Poor Loser

Chris: Hi, this is Chris. Welcome to Adventures in Odyssey.
Bernard Walton: Hi, this is Bernard Walton. You know, I can't think of anything I'd rather do than hang around with you for a time of wonder and excitement. But again, getting my squeegee caught in my suspenders is exciting to me. Anyway, welcome to Adventures in Odyssey.
Benjamin Franklin: We were excellent. They were more excellent.
Heather: That's what I thought, too.
Connie Kendall: Okay.
Benjamin Franklin: Where's the dice?
Heather: He's got his shoes on the wrong feet.
Benjamin Franklin: That's not very good teamwork.
Heather: That's what the coach says.
Benjamin Franklin: So, would you like to play?
Guest (Male): Yeah, with Pickles.
Benjamin Franklin: With Pickles.
Bernard Walton: Well, congratulations, Connie. What What are you doing?
Connie Kendall: I'm trying to see if I can time it so that when I open the cash register and drop this quarter, it falls right into the quarter slot.
Bernard Walton: Slow day?
Connie Kendall: Slow week.
Heather: Congratulations for what?
Bernard Walton: Well, for finally teaching the kids not to put their fingers on the windows. This This is the cleanest I've ever seen them.
Connie Kendall: There haven't been any kids around to put their fingers on the windows.
Bernard Walton: Not bad, huh?
Julie: The mystery lull. We've been empty all week.
Eugene Meltsner: Greetings, everyone.
Julie: Hi, Eugene.
Bernard Walton: Oh, hello, Jean.
Eugene Meltsner: Huh, the telltale echo tells me that our business has yet to pick up.
Julie: Well, I killed a fly about an hour ago.
Bernard Walton: Oh, please tell me you didn't smash it on a window.
Eugene Meltsner: In anticipation of our lack of patronage, I brought this.
Julie: What's that?
Eugene Meltsner: A chess set. Have either of you seen Jason?
Julie: He's out of town.
Connie Kendall: I know you're just dying to ask me to play, so I will just say right now I do not like chess.
Eugene Meltsner: I see. You read my mind.
Bernard Walton: All right, Eugene. You talk me into it. I'll play.
Eugene Meltsner: You want to play?
Bernard Walton: Sure. Aren't you working?
Eugene Meltsner: Oh, this is my last job for the day. Come on.
Bernard Walton: Your wife's not expecting you at home?
Eugene Meltsner: No, she's off getting her hair done. Besides, it's salmon patty and broccoli night.
Bernard Walton: Yuck.
Eugene Meltsner: Well, I um I uh
Bernard Walton: Oh, I see. You think I can't play?
Eugene Meltsner: Oh, oh no, no. Of course I don't think that.
Bernard Walton: How have you know that I won the Walton Annual Chess Tournament 17 years running?
Eugene Meltsner: Congratulations.
Bernard Walton: It's me and my brother and my aunt Mildred.
Eugene Meltsner: I'm sure it's very competitive.
Bernard Walton: And just because aunt Mildred's 104 years old doesn't mean she's lost her ability to play games.
Eugene Meltsner: I understand that.
Bernard Walton: She was part cheesy champ of our county 45 years running and I
Eugene Meltsner: No need to continue, Mr. Walton. I I I suppose we could play a game.
Bernard Walton: Yeah, now you're talking. Just lay that board out right here. Connie, I'll take a tall glass of water, please.
Connie Kendall: Okay.
Eugene Meltsner: I'll I'll be the black pieces if you don't mind. I'm always black.
Bernard Walton: Oh, that's perfectly fine with me.
Eugene Meltsner: Now now now wait a minute. Now where's the dice?
Bernard Walton: Dice? Uh actually, Mr. Walton, I just remember that I have an errand that I just quickly need to attend to.
Eugene Meltsner: Oh, relax, Eugene. Relax. I 'm only kidding. Boy, thinks I want to use dice for chess. I've never seen
John Avery Whittaker: All right. All right. All right, girls. Don't worry about this one. See, what we had today, it was a nice effort. It just wasn't nice enough. We played an excellent team. We were excellent. They were more excellent. But tomorrow, tomorrow we'll spend the day getting ready for Connell to Yeah, that's what's important.
Heather: Nice effort? Give me a break.
Connie Kendall: Don't start, Heather.
Heather: Oh, so I guess you think we played well?
Connie Kendall: They were just better than we were.
Heather: No, the problem is that they were playing volleyball and we were playing hopscotch.
Connie Kendall: Heather, I trained Seals could have scored more than three points in two matches.
Heather: We know we played badly.
Connie Kendall: Yeah, Heather. And notice she said we. I don't think you made a spike all day.
Heather: How am I supposed to spike when nobody's setting it up to me? You especially, Karen. You kept hitting it too far away from the net.
Connie Kendall: I had a lot of good sets.
Heather: When?
Connie Kendall: Oh, be quiet. I'm so sick of you complaining after every game.
Heather: Well, I wouldn't complain if you guys would concentrate.
Connie Kendall: You're not our coach.
Julie: Hey, come on, you guys.
Heather: You think you're so much better.
Connie Kendall: Quiet. Quiet. Quiet.
Heather: I'm taking my shower. Good sets? Like hitting the ball means it's a good set? Can you believe her?
Julie: I don't know, Heather. I see her point.
Heather: What point?
Julie: You're not our coach.
Heather: You're taking her side?
Julie: It's just that you do tend to boss us around and everybody's kind of sick of it.
Heather: Well, you know what I'm sick of, Julie? Losing.
Chris: Now in the Adventures in Odyssey Club, Wyatt and Sophie take an imagination station adventure to meet some American patriots.
Heather: That's Ben Franklin. Wyatt, that's Ben Franklin.
Connie Kendall: I know.
Chris: But they find there's more to their heroes' stories than they remember from their history class.
Heather: Why were they fighting?
Eugene Meltsner: Mr. Franklin, would you like to tell her?
Benjamin Franklin: They were fighting over the letters I sent out.
Eugene Meltsner: Because of those letters, there are riots across half of Massachusetts.
Chris: Little-known American history is revealed now in the Adventures in Odyssey Club.
Bernard Walton: Oh, I see what he's doing.
Julie: What?
Bernard Walton: He's trying to get me to move my horse
Eugene Meltsner: Knight.
Bernard Walton: away from his tower so that he can get my guy with a pointy head.
Eugene Meltsner: Bishop. And I'm not quite clear why you think it's to your advantage to verbalize my strategy out loud.
Bernard Walton: Oh, so that is your strategy, huh?
Eugene Meltsner: No, of course not. Would you mind moving, please?
John Avery Whittaker: Hi, Heather.
Heather: Hi, Mr. Whittaker.
John Avery Whittaker: Well, can I get you anything?
Heather: Nothing, thanks. I am on my way home.
John Avery Whittaker: Fingers.
Heather: There's nobody here.
John Avery Whittaker: Oh, just us.
Heather: I guess I'll go then.
John Avery Whittaker: Oh, so fast? Oh, wait a minute now. Didn't your volleyball team play today?
Heather: If you can call it playing, then yes.
John Avery Whittaker: Oh, I see. You didn't win.
Heather: Win? We haven't won a match all season. I can't believe how bad we are.
John Avery Whittaker: Huh.
Julie: Well, you guys were pretty good last year, weren't you?
Heather: District champions.
Connie Kendall: Well, what happened?
Heather: All the eighth graders moved on to high school. I was the only seventh grader who started last year. Now I'm the only player on the team who has any experience.
John Avery Whittaker: Well, then you should get better as the others get more experience.
Heather: That's what I thought, too, but it hasn't worked out that way. Our team just doesn't have any talent.
John Avery Whittaker: Well, then you may need to just adjust your expectations. You can't expect to win every game if your team isn't the best. You obviously have the skill and the talent for volleyball, whereas the other members of your team might not.
Heather: Then what am I supposed to do?
John Avery Whittaker: Well, help them to develop their skills all the while knowing that they may not be another Heather. Then just learn from your wins and losses and move on.
Heather: I've had enough losses. Now I just want to win. I'm going to go over to Julie's house. She needs some work on her serve.
John Avery Whittaker: Well, I hope it helps.
Heather: It better. I'll see you later.
John Avery Whittaker: All right, so long, Heather.
Heather: Bye, Heather.
Bernard Walton: Ah, girl's going to be burned out before she's 30. Yeah. Now let's see what I want to do with my Queenie here.
Eugene Meltsner: It's interesting, Mr. Whittaker. One of my classes just studied the psychology of losing.
John Avery Whittaker: Huh.
Eugene Meltsner: We read an article called The Obsession with Victory. Fascinating that there are some people who simply cannot accept defeat. Checkmate. Pardon me. I said checkmate.
Bernard Walton: Surely you jest.
Eugene Meltsner: Oh, surely I don't. It's checkmate, Eugene.
Bernard Walton: Oh, wait just a minute. Let me see. Uh ah How did your Queenie up uh Queen get over there?
Eugene Meltsner: I just moved it about the time you were talking about losing.
Bernard Walton: Well, it is indeed checkmate.
Heather: Way to go, Bernard.
John Avery Whittaker: Good game, Bernard.
Eugene Meltsner: That was nothing really.
Bernard Walton: Yes, uh apparently my concentration was uh Well, you see the atmosphere was one of confusion and I must have uh Congratulations, Mr. Walton. You won fair and square.
Eugene Meltsner: I know. Perhaps I should go upstairs now and uh be upstairs for a while. I'll uh be off then.
Bernard Walton: Hm, it's going to take him a while to get over this, huh?
John Avery Whittaker: I'm afraid it will.
Eugene Meltsner: Answer the door. Answer the door. Good morning, Mr. Walton.
John Avery Whittaker: Eugene, what happened? You look awful.
Eugene Meltsner: Bad night.
John Avery Whittaker: Maybe you should have slept in.
Eugene Meltsner: Well, I happened to be up, so I thought perhaps you'd be interested in another game of chess.
John Avery Whittaker: Eugene, it's 7:30 in the morning.
Eugene Meltsner: Oh, but I find early morning intellectual exercise to be most helpful in starting my day off properly.
Bernard Walton: Yeah, that's usually a bowl of Choco Chums for me. So, would you like to play?
Eugene Meltsner: No, sorry. I can't. Some of us have jobs to take care of, you know.
Bernard Walton: Perhaps when you finish tonight
Eugene Meltsner: I'm going out with my wife.
Bernard Walton: When will you be home?
Eugene Meltsner: I'll get back to you on that.
Bernard Walton: Do you get a lunch break?
Eugene Meltsner: Yes, but I'll be at the Briarwood Nursing Home.
Bernard Walton: I'll meet you there. What time? Are you sure you
Eugene Meltsner: I'll bring the sandwiches. You prefer tuna. Is that correct?
Bernard Walton: Yeah, with Pickles.
Eugene Meltsner: With Pickles.
Bernard Walton: And extra mayo.
Eugene Meltsner: Extra mayonnaise. Right. I 'll see you at noon.
Bernard Walton: Yeah, okay. This is starting to be fun, I think.