When I was ten years old my teacher asked us to write about our favourite pasttimes. I wrote a story about how I loved to kidnap the neighbour's dog, cover it in manure and sent it home to dirty the house. The class loved it, but the teacher smacked me. Her mother lived next door.

Despite the physical pain, I enjoyed the experience. I'm trying to reproduce it here with these stories. Hopefully, when you read them, you'll react more like the class than the teacher. However, if you are offended and decide you want to smack me, you better tell your mother to keep a good eye on her dog.

PS Like most other web site, I work on a commission basis when it comes to referrals. For every hit I get from one of your referrals, I will get my mother to say a prayer for you. For every one hundred such referrals, we'll light a candle for you in Mass. So spread the word and, who knows, if you do really well you'll have so many prayers said for you that you might turn into an angel or something.