Dinah, the Christmas Whore Summary

At their father's suggestion, David Sedaris and his sister Lisa both gain after-school employment at different cafeterias in Raleigh shopping centers. David is a dish washer and his sister is a steamer. During his intellectually unengaging work hours, David contemplates his dream of producing and starring in a television show called, "Socrates and Company," about his travels with a monkey named Socrates. In his imagination, each episode ends with his final thought, a profound statement about life that suddenly occurs to him as a result of that day's adventures. He tries to draw epiphanies from many of the released felons who work in the kitchen on parole, but finds them to be unmotivated and unmotivating.

As the holiday season approaches, David gets much busier at the cafeteria and realizes that he is as insignificant to the cafeteria's...