Garrison Keiller: Local Family Keeps Son Happy

Brief story about Mr. & Mrs. Robert Shepard & their sixteen year old son, Robbie. Mr. & Mrs. Shepard obtain the parole of a twenty-four year old prostitute who becomes a live-in companion for their son. Mrs. Shepard says that her son “has matured greatly” since the young woman came to live with them. In addition to her other duties, she also cooks breakfast & a recipe is given for one of her specialties, fancy eggs.

ISIS Struggling To Narrow Down GOP Debate Sound Bites For New Recruitment Video

RUKBAN, SYRIA—Growing increasingly tired and frustrated as they pored through tens of hours of footage packed with usable material, members of the militant group ISIS informed reporters Friday that they’ve been struggling to narrow down which GOP debate sound bites to use in their new recruitment video. “We’ve spent days cutting down our video to feature only the most inflammatory anti-Muslim statements that will attract new soldiers of jihad, but it’s still over 40 minutes—no one’s gonna sit through something that long,”

Scrooge’s activist hedge fund letter to Santa Claus

Your entire enterprise exists to supply presents one day a year, yet everyone is on the payroll for 365 days. You will not even extend your franchise to Black Friday, which is a blatant missed opportunity. Meanwhile, you insist on delivering down chimneys, ignoring the fact that only one segment of your target demographic lives in a house. What is wrong with doors?

In short, St Nicholas is one of the least innovative companies I have ever encountered. It is as fat and happy as its chief executive, sticking religiously to an ageing business formula that exposes it to being disrupted.

.. Your lack of interest in profitability struck the traditionalist in me as foolish but I have come to understand the virtues of reinvesting revenues over several centuries in order to dominate your market and entrench your monopoly.