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                                            Pay the Two Dollars 

     There was a very interesting movie I love made in 1945 called Ziegfield Follies. It was a movie made of musical numbers and skits, with no real story connecting them. There are a number of scenes I love, and I highly recommend seeing the movie, although it is dated and in some cases politically incorrect.

       There is one skit that stars the wonderful Victor Moore and the ever talented Edward Arnold. The story is a man and his high price lawyer are riding the subway and our hero Victor Moore bites off the tip of his cigar and spits it to the floor. A passing cop gives him a ticket for expectorating on the subway. The hero asks the cop, What’s the fine? the cop says, Usually two dollars. The lawyer says all kinds of lawyer things saying he’ll fight the ticket.

     Where the comedy comes in is that the lawyer loses the case and keeps appealing and fighting, and it goes to higher and higher courts, and the man is constantly found guilty, and is eventually sentenced to death. All the while he is begging, Pay pay the two dollars!!

     My dad, whenever he heard me, my brother, and my mom arguing, especially when we knew we were wrong, my dad would say, 

Pay the two dollars. 

       This became a part of my life.

If something goes wrong, pay the two dollars. 

If I was wrong, pay the two dollars. 

If paying is unavoidable, pay the two dollars now.

Am I avoiding something that must be done, pay the two dollars. 

        Usually, this was a useful life perspective. Probably the only times it wasn’t practical were times when I did not understand the situation, the problem, or what the two dollars was.

                              My advice to you, Pay the Two Dollars.