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Read fantasy. Not much else. Mostly Tolkien.
by Ben DeVries | Jul 18, 2018 | Placeless
For a long time, my reading habits resembled a Michael Pollan polemic, if Michael Pollan had been trying to cure the Western diet with genre fiction instead of carrots: Read fantasy. Not much else. Mostly Tolkien.
Club Keno and Graphs
by Tony Ditta | Jul 17, 2018 | Placeless
A while ago my friend Ryan won three games of Club Keno in a row.
What Love Looks Like
by Cassie Westrate | Jul 15, 2018 | Michigan
I’m not always good at saying what I mean to say, so here: Mom likes to tell me how you could soothe my crying as a baby by carrying me around the house, pointing out people in picture frames, and telling me stories about them.
Jack
by Will Montei | Jul 14, 2018 | Ohio
As if knowing he was a caricature of a human, Grandpa Jack did most if not all of these things with a pipe in his mouth.
Ice Cream: A Comprehensive Guide
by Catherine Kramer | Jul 13, 2018 | Placeless
When going out for ice cream, getting an exemplary hard serve cone should be your primary goal.
Spend It Now
by Abby Zwart | Jul 12, 2018 | Placeless
This was not a lesson I knew as a kid. I wanted to save everything good for later. I ate all the cereal bits out of Lucky Charms and the raisins out of trail mix, leaving huge mouthfuls of marshmallows and M&Ms behind.
Mary, A Story about Freedom
by Elaine Schnabel | Jul 11, 2018 | Placeless
We worked side-by-side for two hours, me snatching glances to see how a septuagenarian was keeping up with me and her admitting I was “quite a worker!”
Meal With Five Strangers
by Jenna Griffin | Jul 10, 2018 | France
I am the fifth stranger here, and perhaps the strangest of them all. I am passing through this place. This will be my only night in the city, and then I will be gone.
Next Chapter
by Bart Tocci | Jul 9, 2018 | Placeless
This was where I came of age. I was born in Boston, grew up in Lexington, and came of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Goodnight, Goodbye
by Paul Menn | Jul 8, 2018 | Placeless
I’m hopeful about the future. I’ve been trying to learn from my mistakes and grow as a person. To be more dependable. To be more forgiving. To love more.
Chinese Takeout
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Jul 7, 2018 | New York
In that apartment, we started with four and ended with two because Eliza got married which is a good thing and we love her wife but it’s still kind of sad because we love her too, you know?
Bury Me Naked
by Josh deLacy | Jul 6, 2018 | Placeless
When I die, bury me naked. Or burn me. I’ll leave the choice between casket or urn to my loved ones, so long as they keep clothing out of it.
City Mouse, Country Mouse
by India Daniels | Jul 5, 2018 | Placeless
It’s a kitsch I find myself unexpectedly into. I try to keep up with the quick footwork at square dances, I voluntarily turn the radio dial to the country music station, I pronounce the names of nearby towns like the locals do.
A Grumpy Midwestern Feminist’s Dream Wedding
by Caitlin Gent | Jul 4, 2018 | Placeless
I’ve caught a bit of wedding fever. I talk a good game about not getting caught up in that sort of thing, but truthfully, that is a hot load of shit. I frickin’ love weddings.
The Joy of Pomegranates
by Meg Schmidt | Jul 3, 2018 | Placeless
I had opened up the pomegranates in the first place for the deep red, and dropped the sparkling contents onto a bed of mango and blueberries and lime.
Now Entering Grant County, Indiana
by Carolyn Muyskens | Jul 2, 2018 | Indiana
It can exist in its difficulty without any dressing up and still be deserving of love.
What Would Just Immigration Policy Look Like?
by Katerina Parsons | Jul 1, 2018 | Placeless
The solution to undocumented labor is not the deportation of laborers—it is their documentation.
This is Wrong: Teaching in the Age of School Shootings
by Spencer Cone | Jun 30, 2018 | Colorado, Florida, New Mexico
Saint John once wrote that perfect love casts out fear. I beg to differ.
Questions, Painful Questions
by Rob Nyenhuis | Jun 29, 2018 | Placeless
The sheer novelty of the experience evoked a feeling of shock, as well as a slight blush. Perhaps there was something to this “feeling pretty” thing after all.
Dignity
by Matt Coldagelli | Jun 28, 2018 | Placeless
We are incessantly inundated with tips, narratives, and guidelines for how to be sexy.
Hole Intimacy
by Brad Zwiers | Jun 27, 2018 | Placeless
We’re made to want things, to feel a deep burning ache, to pine. It’s innate to being human. We long for intimacy and connection, for a place and a people where we find peace.
Sundays Are for the Boys
by Nick Meekhof | Jun 26, 2018 | Michigan
With strength in numbers, Cadets was wildly successful at my church. And then there was our paltry GEMS organization.
Hello Again
by Jack VA | Jun 25, 2018 | Placeless
The story tells us that when God sees Adam’s loneliness, he decides to create another creature, but not an equal.
Sex Education With Ninth Graders: For Dummies
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Jun 24, 2018 | Placeless
You want to tell them what a boner is, so that if they ever come across one in an intimate environment, they know their boyfriend isn’t suddenly suffering from spontaneously protruding intestinal organs.
Squirrels, Pearls, and Makin’ Whoopie with Your Hat On
by Julia LaPlaca | Jun 23, 2018 | Placeless
For example, the medieval church declared you could not have sex on Sundays (or Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays).
Sex Ed Thank You Notes
by Paula Manni | Jun 22, 2018 | Placeless
Dear First Kiss,
Thank you for the pause and rephrase that changed your “can I kiss…” to “can we kiss?”
Let Your Yes Be OH YES!
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jun 19, 2018 | Placeless
There are a few things I thought about (as well as a few things I wish I had thought about) by the time I first had sex. Maybe a conversation about the real definition can start there.
To Be Intimate
by Ben DeVries | Jun 18, 2018 | Placeless
Or to put it another way: what happens when marriage comes to be defined by the promise of sex?
2001: A Sex Odyssey
by Tony Ditta | Jun 17, 2018 | Grand Rapids
Condoms were occasionally brought up with a scoff and a smirk. Believing that condoms were good for anything was credulity on par with believing the earth is flat.
Learning to Speak
by Andrew Knot | Jun 16, 2018 | Placeless
Weekly we repeated the words. Gender is not the same as sex.
