Movie Date Magic

My brother Ron is a total whiz at the crane game. You know the ones, those games where you drop the claw into piles of stuffed animals and then get to take home whatever you retrieve. Well, Ron has the knack of it; he can look at the machine, tell you if he can win or not, then drop in his money and win every time.

He'd tried to explain it, I'd watched his technique, I'd wasted countless quarters and it didn't matter. I never won at the crane game. Even on those rare occassions when I managed to pick something up, it would fall just short of the exit.

Needless to say, I was a little bummed out when, after we saw our first movie together (U-571 how romantic <g>), Kristie spotted a dog in the machine that she really wanted. I tried to resist, but I was compelled to throw my money away and put in two quarters.

I focused on what Ron had taught me, I tried to block out everything but me, the claw, and the dog. I positioned it carefully, even bumping it back and forth a few times to shift the claw a little. Finally, I dropped the claw, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't win because I had never won.

Then, in a bit of magic like you see in the movies, the claw settled, grabbed the dog and casually dropped him in the "you aren't a loser after all" bin.

Kristie was very happy with her dog (which reminded her of my dog Groo) and I was stunned - it was just like in the movies where everything goes right for the couple in love. Since then, I've never won another thing for Kristie, guess it really was Movie Date Magic <g>.

Groo, the stuffed version

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