1913 7 4
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The investigator starts by accumulating facts, as many facts as he can. He sifts through them with meticulous precision, leaving no leaf unturned, no page unread.
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1913228
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The eggs got badder as the cook got madder
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191366
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I may be the shadow that I am, but I only ever loved you.
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191300
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Vito stood before the mirror combing his dark, freshly-cut hair. He trimmed his thick mustache, then buttoned his black vest. He liked its tight fit against his muscular torso. He had difficulty fastening the top button of his white shirt, the collar tigh
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191364
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"When we say something is good, beautiful, pious, or brave, what idea or image do we hold in our mind?"
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191373
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We spend life, or much of it rather, chasing epiphanies promised to us by hip prophets and free spirits.
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191364
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I wanted my sister to not be in that box. I wanted my parents to laugh again. I wanted my friends to actually be my friends and not call me hurtful names behind my back. I wanted my awful cousin to have never come into my room in the middle of the night. I…
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19131510
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On the birthday before he started school, he received a pencil case from his paternal grandparents. The violet, oblong pouch contained a pencil and a pencil sharpener in the same color. He didn't remember what had happened with the pencil or the sharpener, but he had…
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191283
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I was making good bread as a New York studio musician and jingle writer, anonymous back-room jobs.
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191200
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When I finally went back to school in the fourth grade, after coming down with polio, my classmates were very welcoming, though I couldn't go outside and run around like them yet at recess or lunch time. That would come, just not right away. But it was th
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191221
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Mower hits a rock and the blades scream.
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191211
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Life is hard and toes are fragile, which means that by the time you reach middle age, you've probably broken one. Or two. I recently broke a toe when I got out of bed in the middle of the night and tripped over a shoe. When friends and family consoled me with…
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191297
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"Think of every sexual partner you've ever had. I'm nothing like them. Unless you've ever slept with a bulimic German cellist called Elsa."
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191253
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We have read your book, but regret to inform you that it is insufficient. This is not to say that you as a person are insufficient, simply that your writing is. When you asked us what percentage of manuscripts we found sufficient, we told you, “Less tha
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191110
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This is about a mescaline trip that went wrong. It happened back in the '60s and I know, the '60s have been done quite to death and nobody ever gets the trip right but--you'll like this one. Joey and…
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191177
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My face turns to promise more, but my insides are browning.
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191133
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“Turn the fucking thing off!” I yelled above the noise. “It’s fucking New Year’s morning!”
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1911101
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I told you that I have homicidal urges that alternate with ones of the suicidal kind. You flicked an imaginary speck of dust from your fat, fleshy forefinger with your ultra-flexible, wimpy thumb.
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191110
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At that point he would leave and listen to the scientists as they debate as to why the moon has organs and why they are covered in a thick fat.
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191120
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The morning sun rose up over the flat prairie, and the powdery snow crunched as you walked on it, and the air was so crisp it hurt as you took a breath. That is good, I thought. That is how you knew you were alive, and I was truly very alive, and there was not much to do so…
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191192
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‘Look, look, Quark. Look here. Warthearm. A shiny warthearm.’ Maz was on his elbows and knees, his fat ass sticking out in their air like two cannon-balls ready to be shot off. He was peering at a long, shapeless earthworm, its skin translucent and i
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19111911
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Emma pushes through the door of the corner market, aiming briskly for her car, keys in one hand, grocery bag in the other, shoulder bag slung. Best not to make eye contact with the loitering boozers and bikers from the bar next door. Double take. Can't…
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191099
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“Have you ever thought what stars are made of?”
“No,” he said.
The man nodded seriously. “I hadn’t either. Not until I met the Star Catcher. He told me all the stars in the universe are actually coins. Coins! Big coins. Small coins. Different colors
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191011
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The tiles begin inching toward him as soon as he moves. You've seen filings on glass. He's the magnet on the underside.
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191041
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She had plain features suggestive of a Native American, which in fact, she was, partly, and she rarely wore makeup of any kind. She easily might have been indistinguishable in a moving crowd except for her loping gait and a tendency to move her hands arou
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191033
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And him, now there’s a him. I’d like if he were perfect, but perfect things never are. My daughter says it best, when she contrasts the two of you, “Daddy worked to forget about his problems. When he works, it makes him feel like there is a problem.”
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19101412
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Behind them all, in the background, a tray of vodka tonics waits on a glass table, the limes losing color as they drown.
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191097
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leaves of a season/float into a brook among/bubbles fit to burst.
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1909137
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Here’s how you do it. First you get a ladder, a long one.
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190983
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I walked on hot coals. She got ahead of me. (228 words)
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