A Shaggy Dog At The Beach

It was a lovely Summer day here yesterday. So I took my Sheepdog down to the beach.

She ran around for a little while. Splashed in the water. Then she started digging at something in the sand.

I went to see what had gotten her attention and found what looked like a tiny silver gravy boat.

But as I rubbed away some of the dirt, smoke began pouring from its spout. It wasn't a gravy boat at all. It was a tiny magic lamp.

The Genie who popped out of the lamp wasn't much bigger, fitting easily into the palm of my hand.

He introduced himself and acknowledged that he wasn't a very big Genie. Therefore he could only grant me one wish, so it had better be a good one.

I thought about asking for fame and fortune and then came up with something even better.

I told the Genie my wish was to live forever.

He kind of slumped and shook his head. He was a little Genie. Such a wish was simply beyond his power to grant.

I thought for a minute and said, "Okay, so let me live just long enough to see Canadian television networks program nothing but Canadian content."

The Genie's eyes narrowed and a tiny smile touched the corners of his lips as he said, "You sly sonovabitch…"