Join me on the topic of short stories
" A thesaurus gives synonyms such as "peachy, smashing, dandy, great, keen, and groovy," all of which strike me as exchanging one jargon term for another!" What was my listener describing when he called my stories "nifty?" The stories I tell always have a message, a lesson, a bit of perspective, and they are, indeed, particularly good and rather effective at making their point. You could say that my idea of nifty stories is stories that enlighten as well as entertain. There needs to be a message beyond a witty punch line. Any story with a moral at the end sends the listener a clear message. It teaches using a concrete example.