Guest host John Lithgow raises the curtain on five comic tales, classic and cutting-edge.

First, New Yorker writer and Algonquin Round Table regular Dorothy Parker describes the hangover from hell in “You Were Perfectly Fine.” First published in 1929, this hilarious morning-after story of a young man waking up from a bender wears well, and gets new polish from readers David Furr and Aya Cash. Next, Simon Rich brings his Saturday Night Live prankishness to a traditional rite-of-passage story—with a twist. Comic Wyatt Cenac (formerly of The Daily Show) reads. Alec Baldwin performs a James Thurber classic, “The Day the Dam Broke.” Thurber, another New Yorker contributor, wrote a string of stories that only slightly exaggerated the winsome strangeness of small town life.

Simon Rich is back with “Center of the Universe,” a story that imagines what God would have done on the seven days of Creation if his girlfriend had complained. SHORTS’ late host and founder Isaiah Sheffer was the reader. Finally, more spiritual high jinks from Ron Carlson—could there be a tablecloth of Turin? Reader Edi Gathegi’s television and film credits include alluring roles in House, Gone Baby Gone, Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, but here he makes a very convincing ex-insurance investigator who has seen the light.

Our guest host, John Lithgow, is an award-winning actor whose many television, stage, and film credits include the television series Third Rock from the Sun, the films Terms of Endearment and The World According to Garp, and the Broadway shows Sweet Smell of Success (Tony Award) and M Butterfly. LISTEN TO THE SHOW