Short Stories in English

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And if elected, and I think I will be...

This is the year of the big vaudeville show, with candidates resplendent in blue shirts, which absorb the glare from the spotlights, and pancake makeup, which artfully conceals both age and pallor and restores to weary politicians the ruddy vigor of a grade-B Western hero. There will be speeches, flags, music and, for the boys in the backroom, a bottle on the shelf. Promises will be made in good faith, and some in the rankest kind of hypocrisy. The din will be deafening, the television channels choked with argument, and ill will, we predict, will be in possession of the land. To help you get your money's worth for your vote (a figure of speech; nothing more) we are offering a standard against which we ask that you check your candidate. The beauty of this standard is that it isn't scientific, and while your findings will not deliver you into a state of ataraxia they may bring your candidate into focus, perhaps even with devastating clarity. If so, good; and if you get any c

Mass Media

The mass media play an important part in our lives. Newspapers, radio and especially TV inform us of what is going on in this world and give us wonderful possibilities for education and entertainment. They also influence the way we see the world and shape our views. Of course, not all newspapers and TV programs report the events objectively, but serious journalists and TV reporters try to be fair and provide us with reliable information. It is true that the world today is full of dramatic events and most news seems to be bad news. But people aren't interested in ordinary events. That is why there are so many programs and articles about natural disasters, plane crashes, wars, murders and robberies. Good news does not usually make headlines. Bad news does. Some people say that journalists are given too much freedom. They often intrude on people's private lives. They follow celebrities and print sensational stories about them which are untrue or half-true. They ta

How to be happy though fired

When I first began to job hunt I always hoped I wouldn't get the job. I had to nag and bribe myself into office buildings: Go on in, you coward, I would say, go in, you slob, and when you get out you can have coffee and something fattening at the drugstore. Because whenever I faced a prospective employer the prospect was utterly implausible. Had I been born, lived through chicken pox, measles, adolescence and a B.A. degree to spend the rest of my life in the office of the Better Bundling Blanket Company, shut up with this stranger and concentrating on his or her weird little preoccupations? I would be there forever - or a year, which amounted to the same thing. Could this type across the desk really give credence to such a fantastic notion? This was not conceit. I knew I couldn't do most of the things they expected of me. It made me feel sincerely humble, in fact abysmal. And the last thing they wanted was me. They wanted something else, which, I gathered from reading

Why Do So Many Internet Startups Fail Today?

Every day out there in the real brick and mortar world, millions and millions of people drag themselves from the warm, warm beds, take a shower, grab a cup of coffee, and head off to their jobs as they are thinking that there has got to be an easier way to make a living. Every one of those millions and millions of people knows somebody who has quit the ‘get-up-and-go-to-work’ grind and is making a very good living by working on their personal computers from the comfort of their own homes. Working from home sounds like an ideal solution to them. Many of these dissatisfied souls will quit their jobs and plunge head-first into internet marketing with no preparation, no knowledge of what they are doing, no education, and no hope of success. Failure is their only option and they don’t even suspect. The fact is that according to many sources, more than 90% (Ninety percent) of all Internet business start-ups end in failure within the first 120 (one hundred twenty) days. Yes, y

Without words

At mail call a soldier got a letter from his home. He opened the envelope and took out a white sheet without a word on. “What’s that?” his friend asked. “My wife’s letter.” “Why doesn’t she write anything?” “We had a quarrel and now we are not on speaking terms.”

Just leave a note, honey

Whenever I come in at night to be greeted by a pear-shaped silence, I know that somewhere around the house there will be a note. These little documents are remarkable for their brevity and whimsey. One beauty I've picked at random reads: I'm at Mother's. Watch for Egg Man. Feed Dog. When Egg Man Comes Put Him in the basement. Heard Funny Noise in Chimney Today. Do You Suppose a Bird is in There? Baked Beans in the Oven.