5 x 20

So CBS News has their excellent reporter David Begnaud out "on the road" covering slice-of-life stories from all over, except that he does not have a whole other family that he's keeping out of sight, like Charles Kuralt did. In the present case, they call David's vignettes "Beg-Knows America."

In a nation whose population exceeds 333.3 million, there are going to be stories to tell all over, and Begnaud won't even have to tell them over again. He has that many to choose from.

The other day, his tale was about a woman who found an envelope stuffed with money. $400, I believe it was, and a name on the front. She tried for months and months to locate the owner by name. "Greg Throw," the envelope said, and that must have seemed odd, because not many peoples' names form a complete sentence, except for "Robin Quivers." Or "Ben Folds." Or "Jeremy Irons."

But here's where the story takes a twist. The guy who lost the money - the proceeds from a football pool - was not named Greg Throw at all, but, rather, Greg Thow. Once the finder found that out, it was easier to find the owner, and everything turned out just like in a Hallmark movie.

It took me back to our golden honeymoon, all those years ago, when the missus and I were just setting out on the "C" of matrimony. We found $100 - 5 US twenties - on the sidewalk on Duke of Gloucester St in Williamsburg, VA. We called the local cops and an officer came and took up the bills, telling us that his department would hold them for 30 days to see if anyone claimed them.

Two nights later, just before we were to come home, a young couple from New Jersey knocked on our door at the Wmsbg Lodge. They were on their honeymoon too, they said, and someone had told them that carrying their money in a shoe was the safe way to go. I could think of a hundred reasons for how wrong that was, but we were glad to see them reunited with their bucks.

Haven't thought about them for years, and of course we couldn't tell you their names now, but I wonder if they're still together. If you know people who got married in New Jersey in December, 1973, please ask them if they put their honeymoon in one of those stacked-heel shoes like David Cassidy wore. Here's what they looked like: (the shoes, not the people).