The New Yorker—yes, THE New Yorker—contains a new short story every week, and it's always available online for free at newyorker.com/fiction. The stories can sometimes be lame, but they can also be very good. One of the best I've read is "Chicxulub" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, published February 23, 2004.

But the story I really want to tell you about was published on June 26, 1948. It's possibly the most controversial piece of fiction The New Yorker has ever published—hundreds of people canceled their subscriptions after reading it, and hundreds more wrote angry letters to both its author and its publisher, including the author's own mother.

Of course, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is now taught in classrooms ...