Last week I got myself into a major problem. I owed a man, who takes bets illegally, 4000 dollars. This man, whose nickname is Ice-Pick, isn't the type of guy whose bad side you wanna be on, especially when there's money involved.

The debt that I dug deeper into was 500 dollars at first. He gave me a week to pay it, which I couldn't. Then I bet double or nothing and lost, again. Now the debt was up to a thousand dollars. I figured since I've been betting with him for 8 plus years he would cut me some slack, which he did. I then bet on a golf tournament, again at double or nothing. I thought it would be an easy win, wrong again. Now I'm into him for 2 grand.

Instead of accepting my losses, I got greedy. I convinced him that I was good for it and that the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees game was a lock, a guaranteed winning bet since the Yankees where having a better season then the Red Sox and that I was gonna bet on them, again at double or nothing, to win. If the Red Sox won, my debt would climb to 4000 dollars. What happened? The Red Sox won. I was shocked, and Ice-Pick had had enough. Pay up or else.

It was crunch time and I had to come up big. I knew of a writing competition that paid 100 dollars to the winner and I was convinced that the winner would be me. And then I hit a writers block. More then a block, a whole town so to speak.

I had figured, when I win, the hundred will go straight to my credit card. Then, in turn, I'll bet through an off-shore legalized gambling business and win big on a boxing match that was once again a lock. In my mind it was easy. Win the competition, win the bet, pay off Ice-Pick and still have two or three grand left for myself. And then, the writers block hit.

My story was about how a Bengal tiger was terrorizing a village in India near the city of Patna, in the state of Bihar. The people of the village, obviously frightened, and constantly on guard decided to evacuate the woman and children to a village a few miles to the east. The story was going great, it was moving rite along, and then...writers block. I was stuck, I had no idea what to write. I was at a part of the story where there was a water shortage at the village they evacuated to and the people desperately needed milk. Out of frustration I put down the pen and turned on the T.V..

To my enjoyment, the movie Jaws was on. It was the scene when Police Chief Broady first saw Jaws. In shock he said to the character Quint "We're gonna need a bigger boat." Just then, a light in my mind went on. I turned off the T.V., picked up the pen and started writing with a flow as if I were Shakespeare. At the point that I experienced writers block, when there was a water shortage and a serious need for milk in the village, I added the sentence "We're gonna need a bigger goat." The sentence, that was almost plagiarized, paved the way for me to finish the story with confidence. As it turned out, there was no need for a bigger goat. The village with the terrorizing tiger had a team of hunters that trapped the tiger, drugged him, took him way out into the forest before releasing him into the wild. After that, the woman and children returned home to a safe neighborhood.

I felt great. I submitted my entry for "The Tiger Scare" and won the competition. I then placed a bet with off-shore betting, this time winning. I paid off Ice-Pick and took a nice deep breath. Still feeling full of writing ideas, I started a story about an art thief who sells priceless paintings at yard sales in poor neighborhoods.