Alien Nation

“I was an alien in utero somehow missed New Mexico fell to Earth in Baltimore I know” -Counting Crows, “Dislocation” Moments of relatability are so resonant because they are rare. It is hard to write about alienation without feeling like…

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Rainy Morning Notes to Self

You awake with a start, bolt upright, an I-overslept-my-job-interview panic in your pulse, but of course it’s hours too early and there’s barely any light making it through the new rectangle of blinds at an angle unfamiliar relative to your…

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M_A

I have long joked that I’m the least educated person I know. It’s not true, of course – I’ve spent most of the last decade working with college students who, by definition, have less education. And there are a few…

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How it Happens Here

It’s been a pretty appalling week for the United States of America. Which is saying something. The Trump administration has ordered ICE to arrest and incarcerate everyone attempting to cross the border and is subsequently separating children from their families,…

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For the Record

I have long joked that I live my life as though I will eventually be worthy of an archivist. This has, at times, clearly been more than a joke. And is, arguably, a fancy way of saying that I’m a…

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Futon for Sale

Futon for sale. Sturdy wood frame with small queen mattress and blue mattress cover. 80″ x 50″ when flat. 32″ high in couch mode. Used. I first encountered this futon when it was fairly new, serving as the bed in…

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Gina Haspel and the 87%

A little over a week ago, in the wake of mass outrage over the confirmation of Gina Haspel, avowed torturer as the new Director of the CIA, I asked myself a question. Then, I asked 71 of my closest friends.…

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No Cano, No Problem?

After the Buffalo Bills somehow made the playoffs on the last day of the 2017 NFL season, the dubious distinction of longest playoff drought in American professional sports fell to my beloved Seattle Mariners. In 2001, they set the record…

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For the Love of Dichotomies!

Remember The Dress? That’s the question that’s prefaced many a fluffy thinkpiece in the last 48 hours as the purported audio version of The Dress was unleashed upon the Internet: a three-second sound-clip which sounds, of all things, like either…

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