The House Next Door

            The house next door is being worked on. There's a scraggly looking older guy who comes in the morning. He sits in his car until his boss shows up. I've seen him sit there for hours. It's not the best use of time, but it's none of my business. When the boss shows up, that's when the work begins. The men have taken four weeks to do a two week job. The job's winding down now. The older man with the scraggily hair is gone and now it's just the boss that shows up.
            It's quiet now that the job is over. There's an eerie silence and it gives me an empty feeling inside. I got used to the sound of the men working, the hammering and the sawing.
            The boss came by later in the afternoon to finish things up. He worked into the night. I heard a huge racket. He was cutting something with a saw in the dark. It started to bother me. Then it dawned on me, the boss liked it here too. 

The Actor Problem

            A friend of mine is an independent filmmaker. He was approached by a woman who wanted to be in one of his movies. She was a persistent young actress without a hint of name recognition. She downright pestered my friend until he finally relented and gave her a small part. It was a simple scene; a conversation with Hitler.
            They shot the scene and all indications were that she was excited to do it. But a few days after the shoot my friend received a call from the actress. She demanded to be removed from the movie. My friend asked why? The actress said it was because the industry was run by Jews and she didn't want to ruin her career. My friend told her he couldn't re-shoot the scene, but that he'd change her name in the credits if that made her happy. The actress didn't go for that; she wanted to be removed completely. Fifty-three emails later and the threat of a lawsuit, the issue was finally resolved, with the actress somehow remaining in the film. 
            I'm having trouble remembering the punch line to this one, or the moral to this story. Maybe it's be careful what you ask for, you just might end up in a movie with Hitler.