Adventures in Odyssey Home Page

A Rathbone of Contention

Album: Gold Audio 11: It's Another Fine Day

Episode: 160

Lesson/Theme: The folly of taking shortcuts.

Bible Verse: Proverbs 21:5; 26:27

Characters: Bart, Lucy, Eugene, Whit, Rodney

Writer: Phil Lollar

Sound Designer: Bob Luttrell

Original Air Date: July 27, 1991

Last Air Date: August 8, 2008

Description:
A new business is going up on the old site of Blackgaard's Castle. It's called "the Electric Palace" and its proprietor is Bart Rathbone! Bart is on such an aggressive schedule to get the place up and running that he's cutting major corners. First, he hires Rodney to take care of the promotion. Rodney hires Lucy to write fliers, but he never bothers to pay her. Then, Bart "borrows" Eugene to set up the computer. And when Bart's certified electrician can't make it in time for the building inspector, he pulls Eugene off the computer installation to do the wiring for the building. Eugene protests, he doesn't know enough about electricity to wire a whole building! But Bart insists, so Eugene ends up giving it a try. When Whit finds out about Bart and Rodney's shoddy business practices, he tries to stop them. But before he can, the building inspector comes. He okays everything in the structure but notices that the place is still operating off a generator. Bart says they were just about to switch over to city power. He orders Eugene to throw the switch. Everything seems fine for a moment. Then the place goes haywire, nearly blowing up! The Electric Palace doesn't get passed by the inspector and Bart has plenty of time to dwell on the folly of taking shortcuts.

Questions:
Why is it usually best not to take shortcuts? What are the benefits of taking your time? Have you ever taken a shortcut on a project when you knew you shouldn't? When? Did you learn from your mistake?