Tony why he was late to work and he told me some hard-luck story about having to take his mother's ageing pet poodle to the vet because it had swallowed a chicken bone.

I asked Tony why he was late to work and he told me some hard-luck story about having to take his mother's ageing pet poodle to the vet because it had swallowed a chicken bone.

They live to think of themselves as tough-minded business men, yet they are push-overs for any hard luck story.