Sunday, January 28, 2007

Sunday Morning on EN with your Host


A slight change of pace. While searching for a smarmy description of the animal that best matches our subject, I stumbled upon the exact opposite. Very sweet short story with morals and everything.

Salt on a Magpie's Tail
A Swedish folktale adapted from a fairytale by Anna Walenburg
as told by Eldrbarry
Once there was a boy who was always wishing for things. A bike, a sled, a house with a yard, even a cheap clasp knife. His father had died, and the farm had been foreclosed on by the bank. His mother was a poor woman, living in a run-down rooming house, making brooms for a living at minimum wage. So none of his wishes ever came true.

Read the rest...
http://www.eldrbarry.net/rabb/folk/magpie.htm

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am I first? Am I first? That was an incredibly sweet story. Thanks for posting.

Rob Dawg said...

You are declared, First among equals.

What would young sercasey have done?

Anonymous said...

Nice story.

Lil' Casey would have borrowed the knife, then increasingly borrowed himself into debt to obtain the things the magpie wanted. He would have paid premium prices so that he could get them quickly. At the end of the story, he would receive no wishes, and would have a mountain of debt for things he had paid too much for. And the townspeople would be angry, and ...

Right? ;=)

Anonymous said...

Casey would have used his powers of magical opportunity attraction.

Like magic, he would have awoken one fine morning to find the magpie sitting at the foot of his bed saying "Casey - have I got a sweet deal for you..."

Anonymous said...

after willsp...like magic, he would have awoken one fine morning to find the magpie sitting at the foot of his bed saying "Casey - have I got a sweet deal for you..."

...the other magpies and I have been watching your success in accumulating things. But we think you can do better. There is a deal in the Kingdom of Ogg..."

Next...

astrid said...

A very sweet story.

If the boy was Casey, he would have racked up $50,000 credit card debt and then wish for a cup of Jamba Juice.

Anonymous said...

More like:

Then he heard the magpie calling his name: "Casey! Casey!". The boy looked up and there it was looking at him. "You talk?" Exclaimed the boy. "Yes", answered the magpie "I am an enchanted prince, and I will grant your wish if you help me. Get me a really fine knife to clean my beak and claws and I will sit still so you can sprinkle salt on my tail."

The boy thought this was a sweeeet deal, so he went to Cash Call and took out a 42% interest loan. Then he went over to Wells Fargo and closed his account so Cash Call couldn't auto-draft anything out of it. With his new "profits" he purchased a sweet 200 attachment Swiss Army Knife, a new Blackberry, and a ticket to Phoenix.

In Phoenix he signed a lucrative contract with NLL giving them full rights to the magpie wish in return for two meals and some salt sprinkling mentoring. At the airport, he used his new PDA to disclose the contract, the NDA, and the location of the magpie on the internet. Upon returning to his apartment in Sacramento, he was promptly buried under an avalanche of unopened mail of biblical proportions. Legend has it that he sits under that mountain of mail even to this very day, awaiting the day when he gains the ability to open it so that he may rise once again and lay waste to the wicked lending industry.

As the sun rose over another glorious dawn in the forest, the magpie was heard to exclaim "Hey, WTF??" as nets flew at him from all directions. Leaping from the bushes, Prlinkbiz, Savvy Chris, Cute Amy, Joy O'Day, and Dogooder Duane locked in mortal combat to determine who would get to salt the magpie's tail and/or get hold of his princely credit score.

Yet a shadowy feline silhouette in the foreground forebode that in this conflict, there would be no winners. Only poop in shoes.

Anonymous said...

I would like to say that since finding casey's site, it has made me take a very long close and hard look at my own personal finances.

Albeit, yes I would have to be a complete moron to screw myself to the point that our favorite punching bag has. But the fact still remains that I have taken some action and changed some things about my personal finances as a result of our little trainwreck here.

I am wondering how many other people have changed some personal spending habits, debt management etc as a result of this?

Anonymous said...

CHJTS--Yeah, actually; I've been taking a harder, longer look at my finances and have been far more diligent about budgeting, etc. since Forrest Serin stumbled into my life. You took the words right out of my mouth!

astrid said...

Sadly, Caseyviewing had the reverse effect on my life. Viewing this trainwreck has distracted me from organizing my tax materials.