Remember participation trophies? The little token given to every child involved in various kinds of school competitions. This week on selected shorts, that little plastic talisman comes to life to interrogate all of us thanks to funny writer Simon Rich.

I'm Meg Wallitzer. Stay with me for this story and more coming right up.

You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.

There's an old saying often attributed to Abraham Lincoln. You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Seems

true and applicable to many different kinds of situations, or it wouldn't have remained

in our cultural memory bank. But there's one idea that quote doesn't address. What if you, the

person doing the fooling, are trying to fool just one person, yourself?

I definitely try to fool myself sometimes when it comes to eating crap. I mean food.

Dubious food. If I buy an item at the supermarket that I know is bad for me, but I feel like giving myself a treat anyway, I'm well aware that if I looked at the nutrition facts on the label, I would keel over right there in the aisle.

So it bothers me a little when I'm at home eating this thing, and I see my husband peering at the back of the box with curiosity.

And I know he's thinking, wow, interesting.

And even though he has no idea, he is inadvertently ruining my fun,

because he's keeping me from being able to fool myself. And when it comes to individually

wrapped devil's food cupcake pies, the fun is all in the self-deception. On this episode of

selected shorts, we're going to consider all kinds of different ways to fool yourself.

And not just the how, but why you'd want to fool yourself in the first place.

In one story, an inanimate object demands its due.

In a second, a town learns about the price of progress.

And in a third, a young woman tests out versions of love and motherhood.

First up, a story by Simon Rich. Chances are, Rich has entered your consciousness somehow,

whether as a writer on SNL, a committed short story writer with collections such as Glory

Days, or the creative engine behind series such as Miracle Workers.

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