The snowstorm that ate Manhattan and the Hamster

Everybody has their favorite mantra, poem, lucky shirt, or other talisman. I had identified nothing until the past couple of days when I began remembering some lines from an A.A. Milne poem, Bad King John. Bad King John was a very bad king and a very bad king indeed, goes the first line but he wanted to be included in Christmas fun and he 'specially wanted an red india rubber ball. And the line that began floating in my head went like this: And oh father Christmas, if you love me at all,please send me a red india rubber ball.

I would repeat this every morning and every night to myself as I walked back and forth to the subway in the hope that Arnie would get a job he wanted. But he didn't get it. And now I'm sure it's because of my language skills. I asked for a red india rubber ball rather than asking that he get the damn job.

So language is everything. And now I'm looking for the red india rubber ball.