According to Victor Borge, the composer Bizet was the original hard-luck man. He stayed up nights to finish an opera by the deadline, only to find out afterwards that the production had been postponed for a year. He wrote a symphony and misplaced the manuscript before anybody could play it. He entered a composing contest with only one other entrant, and ended up with second prize. Once he went to visit his girl friend and tapped on her window at the precise moment her mother was emptying a chamberpot from the room directly above his head. (1) Have you ever noticed that some people always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Many people speculate that they would be better off with a new spouse or a different set of circumstances. John Micofsky was confident his life would be gr…