Fifth Saturday Fiction

Chapter 5, Brenda and the File, 
from the novel 
Frank O’Hara – The Last PI

By D. Michael Pain

[In Chapter 3, published here on April 18, Frank O’Hara received a telephone call from a woman named Kim Dawson. The woman murdered in Chapter 1 was her friend Brenda, and Kim “knew some things” and was afraid on account of some files she had that Brenda had taken from work. Frank agreed to meet with Kim to look at the files.]

He straightened his red-and-blue striped tie and walked into the coffee shop. He saw her in her red sweater immediately and walked confidently to her booth. Making sure his shoulders were erect, he smiled and said, “Kim?”

Fish for Friday

Edited by
Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

"Jon Stewart, Iraq War Critic, Runs a Program That Helps Veterans Enter TV." [Dave Philipps, NY Times] Excerpt:

Thor's Day: Reflections on Galileo's middle finger

Authority versus independent thinking

By Morris Dean

My wife often tells me about the books she is reading. Which means that she's telling me about a new book roughly every week. But she most recently spoke more often and more excitedly than usual about Alice Dreger's book, Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, and she devoured it in fewer days than usual, giving me too plenty of time to read it before the library wants it back.

Ask Wednesday: Have you had a visitation of frogs?

Up against the garage door

In joy and sorrow

By Morris Dean

All of a sudden, about three weeks ago, we started to see a huge number (dozens? hundreds?) of tiny, dark frogs in our yard, right around the house, both front and back. When I say tiny, I mean on the order of half an inch long, nose to tail in squatting position.
    There's a drainage pound out back of our house, but frogs have commonly taken up residence in our yard, even in the gutters, although I can't tell you how they got up there.

Tuesday Voice: Posthumously Speaking 9

Hand tools

By Mary Alice Condley (1925-2007)

[Correction: The artist's granddaughter has informed us that her father doesn't think Mary did the shovel painting. (May 27)]

[Editor's Note: The artist's granddaughter Suzanne Dawn Condley recently brought to my attention that her father, my nephew Jeffrey Condley, Mary's second of two sons, has a number of his mother's paintings, several of which were done on hand tools – the first such paintings of hers that I was aware of.

Fourth Monday Susan Speaks

Portraits of two youths abuilding

By Susan C. Price

The two paintings I'm speaking through today are from the Mirror, Mirror Project in Los Angeles, where artists meet and make portraits of young persons who are participating in a program called YouthBuild, in which they finish high school and learn the construction trade.

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

A Shady Person (Chapter 4 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: Blurb from the dust jacket: “Jim Rix has written an astonishing memoir about his cousin Ray Krone’s wrongful conviction for a 1991 Arizona murder. Rix meticulously details every aspect of police corruption, prosecutorial misconduct, defense incompetence, expert witness tampering and jury shenanigans that led to Ray’s decade-long nightmare. But Rix doesn’t stop there. He dissects each problem, then with careful research explains how it is not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of problems in the criminal justice system. Rix’s wry humor and occasional sarcasm reveal the depths of his despair at realizing that the justice system, which he once trusted, is so deeply flawed. Scariest about this true story is that if Ray Krone, an honest, law-abiding person, could end up on Death Row, it could happen to anyone.”
        –Rachel King, author of Don’t Kill in Our Names and
        Capital Consequences, teaches legal writing
        at Howard University School of Law ]

Fourth Saturday's Loneliest Liberal

Shakespeare says

By James Knudsen

Another semester has ended. The lightest of teaching loads, one class, one night a week. Drama 1, an overview of theatre, was all the public system of higher education could find for me this spring. I filled in at the local community college I attended decades earlier, but had never been employed at. The syllabus I taught from was the same one used department wide and different from what I normally teach at my usual gig at Fresno City College. And I’ll confess that I prefer to spend a bit more time on Shakespeare than we did in my recently ended section at the College of the Sequoias, Tulare Campus.

Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

Have you ever wondered...what dogs do when they drink water?

Thor's Day: What's nihilistic about nihilism?

The meanings of our lives

By Morris Dean

When my views were labeled "nihilistic" by a Christian last year, I couldn't think at the time how to respond. I'd never thought much about "nihilism," and I didn't really know what the label meant, or was supposed to imply.

Ask Wednesday: Ask Susan

Should I break up with my fiancé to be with the man I have butterflies for?

By Susan C. Price

[Questions are followed by answers and then, inevitably by ADVICE...you DID expect that...didn’t you?]

I fell in love with someone but when he asked for my hand in marriage, my parents refused because he’s not educated like I am. He’s from a family my parents don’t get along with. I wanted to please them so I broke up with him, thinking I’d done the right thing.
    Then on a work trip, I met someone else and he seemed the sweetest guy on earth. He surprised me by coming to my home town and proposing. My parents liked him, and the way he asked me was so romantic it was hard to say no.
    Now, though, I can’t help thinking of the first guy. I talked to him on the phone and got butterflies when I heard his voice. I’ve never felt like this for my fiancé. Should I break up with him?
    One more thing. I come from a culture that forbids sex before marriage, and I’ve been intimate with my fiancé, which makes my decision even harder. –What Now?

Tuesday Voice: In 4" × 4"

Sunrise detail

By Shirley Deane/Midyett

[Husband Vic Midyett's Note: Jake did both of these 4" × 4" paintings in about 10 minutes each, on May 5. You should recognize them from recent photos on the estuary: April 21; May 4.]

Third Monday with Bob Boldt

Halcion Days

By Bob Boldt

Sunday Review: Before I Go to Sleep

You need to lose it before you watch this movie^*

By Morris Dean

During lunch yesterday, I said to my wife, "I think I'll review that movie we watched last night."
    "What movie was that? I can't remember it."

Third Saturday Fiction

Excerpt from
The Suicide Diary,
a novel

By Michael Hanson

[Editor’s Note: The narrator is a 27-year-old novelist whose girlfriend, Karla, has recently left him. He has decided he is going to commit suicide but will keep a diary of all that transpires prior to the precipitous act, identifying it as his new novel and leaving it for his editor to find.]