The Lighter Side

Donald V. Mehus

As many of our readers travel a great deal, just as Norwegians have done ever since the days of the Vikings, they may be interested in a way I have come across when at the last minute you have found something in the way of hotels that is better or cheaper. Here is the way it works:

You go up to the hotel desk clerk and say in a slightly pleading voice: “It’s all right, isn’t it, if I bring my three dogs?”

When the hotel is not totally against dogs when in reasonable number, the clerk may ask you, “What kind of dogs?”

Then you say: “Two Saint Bernards and a German shepherd.”

If this does not have its premeditated effect, you add: “And I guess you won’t mind if I cook their food in the room, because, you see, they are all on a very special diet. I promise I will be careful not to scorch the walls.”

This one has never failed.

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 7, 2014, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly.