The Gift

I was about to send a birthday gift [recycled from Christmas past] to a friend when my secretary asked what was in the box. It’s a Pugg wall clock, I said. Suddenly she volunteered to just buy cake instead from the pastry shop down the street. Apparently, giving clocks as a gift is bad luck. It is thought that it means the speeding up of time and a short life. And in traditional Chinese culture, my secretary reminded me, clocks would not be welcome, particularly on someone’s birthday because the pronunciation of ‘clock’ resembles termination, which means death. I learned something new today, except that I would have to figure out who gave me that clock last Christmas. Model is nineteen-year-old Vincent Villaver audaciously posing for the camera, with just a gift box to cover his privates. The amateur model has appeared in bikini fashion shows and pageants, and in gay magazine spreads.