Verses from newspaper stories by Corey Kilgannon, Michelle Singletary, and Andrew Freedman.

FAMILY FARMS DISAPPEAR WITH THE GRAYING OF AMERICA.

@coreykilgannon

Farmer Brown is laying down;

his joints won't stand the labor.

His kids have all long fled the land;

he has no nearby neighbor.

He'll sell up to a realtor,

to pay his bills, retire --

where once a meadow stood pristine,

they're building condos higher.

***************************

IGNORE CYBER MONDAY: PAY DOWN YOUR CREDIT CARD

DEBT INSTEAD.

@SingletaryM

Merchants hope you will ignore

your declining credit score.

They want you to buy, buy, buy,

'til your purse does liquefy.

Don't think of necessities --

think of presents under trees!

When the bill comes due at last,

you, of course, will be aghast.

But the Xmas spirit will

help you take a sleeping pill . . . 

*****************************

HOW MUCH LONGER WILL WEATHER FORECASTS 

BE FREE?

@afreedma

It seems that private enterprise

is getting in the act,

when it comes to weather

and the way that it is tracked.

The private sector wants to charge

you for your rain and shine.

Will Uncle Sam fight back on this,

or will they act like swine?

Pretty soon we'll need to know 

when local tides are high,

so we can get the pontoons out

and keep thing high and dry.

And when a drought is forecast

for a decade and a day,

we need to know ahead of time

to buy our Perrier. 

The forecast's a commodity,

just like pork belly shares;

we must work to keep it free --

away from Wall Street bears . . .