Munchkin, But No Wizard

“Well, the Wizard of Oz raised chickens,” Richard plaintively asserted, although he knew it wasn’t the Wizard, but rather L. Frank Baum, the Wizard’s creator, who had tried, but failed, to raise chickens, then later became an author of children’s books.

Richard didn’t tell Lola about Baum’s occupational failures--of which evidently there were more than a few--for fear that she would discern too close a parallel between Richard’s previous career success and Baum’s pre-Oz occupational failure rate.

Instead, he said, “And he wrote poetry, TOO!” as if this claim would be the knock-out punch that would convince Lola of Richard’s budding, yet unrecognized, literary promise.

Lola, a woman of hard-nosed realism, even if at times it were overtaken by occasional moments of dreamy romanticism, looked Richard squarely in the eye. “Richard,” she stiffly, almost accusingly, declared, “...you MAY be a poet, and you may be a former chicken rancher, but you’re sure as hell no ‘Wizard!’”

Decisively put in his place, Richard immediately turned emerald green, and he felt a little less than three-feet tall.