Choice

I was sitting at the bar of a local bistro when an old acquaintance happened to come up. After a bit the the usual small talk (football, politics, string theory) he got this real serious expression on his face.

"I've got a tough choice to make Cap," he says. "I happened to help this guy out of a very tight spot, and in gratitude he wanted to offer me a reward."

So what was the problem, I wondered.

"It seems that he wasn't just any guy," says OA. "He turned out to be a Genie."

Maybe I snickered a bit here, because he rushed on:

"He told me that he was empowered to offer me a choice. He said he could offer me one of three second class superpowers. I was suspicious of course, but I parried by asking him what a first class superpower was. He gave me a haughty stare for a second, and then went on: 'Your first choice would be a permanent purse. Any time you reach your hand in, you can pull out a one ounce solid gold coin.'

"'You guys haven't converted to metric yet?' I asked. This got another stare. 'The purse has other advantages,' he says. 'If someone steals it, they can't get anything out, and as soon as they are out of sight, it immediately rematerializes in your pocket.'

"'The second choice is the ability to read minds, at ranges of up to 300 feet - that's about 100 meters. You can see others thoughts as they experience them, so if they think their thoughts in a foreign language, you might not be able to understand them. There are some obvious hazards - you can tell what people are really thinking of you.'"

Me: "So what do I think of you right now?"

"You think I'm nuts, but I didn't need a superpower to figure that out. Anyway, Genie goes on to explain the last choice: 'Finally, you can choose flight, on a broomstick, exposed to the weather. It's not tiring, but you are exposed to the wind, and need to be able to hold on. It's a bit like riding a motor cycle with no fairing and no handlebars. Most people find airspeeds over 70 miles per hour pretty challenging. So, which do you want to choose?'"

"It's a tough choice. What do you think?"

Me: "I'll ask around."

See poll.

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