Woolgathering, and Chocloate Donuts with Sprinkles

Somewhere in the second act of the movie The Fugitive, Marshal Sam Gerard (played by Tommy Lee Jones) catches his junior deputy woolgathering.

"What are you doin'?" he says.

"Thinkin'," says Newman, the poor innocent junior deputy.

"Well think me up a cup of coffee and chocolate donut with those little sprinkles on it, while you're thinkin'," snaps Gerard.

I love that line because it's so unexpected... and so right. Gerard has already been established as a real unforgiving guy. We know he sets people up, and what you answer to any question might be a trap. In an earlier scene he rips the prison guards and local cops solidly for their incompetent reactions.

So when the newbie is caught woolgathering, we expect his head to get bit off.

But it turns out Mr. Sam "Hyper-Competent" Gerard is not dismissive of thinking. He's a thinker himself. If the kid had said "nothing" he would have ended up a smear on the pavement, but since he claimed to be using his head, he was given a task to use his head on.

So don't stop thinking ... but while you're thinking, think up something tasty.

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...perhaps think something up for the Hemingway's Baby Shoes Microfiction Contest! (How's that for a segue?) We have one more entry this week:

He Wore His Son's Baby Shoes by Kaye Linden

Check it out, and if you're thinking about entering, there's not much time left. The deadline is midnight EST on April 30.