Frozen Toothpaste

Though I don’t like doing it, I’m taking the week off. I’ll be back next Monday.
While I’m away, how about a few reruns? They’re mostly fiction, and mostly my words, and some certainly could have been better. But the important thing to remember is that if you’ve never seen them, they’re new to you.

[…]

On today’s “Other People’s Words,” a poem by Cheryl Denise about the feeling that society desires conformity above all else. And about maybe leaving it behind.
“They’ll”
take your soul
and put it in a suit,
fit you in boxes
under labels,
make you look like the Joneses.
They’ll tell you go a little blonder,
suggest sky-blue
tinted contact lenses,
conceal that birthmark
under your chin.
They’ll […]

Our roving correspondent Steve Finch has finally gotten back to us with another story. He asked us to file this under “Wouldn’t it be scary if…”
Elkhart, Indiana — The rise of the Evolution Party and it’s unconventional platform has left at least a few unsettled and scratching their heads. The leader of the small political party is […]

Until recently, I wasn’t aware that “progressive” had an opposite. Surely, many Democrats would prefer that Republican or conservative were seen as opposites of progressive, but they’re not. “Regressive,” I now know, actually is the opposite of progressive, at least in taxes. (And in hindsight, I feel dumb for not having thought of that.)
This is […]

When you look around at the world, it’s easy to be angry. There are socio-political problems all over: Darfur, Myanmar, Iraq, China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia… the list could go on and on. There are also the scourges of poverty and hunger that never seem to leave us. And the more mundane but pervasive problems […]