A tale of two pitchers...

There were once two young men who entered a certain small town horseshoe pitching contest. They slapped down their $20 entry fee - $10 a piece - at the beginning of the day and started flinging U-shaped projectiles at little metal posts. They won their first match, then their second. The ringers kept coming and, late in the afternoon, the duo found themselves in the championship.

Their rivals in the final round were, to put it delicately, a bit tipsy. So what did these two young men do? They decided they needed a bathroom break. "We'll be back," they told their inebriated foes. As they walked away, their opponents said one to the other, "Let's get some more whiskey." The two young men just smiled. Things were going just as they planned.

Twenty minutes later, back from their "bathroom" break, the two temperate throwers beat their besotted opposers. They chuckled to themselves a short time later as they walked away with their winnings - $60 a piece.

The moral of the story: a little self-control yields a healthy return on investment. (True story. Picture above of one of the storied "wise men" during a not-so-storied match last year.)