If one is fortunate enough to find a mysterious lamp which may have washed upon on the beach, try rubbing the lamp. After all, it is the old lamp is all covered with sand, it needs rubbing off. Inside may be a genie who has been imprisoned within that lamp for a thousand years. Out of gratitude for his release, the genie is empowered to grant you your desires in the form of wishes. Usually three wishes. Thus tell the old stories. But perhaps that's all they are. Old stories. But what if the genie has a whole different definition of showing gratitude? Instead of showing gratitude for his release, your wishes are turned upside down. Instead of good fortune, you gain the opposite. And the genie seems more interested in playing tricks on you than on granting your wishes. Awful tricks too. Perhaps if the genie had come out of a lamp instead of an old clock, perhaps things would have been different for Mr. Weatherspoon. On the other hand, perhaps not. That's what Elijah Weatherspoon found, to his dismay. All coming his way was misfortune contrary to the wishes he asked for.