The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

-- Samuel Johnson

As always, I suspect, there are two types of people: Those who are off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and those who are not.

Count me among those in the loser's bracket -- the blue few who couldn't get out of working this week.

That's where I was yesterday morning, glumly getting ready for another day in the slowest news week of the year, when everything began to change.

I had slipped on a suit coat I hadn't worn in weeks when my hand slid into the pocket. I felt something odd, then pulled it out -- three $10 bills.

I looked at the wrinkled face of Alexander Hamilton and he looked back at me, his face showing a bemused half-smile.

I was momentarily stunned. This just doesn't happen to a man who hoards pennies as I do. (Ask my wife.)

There is no way I could mislay 30 whole dollars and not be tearing up the house looking for it.

But there it was.

I whistled on the drive to work. I greeted co-workers with a smile and I had a wonderful day ... all because of forgetfulness.

Maybe that's the lesson here in the last week of the year.

Sometimes it's not what you remember that's important; it's what you forgot that ends up brightening your day.

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MORE MAIL: Thanks to all of you who sent me a Christmas card. I put them on the mantel and impressed my holiday company. And thanks to Horace and Kay Wimberly , of Waynesboro, who sent a holiday greeting postcard from Davenport, Iowa.

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TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one shared by Bill Wood , of Hephzibah.

A woman goes to the bar on a cruise ship and orders a Scotch with two drops of water.

As the bartender gives her the drink, she says, "I'm on this cruise to celebrate my 80th birthday and it's today."

The bartender says, "Well, since it's your birthday, I'll buy you a drink. In fact, this one is on me."

As the woman finishes her drink, the woman to her right says, "I would like to buy you a drink, too."

The old woman says, "Thank you. Bartender, I want a Scotch with two drops of water."

"Coming up!" says the bartender.

As she finishes that drink, the man to her left says, "I would like to buy you one, too."

The old woman says, "Thank you. Bartender, I want another Scotch with two drops of water."

"Coming right up," the bartender says. As he gives her the drink, he says, "Ma'am, I'm dying of curiosity. Why the Scotch with only two drops of water?"

The old woman replies, "Sonny, when you're my age, you've learned how to hold your liquor. Holding your water, however, is a whole other issue."