The theater was dark and crowded, opening night of a blockbuster; no one would have expected less than a full house.   I leaned forward to see the guy yelling at the screen - one row in front, four seats down; a young guy, maybe twenty, sitting with two friends.  Great,  Three punks at the theater.  It’s not bad enough that I pay $12 a ticket, have to wear cheesy Wayfarer-like 3D glasses and go nearly into hock to buy popcorn and a drink… I must tolerate the Woop-Boy commentary track…

They call it the Monty Hall Paradox - back in the 60’s and 70’s, Let’s Make a Deal was a popular game show and the host, Monty Hall, would present a random contestant with 3 doors or curtains, numbered 1, 2 and 3, with a prize behind one but crazy stuff like a year’s supply of creamed corn behind the other two.  Contestants would pick one of the three doors and Monty would have the lovely stage girl open a different door that has a clunker behind it, so there were only two…

Dark, unfocused pupils blinked from beneath the grey brow that overhung the troll’s deep eye sockets.  He blinked again and then a third time.  Other than this, he was motionless.

“That’s the one,” the boy said, standing upright and tall for the age of only fourteen.  He was crouching because trolls can’t make you out so easily if you are close to the ground, not that it seemed to matter with this troll.  "Have him delivered to the arena before noon, and feed him proper granite, not…

I call it the Latent Savant Paradox - everybody is really good at something.  It doesn’t matter what it is, they are better than almost anyone else at doing one thing.  It could be could be picking the perfectly ripened melon at the grocery store or hitting treble three in darts.  It might be doing word jumble puzzles or picking out perfect-fitting shoes.  Everyone has some ability they excel at but they may not know it.  Unfortunately, Tim's ability was expertly using those barf bags…