This Is Just To Say: asset management edition.

The background: William Carlos Williams wrote a famous poem called "This Is Just To Say," that goes a little something like this:

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold


I knew this poem. What I didn't know until this weekend is that a favorite sport of writers is to spoof it. (Again, a nod to This American Life. I swear I'm cooking up posts that DO NOT MENTION This American Life, reallyreallyreally I am.) The relevant segment starts at 49:25 in the audiofile, though the whole show is worth listening to.

And let me tell you, it is addictive. I spent waaaayyyy too much time this afternoon at my desk slapping out This Is Just To Say variations. Try it! But make sure you have A LOT of time on your hands, and that a piece of your brain's just been sitting around waiting for something to do, because I'm saying again: ADDICTIVE. If it isn't there already, I'm calling this as the next national meme.

This Is Just To Say

I have lost the money
that you gave me to invest
For your child’s
college fund

and which
I* sank entirely into
mortgage-backed securities.

Forgive me**
they were criminally*** tempting
so easy
and so cheap.



*In this instance, "I" may not actually refer to "me."
**Or "anyone I work with."
***Or, "anyone I've ever met in my entire life." Who are you again?