The New Yorker

food for thought-
Sometime in your childhood you may have had the misfortune of listening to or reading the story of The Little Red Hen.
The Little Red Hen is an unpleasant short tale about a hen, who is obviously not as little as described in the tittle and clearly unfamiliar with normal hen attributes. The story itself is about a laborious hen that works hard in the process of making bread from scratch. Her supposed friends (the cat, dog, and pig) do not seize the opportunity, at any time, when they are offered for help. Therefore they are not allowed to enjoy the somewhat appetizing product of her hard work.
The person who had read the story to you may have finished with a somewhat judicious statement such as if a man does not work, let him not eat. Although you may have been puzzled, at this point in your life, as to what your guardian or librarian has just said, you would have grown up to find out that this phrase is somewhat false as to the storys real meaning. The real moral of the story, as you now know, is to simply be a sensible being and buy bread at your local store rather than spending several weeks making something that could be eaten in an hour.
As you may now, again, be a bit puzzled about the storys moral, I shall therefore explain. You may find that the entire story, as a whole, represents the gloom in your life. If this is the case then you will also find that the somewhat unproductive friends of our dear hen are actually the characters with common sense. At a point in their somewhat brief animals, these characters found out that such a minor and trivial issue, as not being able to eat a fresh loaf of bread, would most likely not affect their already stale and vile lives.
As you read this, you may be filled with the same discontent as when you threw the story, along with a large and expensive book of Russian folktales, into the flaming firebox of your bedroom. With the greatest reluctance, I will tell you that this was evidently the best choice to retain your youthful childhood. Perhaps you did find the hidden messages of your large book of Russian folktales and was then cast into gloom on the possible life that lay ahead of you.
This is an excellent time head for you childs book shelf, retrieve The Little Red Hen and perhaps "accidently" throw it into a fireplace or cast it out a high window.

less