10/11/2001 Entry: "Flattery will get you everywhere."

  'Will you walk into my parlor?'
  Said a Spider to a Fly;
  ''Tis the prettiest little parlor
  That ever you did spy.
  The way into my parlor
  Is up a winding stair,
  And I have many pretty things
  to show when you are there.'
  'Oh no, no!' said the little Fly,
  'To ask me is in vain,
  For who goes up your winding stair
  Can ne'er come down again.'
from Peter Parley's Winter Evening Tales, by Samuel Goodrich (1829; revised)