I wrote this story years ago when I was still teaching. It was a reaction against a supposedly educational service that provided free television programs to schools as long as they allowed the students to watch the commercials. At the time I was also rebelling against the increasingly inescapable reality that all speech was commercial speech and therefore untrustworthy. I’ve since been distressed by an even more frightening conclusion that all speech is relentlessly political and therefore untrustworthy. On the bright side, we need not worry any more about invasions of our privacy, since none of use will be permitted to lead private lives.

I later wrote a stage version of this story which I produced and directed at two venues in the Los Angeles area in 2007. Enjoy.