Let Me Help You with That

A short story

By Bob Boldt

“Let me help you with that,” he said as he fumbled for a match. The burning coal at the tip of her joint had disappeared. Lit again, she inhaled deeply. There was the customary silence while the smoke fed its precious cargo to waiting lungs. There was a brief choke followed by a cough followed by some of the unabsorbed smoke being expelled from her lungs. Ted stood up and held out his hand. “No,” she said. “I’ll just sit here. You know, I like to stay in my own head when I’m high.” She was seated on a large beach blanket, dressed only in a green, paisley spread.

What denomination did you say that was?

Church humor

By Steve Glossin

After church, an elderly woman approached the Priest. “Excuse me, Father, could you help me?”

Three paintings from the imagination of Shirley Deane/Midyett

“Boat on Lake” (detail)

Two boats & a flower

By Vic Midyett

Shirley painted “White Hibiscus” and “Boat on Lake” in December, both from her imagination:

The position of the sun (a painting by Shirley Deane/Midyett)

Detail of photo from which
the painting was done

What’s right, what’s wrong?

By Vic Midyett

I just had to share this stunning painting of Shirley’s. It’s from a photo our oldest granddaughter took of her hubby and two sons on a beach in Washington state (see detail). The sun was absolutely in the wrong place, photographically, but Shirley got the effect and it turned out well, interesting and different, I thought.

Is vast inequality necessary?

Paul Krugman says no

By Rolf Dumke

Economist Paul Krugman’s January 15 piece in the NY Times, “Is Vast Inequality Necessary?” is a very readable argument explaining the rise of inequality in the US since the 1960s as a combination of forces:

Three paintings in three days by Shirley Deane/Midyett

Detail of third painting

Water & boats & trees

By Vic Midyett

Shirley did these three paintings in three days this week.

Three Keys and the Mob

Apropos some fiction

By Ed Rogers

I have known some colorful characters in my life. I have written two novels based on some of them: Boystown: The Cocaine Highway and Boystown: The Return [which we plan to start serializing in the coming weeks –The Editor].
    The story below is all true, however. I have changed the names for reasons that should be apparent to everyone.

Lost and found

A true story

By Christa  Saeger, as told to Geoffrey  Dean

Toward the end of the last scheduled class period a violist in the school orchestra comes in and tells me, I found a 100 dollars in the bathroom, and I’m like, OK, I’ll keep it with me in case anybody claims it.
    And so you know of course I can’t go around and ask if anybody lost a 100 dollars cuz everybody would claim it. So I planned to take it to the office first thing the next day.

Parquet (a sonnet)

By Eric Meub
 




 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
I trailed through cavern after cavern hung
with clouds of crystal from a painted sky,
and gawked at fountains on the lawn, a young
suburban girl bewildered by Versailles.

Take a train across the USA for $213?

Some cautions

By Bob Boldt

Are you totally planning to see the USA by train for just $213?

Ask Susan

How can I make peace with death?

By Susan C. Price

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

God knows I have thought my fair share about death. My goal for many years was to make it past the age at which my father died. I hoped I would find relief in that, but I didn’t.
    Didn’t, that is, until a couple of months ago when I finally shared my fears with my husband as we were talking about my insomnia. I told him about my habit of “going dark,” going into the shadows during my most vulnerable nighttime hours to do battle with the thought of dying. My husband had no wise words to offer me, he just understood. Since that day, I no longer wake up every night and think about the end of my life.
    But I’m still looking for some “wise words” about this. Do you have any to offer me? –Seeker

El Camino de Santiago, Part II

On the road again

By Valeria Idakieva

[Part I, “Challenge and reward,” was published on November 24.]

It was in vain the previous night that I waited in an albergue in Pamplona for my delayed luggage – it arrived at 9:30 the next morning, which meant a late start for the day. At the sight of my backpack I breathed a sigh of relief, but one more surprise was in store for me. Not only was my luggage delayed but also my backpack was torn. Not surprisingly, I was furious. Still, I decided not to contact the airport any more. If I had tried to make a complaint, it would have cost me time, money, and emotions to go back to the airport and deal with the matter – and spoiled my Camino. So I resorted to saying “nice” things about the airline in a low voice.

Substantially right and wrong

A personal update

By Geoffrey Dean

Back in October I had been amused to hear my uncle, who owns a home in the nation’s most affluent zip code, characterize what I consider to be our very modest property in Salt Lake City as “a substantial piece of land.” I have since thought often about his assessment, and at times I have been inclined to agree with it. One such was following an early December day of unabated snowfall. Watching my neighbor with his snow shovel, conscientiously clearing a foot of snow from the “substantial” length of sidewalk on his corner lot, opposite ours, I had a terrible thought – what if his were not merely an act of good conscience, but actually one mandated by the city?

Growing Up in America

Cultural assimilation in Cleveland

By Rolf Dumke

[Links to previously published installments appear at the bottom.]

Linwood Avenue was unusual for many reasons. It was a lengthy street, running east from busy East 55th Street to East 65th, where the street stopped and skipped horizontally up to continue on another traverse parallel to the old segment of Linwood, and then stopped and skipped again. Linwood seemed undecided about its destination, a perturbing idea, presaging an uncertain future for many of its residents.

Did you do anything sexily spiritual at 12 last night?

Peggy Payne on that sort of thing

Noted by Morris Dean

With novelist Peggy Payne’s kind permission, we recommend her article, “The Sexy Spirituality of New Year’s Traditions,” published yesterday on her blog, Novels of Sex & Spirituality. Excerpt: