"Whom am I to invite?" asked the night raven.
"Well, to the grand ball, anyone can come," began the old elfin lady. "Even human beings are invited; that is, those who have some small talent akin to ours: such as being able to talk in their sleep. But the party tonight is to be more select; only those of the highest rank are to attend. I argued with the elfin king about the guest list, for in my opinion neither ghosts nor spooks should be on it..The old merman and his daughters, the mermaids, must be the first ones you invite. They don't like to be where it's dry, so tell them that they can count on having a wet stone each to sit on, if not something better. (...) Then there are the graveyard sow, the Hell horse, and the three-legged church monster; it would not do to forget them. They belong to the clergy; but that is their profession, so I shan't hold it against them. Besides, we are all related, and they visit us regularly."

--excerpt from a Hans Christian Anderson story on page 283, of a 1067 page collection. I do love social gossip and ranking so I found this story particularly fabulous.


Justin and I are not seeing each other right now, Rebecca just moved to LA, Andrea is camping in some Kkk southern Illinois town and I've been feeling bored and lonely for days. I've been alone, filling my time by reading...fairy tales.