Most discussed stories

Mocking Bird

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There were always mocking birds around my house.

Dizzy

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It’s never good to get arrested on an empty stomach.

Red Fox Rampant

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Shit, Marcie, I thought you were taking something. I mean you did say you were on the pill. I don’t want no screaming brat. Get rid of it.

Disassembly

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Maybe the thing is over by now. They have gathered up all the pictures and mementos of our dad’s life and hauled them away.

Holy Week

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one day I will take you / to Grenada

Things Left Unsaid

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I knew I was on the wrong bus, but jumping off was a death sentence. I was afraid, but by then I was used to that.

How Chupacabra Broke the Heart of God

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And God said, Let us create a being in our image, after our likeness, for God was alone in the universe.

Peach

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He wanted to walk in, take off his scrubs, and not have to look at pictures of peaches.

The Names of Things

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She's having trouble remembering the names of things.

Couple Busting

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you had to actually cross a damn street, vacate your brain, and say, "you two hellions are going to combust from all this torrid public defilement."

How Dinner With John Updike Ruined My Teaching Career

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Christmas Eve, 1989, I had dinner with John Updike.

What's Eating William Gass?

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Sometime in the 60s a philosophy teacher named William H. Gass was writing a novel. He had it about where he wanted it when someone stole the manuscript from his car.

Muddy Creek

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I went with Dale Stack to drown a cat on a fading summer afternoon.

Gold

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He entered the kitchen, carrying the silver metal scuttle filled with coal. The draught brought in the scent of woodbines. She paused her work, her hands resting inside the bread dough, and breathed deep, having…

The Truth Will Out

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sorry I didn't inform you (missing cap) about my trip to Spain, (comma splice)

Decorum

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So, have your whiskey like a good son.

Stephen King Stephen King

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In the early years, we never got tired of playing Stephen King. We played Stephen King at home and we played Stephen King in restaurants, shopping malls, airports, and hotels. We played Stephen King so much that we could have turned pro.

Unheard

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“Spare change?” he asked the couple heading into the cineplex. They glanced at his brother, saw something was wrong with him, then at him, noting his dirty and disheveled state. They passed without a word, not even a head-shake.

Under Perfect Conditions...

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If when he pulled his lips from mine he didn’t say a word, and if he didn’t try to explain or try to win me with bullshit...

A Caregiver's Homage To The Very Old

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When you take her grocery shopping take a list and make her stick to it as she forgets and duplicates a lot She is also very generous and will insist on buying you something I think she cannot live without fresh flowers or plants that are bl

The Birds

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My wife goes away for a few days to the little town where Hitchcock filmed The Birds. Her sister goes along. When she comes back, I ask her if she had a good time, and she says no.

See Jane

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Jane watched her mother remove her wedding ring with butter.

We Need to Breathe

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She turned and looked at me as if she had just discovered me. A weak smile looped around the edges of her mouth but she didn't mean it. It was as if her brain had relayed a signal to her mouth to smile but the mouth didn't really want to, not really.

Bobby Fischer in Budapest

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Bobby Fischer hates anyone using his name. Movies, books, stories, news articles, games. Kasparov, Spassky, even Deep Blue—he cursed them for ever having thought of his name. Whoever's thinking my name right now—burn in hell!

The Apaches Are Losing Brooklyn

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At the bar, she told me her name was Natasha, but she doesn’t look like one. She’s too thin and flighty for one thing. And all Natashas have a Russian accent and talk of the Motherland as if it were never cold and before it turned to borderlines and j

Almost There

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...children live in the moment like no one else. Which is a good lesson for us all, especially when crossing an ocean. Because out here you are alone with the rhythm of your thoughts and the ghosts of your past.

My Crush on Daniel Ortega

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Time advances. One space between words, two between sentences. When I'm not working, I rehearse the language of newspapers: teez, pica, reefer, jump, hed, sig.

middle of the night

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Then the moon cried real white tears.

Dinner with Sam Rockwell

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“I liked you best in Choke–you were sexy in a lazy, sort of ‘70s way.”

Three Short Shorts

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When Uncle Dan got sent to the Alzheimer's ward, the ladies licked their lips. Fresh meat.