One of my (unfulfilled) childhood goals has always been to find a four leaf clover and thus lay claim to my hefty portion of wealth, fortune, and prosperity that would undoubtedly follow. But despite all my efforts, the only thing I ever got was a handful of dead plants. So the other day when some friends and I were cutting through a vacant field, I made some wry comment about it and then leaned down to prove my point. Low-and-behold, the first stem I plucked had four leaves! I was shocked, not only with the irony of the situation, but because it was actually a lot uglier than I expected...In cartoons they always have such perfectly formed, symmetrical leaves—but in the real world, four leaf clovers actually look like the genetic mutants that they are. The extra leaf was substantially larger than the other three, and stuck out awkwardly in the back. It was anticlimactic, but hey, bring on the fortune.
