by Randy Shore

There’s no avoiding spit when you live with a toddler. Salivary juices can also be a problem with lisping three-year-olds, but few organisms produce the vast quantities of fluid my son Dylan discharges in the course of a typical day.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

by Andy Pierson

I bet that Van Gogh guy cut off his ear by
accident and made up that “lost love” story
so he wouldn’t look stupid.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (2)

Compiled by Travis

absquatulate
angina
bregma

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

by Ron Collins

I went out to get the mail in yesterday. For those of you who are really serious about writing, I don’t need to explain the fixation I have for the mailbox. For the rest of you, let me say that the mailbox is Mecca, the sacred totem that must be faced once daily, the bringer of all news foul, yet a comfort beyond all my ability to describe.

So you can see why I was flustered when I discovered that our recent ice storm had temporarily welded the danged thing shut with a sheet of ice as thick as a standard pencil.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

by Dennis Rice

Fifteen years ago….

I talked to the man one time. I was standing in my back yard, he in his rented yard next door. He was telling me how he painted on the Golden Gate bridge, had fallen, and was now suing that company plus just about everybody he had met and planned on meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

An essay by Kristie Escoe

Several years ago, my husband and I were newly married and fresh out of college (another way of saying dirt-poor and up to our eyeballs in student-loan debt). He had just begun his career as a junior officer in the USAF and we were stationed at our first assignment in Minot, North Dakota. Unable to bear the thought of our first Christmas away from home and family, and unable to afford airfare, we decided to drive home for the holidays.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

An essay by Robert Marcom

The heat of South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley is not to be trifled with. I moved to the Valley with my third wife (now don’t get me started on that–) and daughter.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

by Tami Coxen

Just when my life is zippity doo-dah’ing along, the reality of womanhood drops Mr. Icky in my lap.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (1)

An essay by RJ Corradino

“…but it’s in your blood, honey. You see me drink it all the time. And since the time I was three or four years old, my grandmother would have the truck come and bring four, five cases of Coke to the house. Every week.” –Christina Corradino, my grandmother

Some months ago, I awoke with a terrible headache and stiff neck. Knowing that stimulants could cause such ailments, it seemed a wise idea to skip my normal caffeine rituals that day. I had already gone a weekend without a fix, just by accident. I could go another day. For several hours, I competed with pain in my head, neck, and shoulders, along with a growing craving for a certain caramel-colored, carbonated beverage.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

An essay by Nelson Shogren

We call it “Men’s Town.” Right at noon on Friday, four of us quietly switched off our computers, watched the screens flicker and go black, and headed for the door with no intention of coming back. A few co-workers suspected that the men wearing jeans, flannel shirts, and hiking boots were outbound for adventure, and they were more than willing to let the nut-cases escape.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)