A Nobel Ode

STOCKHOLM--The Nobel Foundation plans to sell stock in a new firm being formed to preserve the value of the annual prizes it awards.. . . This year's prizes.. . will each be worth $340,000... . Shrewd investments in the past decade. . . have reversed years of declining value for the prizes, and have raised the foundation's assets to near the real value of the original estate in 1900.

--From THE SCIENTIST October 5, 1987, p.4.

Lend an ear to hear the story of my galloping success.
I was once a Wall Street broker(inside, trader, more or less)
But my future brightened quickly
Fast enough to lead to shock
When the staid Nobel Foundation
Said that it would issue stock

I began to buy it slowly
Craftily, with guile and care
Till it soon became apparent
I controlled the lion's share

Owning fifty-one percent
Makes one...