We never meant to go winter camping. I had joined a gaggle of gals intent on starting our own underground sorority at Middlebury College, and we figured an October hike up to Skyline Lodge in the Bread Loaf Wilderness would serve as a wholesome act of bonding. With no upperclassmen to bully us toward initiation, we had opted to intimidate each other with such harmless acts as baking cookies and taking walks in the woods. Little did we know that our hike would turn out to be as stupid and humiliating as real hazing.... Read more

We gave six writers "a goose, a grin and a glass of gin," and a limit of 400 words in which to explain how they might figure in the same story. The results range from the supernatural to the psychological, take in a wedding and a funeral, and involve a good number of parents -- mostly problematic ones. The biggest surprise, for us, was the goose. They came in both cooked and on the wing, but not once in the form of a verb. We hope you have as much fun with them as our writers did.

Best Man
By Erik Esckilsen... Read more