Mou, this one's for you...

While on vacation last week, I caught the 1996 made-for-tv movie version of Shirley Jackson's incredible short-story, 'The Lottery'. I still vividly remember reading this story for the first time in my sophomore-year English class. What a punch that story packs! As you can imagine, when I read that this movie version starred Dan Cortese and Keri Russell, I was a little skeptical, but I watched anyway.

In the interest of stretching the story into a 2-hour movie (including frequent commercial breaks, mind-you), they beefed up the plot some. Dan Cortese returns the the small town that is the home of the lottery, to bury the ashes of his recently-deceased father at the grave of his mother who is buried there. As he checks-in at the local bed-n-breakfast, in walks Keri Russell, whose parents run the place. One look at each other and the Davey Jones-esque stars start sparkling in their eyes. Love at first sight, except for one small problem. Well, two small problems. The local deputy sheriff also has his eyes on the fair-Keri, and Dan, being no dummy, has figured out quickly that there's something not quite right about this place. When the deputy gets wind of the blossoming romance between Dan and the fair-Keri, it's obvious that he needs to run this troublemaker out of town as quickly as possible. As Dan and the deputy square off in one very exciting, testosterone-driven scene (mind you, the deputy has just set Dan's car on fire, so Dan is a little peeved), Dan puffs out his chest and says to the deputy...

"I'M ABOUT TO STOMP A MUD HOLE IN YOU!"