139876
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He hasn't had a wedding ring in years. When George's knuckles began to swell — a little arthritis — his ring dug into his finger so bad his wife Loren took him to the ER and had it cut off. The ring, not the finger. He never knew there was a tool to cut rings,…
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143275
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Every time I squished an ant with my finger, I felt a piece of me loosen and chisel off.
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123876
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The note was a lie, multiplied through each member of its potential audience....
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95474
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—A little blood puts some life into the work, said the old artisan smiling.
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89072
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Cold, wet and dreary.The three words that describe Belgium. A country that owns so little identity. Sure, there are the mussels, beer, wafels and chocolate ... But that's about as far as it goes. The lack of identity rules the country, grayness rules the horizon. And…
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89776
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They wink at me as if to share/
a cosmic joke whose punch line’s still/
a couple dozen light years out
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163577
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The suspended heart became an oracle of sorts. Hung from a string, immersed in the kind of glass container in which tulips grow, it was located between Bath and Body Works and Kleinfelter's Jewelers at the north entrance of the mall. Someone had lost it,
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130676
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Clear as my conscience may be, you still haunt me as the brown settles to black
sit there and recommence as if nothing had ever happened, your hands conducting the orchestra of your purity.
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273274
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On Planet Crabby a boy met a girl and a girl met a boy but neither couple got anywhere because they dismissed their prospective partner as just plain too crabby. Alternative arrangements were unthinkable. This happened a number of times.
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137976
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2. humility You know what silly does? Silly guarantees that you will enjoy the moment as the moment for the moment. Clowns make fun of silly. Isn't that ironic? They are in essence the opposite of their own image. That's why so many people see them as evil--because you…
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148975
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His open door was interpreted by the neighbor as an invitation to all but place a mirror under his nose. She demanded opportunities to fluff his pillows and coerced him into accepting gifts of food, more than he could possibly eat, and sometimes ate with
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718173
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I admired her stamina. Her ability to Charlie Sheen it night after night.
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13473
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I will never waste my sick time on my own sicknesses unless I am in a coma.
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136373
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see this:/ ink-stained paper/ littering miles
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108676
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Whistler pounded a nuanced nail,
into our inferior foreheads.
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136873
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The world is having an off day. The sun is now lavender in color, soft on the eyes, and we stare at the new sun all day without ill effect.
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51876
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Marcel Proust had never been to a big-box store before. He was dazzled by the sheer size and scope of the store and the seeming impassivity of the shoppers. So many products, so many shelves, such strangely intriguing examples of the human condition. The people seemed…
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169573
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“You’ll have to do better than that,” Skip says.
My husband laughs. He has a high girlish chuckle when he’s truly delighted. He can sing really high like a girl, too.
“All right,” I say. I leave my headband
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126773
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His wings were down when he got into the truck. It was a used UPS truck we’d bought from someone in Berkeley, and we painted out the letter “S,” so that it just read “UP.”
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202375
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Montauk was the solution. He had no job, no money. He could stay for the winter at the summer place. It would be a lark. He had come home to Great Neck after losing the last job and they were making broad hints at him to move…
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258172
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His appearance had never suggested health, but his body had once been fleshy, his skin pale and soft because he never went outside in the daytime.
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137170
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There we sat, myself and I, at a small folding table in the middle of the lab beside the main, l-shaped workbench. The lab was empty - always was - except for the two of us.
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149077
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Tsunamis are quiet at first:
not one big wave but many
small injustices, so chaotic
all the pressing all the weight
of the noise, like a stone
holding you under.
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132476
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Brody was standing against the wall with one hand in his hip pocket, as if he was holding a gun. The motel was set in the undergrowth of several weedy small towns, but a flashing neon sign made it impossible to miss from the road. We used it as a safe hou
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182474
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Teddy laughs like a machine gun. People back away when they hear him. Every time I see him at work, I try to make his skinny body rattle. I would never back away.
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578875
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Boil 8-10 red potatoes and 6 eggs in heavily salted water. Remember that the first chef you worked under taught you to salt egg-boiling water because the salt breaks down membranes between shell and meat, making the egg easier to peel later on. Decide tha
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12975
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"Why didn't they just elevate the drug levels and kill her off like that?"
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122176
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In human rights, a man and a woman may marry and bring forth a family. It is a civil right in the U.S. but not a human right (as far as I know) to raise a child singly without the knowledge of the other parent.
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116275
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The sea is transparent rubber, and peering down into it I recognize the shiny fish in suspended animation, their partially exploded bodies obscured by their own blood.
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40374
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"... he with much to teach, I who had much to learn..."
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