CLASSIC VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
Satire imitates life: I was watching "The Big Comfy Couch" (a children's show on PBS) with my three year old. Their revision of the fable was to have the ants invite the grasshopper in to their home for the winter because they realized they had no music to sing or dances to do. The moral seemed to be 'We need the fools who laugh, sing, dance, and play the summer away, because they are "artists"'. It pissed me off. (I think the Ants singing "Nayah-Nayah-Nayah" while dancing on the Grasshopper's grave would have been sufficient). Neil M. Johnson njohnson@interl.net http://www.interl.net/~njohnson PGP Key Finger Print: 93C0 793F B66E A0C7 CEEA 3E92 6B99 2DCC