The thread that A-B posted on about monies got me thinking,
what scheme in amongst the variety that are there to part the gullible from their cash have you seen advertised either on TV, in newspapers or on the web?
I think my favourite at the moment must be adopt a Dolphin. It is absolutely perfect all you need is a bank account, & a very remote address.
The bank account will look after itself sitting there collecting all those donations paid in by direct debit, marvellous.
The address not quite as simple, somewhere remote but located near the sea so that it sounds genuine enough, lets pull a name out of the hat, And the winner is............. Funzie, Shetland Isles.
Now you need this address because this is where your dolphins are going to send their news letters from Once every three months or so, just to keep the adoptee happy & interested.
The other thing you might consider is having an office there manned by some one that looks like Captain Birds-eye. The reason for this is just in case somebody did actually make the trip to visit his or her dolphin, after all we trust Captain Birds-eye don't we?
So the person who has adopted a dolphin turns up at the office (we will assume it's you) & enquires about his/her dolphin, "Oh Arrr moiy beuttty, just ee be coming onto the landing stage with me", says the Captain. There he hands you a telescope, never having used one before there is no chance of getting it into focus (but you won't admit to that). "noew just ee be apointin that there glarss out there just beyond yon' lot of breakers oh arrr". You point you see nothing, "Now you be seei'n that low grey shape in the water that be yor'n O.K.?".
Even better for the Captain if you turn up with your children in tow, the Captain asks "& what be the name of your dolphin, I'll look it up in my big book here".
You tell the Captain Fluffy the dolphin & blush slightly with embarrassment. It's at this point the smile disappears from the Captains face & he throws himself backwards into his deep leather chair. "arrgh moiy deeer I'm not needin' to look up your fluffy, we used to call her Fluffykins round these parts".
You notice that he used the past tense, "used to call her?". "Tragic, TRAGIC", groans the Captain, "If only you'd got here 48 hours earlier you' have seen her frolicking in the waves there", His head sinks into his hands & you think you hear sobbing. "But what happened?" you ask. He looks up and grips you in a stare from his watery grey/blue eye, " Why it were them dang' fishin' nets she got 'erself a tangled & a mangled, oh I can't tell EE no more.
Your children are now in hysterics at the thought of poor fluffy being no more; you start to panic at the thought that they need comforting. With perfect timing the Captain having watched you closely now goes on to explain that the reason poor little fluffykins met such a tragic end was because you were only donating a flat rate towards her protection and it would cost a great deal more to keep a 24 hour watch on a dolphin. Every member of your family is glaring at you now, they are all silently accusing you of murder. The only person looking kindly at you is the Captain. Grasping at straws you ask "How much would it cost to adopt another dolphin (Fluffy II), as if by magic a form from the Captains bank appears before you, you sign leaving the amount for the Captain to fill in, (you can't seem mean in front of your family now). You make your way as quickly as possible to get off the island.
The Captain is happy he knows you'll never return just in case he has another tale of woe to tell he also knows that you will be paying him once a month for ever because NOW he knows your children & he is going to send the news letter straight to them, you just daren't let ANYTHING happen to this dolphin.