An old, bearded shepherd, with a crooked staff, walks up to a stone
pulpit and says . . . And, lo, it came to pass that the trader by the name
of Abraham.Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And
Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she
had been called Amazon Dot Com. And she said unto Abraham, her husband,
"Why doth thou travel far from town to town with thy goods, when thou
can trade without ever leaving thy tent?" And Abraham did look at her
as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply
said, "How, dear?" And Dot replied, "I will place drums in
all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for
sale and they will reply telling you which hath the best price. And the sale
can be made on the drums and delivery by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the
drums. And Dot said, "There will be a lot of banging in the land."
And Abraham replied, "It is my most fervent wish that this be so."
And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the
goods he had, at the top price, without ever moving from his tent. But his
success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secret himself inside
Abraham's drum and was accused of insider trading. And the young did take to
Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly to camel dung. They were
called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Siderites, or NERDS for short.
And, lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the
deafening sound of drums, that no one noticed that the real riches were
going to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every
drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that would
only work if you bought Brother William's drumsticks. And Dot did say,
"Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."
And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as it came to be
known, "eBay," he said, "We need a name of a service that
reflects what we are." And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew
Owner Operators." "Whoopee!" said Abraham. "No,
YAHOO!" said Dot Com.
