FORCEFUL PERSUASION
Suppose most folks at one time or another have shuffled through their mail and have dropped certain pieces into the wastebasket unopened. It isn’t a very recommendable practice, because something important could accidentally be discarded. Take for instance the time I mistook an envelope containing a car title for an offer to buy seatcovers or some such nonsense. Oooh! I don’t ever want to go through that replacement rigmarole again. Don Boell, Mason City engineer, waterworks superintendent, chief of sanitation and snowmobile jockey, is apt to drop unopened mail into the round file. He dropped a piece last week but retrieved it quickly when he spotted this notation on the side of the envelope: WARNING-If you throw this into your wastebasket unopened, a capsule of water inside will break, spilling onto a dehydrated boa constrictor. He will then crawl out of the envelope and CRUSH YOU TO DEATH. Couldn’t help but notice the envelope had been opened. “Well,” remarked Boell, “wouldn’t you…
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