character.
The subject of one of my previous articles–I won’t name names to protect the individual from less scrupulous readers–sent a paper-and-ink thank you card which I received in my mailbox just moments ago. A very nice gesture, though I am already well enough aware of my extreme awesomeness. Included in the card was a check for $3.50. Was it a tip? A dangling carrot tempting me to injure my journalistic integrity? The worst bribe in history?
It was actually payment for copies of the paper the subject had picked up at a Preston Hollow People news stand (see “Rack Locations” link on left). At a quarter a pop (practically free!) said subject didn’t have enough change to pay for, if junior high math serves, 14 copies. Circulation manager Dorothy Wood, a grizzled veteran of the circulation game, was astounded. So astounded that she made me put up this post. More often in her experience, people plop in a quarter and help themselves, like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet (you know who you are). In something like three decades with People Newspapers, Dorothy has never (or at least very, very infrequently) received a check paying for those extra copies that somehow disappear from the news stand ever week.
Let this be a lesson: If you don’t have enough change, Dorothy will gladly take checks.
