Consider this

                  I like the TV show “American Pickers”, so when I realized that a trip to the Indianapolis 500 was going to take my brother and me right past their shop in Le Claire, Iowa, I had to stop.   It was fun looking around and seeing some things that I had seen on the show.   I even bought a few souvenirs.                   As I was leaving, I asked the girl behind the counter, “What do you do when they start shooting around here?”   She gave me the strangest look as if she had no idea what I was talking about, so I rephrased my question. “When they are shooting the TV show, what do you do with the store?   Do you close it?   Do you use part of it?   What happens?”     She laughed and said, “I grew up in Chicago, so when you asked about shooting, that meant something completely different to me!    I was thinking, ‘There is

                  Noah McVicker’s company was almost bankrupt.   He sold a putty that was used to clean coal soot off wallpaper in people’s homes, but times had changed.   After World War II, most home heating systems were converted to cleaner-burning natural gas and that meant that McVicker’s market was gone and, soon, his company would be as well.                 In desperation, McVicker hired his nephew Joe to help him figure out what to do next.   Joe had a sister-in-law who worked at a daycare and one day she asked if she could take some of the company’s product to work with her.   She thought the kids might enjoy playing with the putty.   The kids loved it!   Within months, McVicker rebrand his wallpaper putty as a child’s toy that he called Play-Doh.                 Today, Play-Doh is one of the most successful children’s products ever.

                Typically, my wife Sara does not have favourites.   She does not have a favourite colour, name or place.   She likes too many things for too many reasons to have one favourite.                 Shockingly, though, she does have a favourite mug.   It was made by a Saskatchewan potter.   In fact, Sara met this woman at an art show and told her how much she liked her work and the woman gave her this mug for free!    It was beautiful and Sara treasured it.                 Last Friday night, Sara made some tea for me and, for some reason, she put it in her special mug.   I was reading at the time, so I took a sip and put the mug back on the shelf.   Then I took another sip and put the mug on the shelf.   I took another sip and I did not quite get it back on the shelf.   As soon as I let go, the mug tipped over.   I tried to grab it,