Newsletter – October 31, 2026
I was on my morning walk a few days ago when I saw three $20 bills lying crumpled up among the leaves a few feet off the sidewalk.
Sixty bucks! I’ll take it!
Of course I hesitated after I picked them up, thinking about who might have lost the money. And how desperate they’d be to find it. But how could I even know who to ask?
I shoved the bills and my guilt into the pocket of my jeans and continued home.
My wife pointed out how fruitless it would be to knock on people’s doors and ask them if they lost any money. So I tossed them on my desk to think about it some more.
I do that. I often let a feeling or an idea germinate in my subconscious while I do other things. And something made me look at them again.
Go back to the photo and read the actual words across the top of the bills. I actually spotted the little words in the lower left corner before I saw the other words repeated in several places.
Have you spotted it yet?
I’ll wait.
“For Motion Picture Purposes” is typeset in several places to look exactly like a real twenty dollar bill.
My next question? Why would someone in a small town in Indiana have “motion picture” twenty dollar bills? And then, why drop them?
“Curiouser and curiouser,” thought Alice.
I still don’t have the answer, but what I do have is inspiration for a five minute play. Our Civic Theatre is going to have a series of “Car Plays” in which ten cars will be parked in the parking lot and the ticket holders progress from one car to the next watching five minute plays from the back seat. The actors will be in front.
It’s a charity fund-raiser and will include food trucks, activities, and live music.
Here’s what I’m starting with:
A woman is in the driver’s seat when a man pulls open the passenger door, sits quickly, and slams the door shut.
MAN: Drive!
WOMAN: You have the wrong car. This isn’t an Uber.
MAN: (Tossing three twenty dollar bills on the dashboard.) It is now. Drive.
I don’t know what happens next. I’ll be as excited to find out as anyone.
And after the show Civic Theatre can keep the funny money in their prop storage.
TTFN
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My entry for the Halloween caption contest with The New Yorker:
…so you decided to order me a pumpkin spice cocktail?! What kind of person are you?
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
