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Five in Five: Wednesday, January 31
1. Needing to choose a topic for a research paper in English class, Paco asks for ideas. It’s not so much that he will accept any of our ideas but more that he needs to go through the process of hearing and discarding them so that he can feel increasingly certain the topic he already…
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Five in Five: Tuesday, January 30
Watching a Nova documentary about the ruins of Petra in Jordan reminded me that my idea of heaven, if I get to write that script, is this: for all of eternity, I will be reclining a third of the way back in a movie theater, a naturally refilling Large popcorn on my lap, watching reels…
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Five in Five: Monday, January 29
1. For the past five years (I think?), I’ve been on the Board of Directors for our local public television station. What I’ve proven really good at so far is people-watching during the meetings. About six months ago, the station hired a new general manager, and she’s great — bringing energy and vision to an…
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Five in Five: Sunday, January 28
Last night we turned on PBS, and there on Austin City Limits was Run the Jewels, mics in hand. Turning to Byron, I laughed, “Wow. In about thirty seconds, we’re going to hear the words ‘bag of dicks’ for the first time ever on public television. Do not tell the Dowager Countess!” Discreetly, the broadcasters opted…
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Five in Five: Saturday, January 27
I was walking along today, listening to the Atlanta Monster podcast, when I peeped over my shoulder and was startled by a creeper on the path. Seeking to defuse the threat of him, I married him 18+ years earlier and fell in lockstep with his gait; Atlanta Monster is a podcast exploring the murders of…
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Five in Five: Friday, January 26
I used a facial mask the other day — since every last thing on me is properly dry and flaky now that it’s January. I had no idea what Resveratrol means, but based on the picture on the packaging, it seemed to me “Resveratrol” meant “red wine,” so after pulling the mask out, I sucked…
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Five in Five: Thursday, January 25
The best thing in Paco’s freshman year of high school so far has been making the cut for the robotics team. Each day, he has practice for a couple hours after school, and during “build” season (the 6.5 weeks when that year’s robot is designed and fabricated before it must be “sealed”), the hours are…
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Five in Five: Wednesday, January 24
It occurred to me the other day that I’ve been menstruating for nigh on 40 years, and my first reaction was: HEY, LOOK, I CAN DO A THING! My friend Ellen has started a newsletter; when she asked if she could interview me, my answer was “Hell, yes” followed a couple days later by “HEY,…
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Five in Five: Tuesday, January 23
In an effort to get myself writing — writing anything — I’m going to try to type every day: five minutes of freewriting and brain dump followed by five minutes of cleaning up the dump. The results will be random, but at least I’ll be making myself get words out. I have no idea how…
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Po’ Boy
Chin merging into neck, the guy sharing our table is persistently friendly, hail-fellow-well-met-ing his way through the world. In what feels like a bold wardrobe choice for a white suburban middle-ager, he’s wearing orange — but then again so were clusters of people around us during the long wait to get into the Parkway Tavern, home…
