Category: Uncategorized
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AXES AND MURDERERS
The first time we lived in Manhattan, my husband and I made friends with an elderly gentleman who told everyone he was looking out for us. When we first moved to NYC, a friend of a friend told us we should meet Bennie and scribbled his telephone number on a card with his name. “Don’t…
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THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS
The news is filled with gossip on the impending Bezos and Sanchez wedding. I am reminded that in the mid 2000s, a friend was contracted to write a book about the starter marriage trend. Every time we talked, she would tell me how the interviews were going. Thousands of men and women volunteered for the…
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FORGETTING IT’S A MAN’S WORLD
Sometimes, I forget what a f*&ked up, paranoid, white, straight man’s world my husband deals with most days, mostly because I am way too busy dealing with the f*@ked up world most women have to deal with. My husband’s a teacher and a lifelong public servant, so his time is spent writing lectures, grading papers,…
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DOG WHEN MOVING
The first time we put our house up for sale, we put a large part of our belongings in a storage cube on our driveway, The response from our Golden Pyrenees, Sheldon Buttercup, was immediate. He’s a shelter dog abandoned several times, so I knew what he was thinking when he started shaking, drooling, and…
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THE BIG HOT POTATO: OPIOIDS
I had oral surgery many years ago by an excellent crack squad army of professional surgeons. The lead doctor, a first-generation American-born citizen, was very proud of his family of immigrants who moved to Raleigh many years ago. Perhaps you have been in this situation: the point, before the surgery, when the doctor explains how…
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MANIPULATION
When I teach composition at the college level, I tell my students on the first day: “If you have failed this course once, stay after class so you can make an appointment with me.” I hold office hours every day after all my classes for all my students. I give all my students 20 minutes…
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FAKE FAMILY PHOTOS
On the first day of class, I give my students the same direction: “This is the hand signal. [I show them a hand signal] When you see it, quietly gather your belongings and leave the room.” One time, when I saw a student having emotional problems, I used it. After the other students left the…
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VOCABULARY
Defense Lawyer, Alan Jackson: “Was the defendant gesticulating?” Katie McLaughlin, a firefighter and paramedic: “I don’t know what that means?” Alan Jackson: “Gesticulating?” McLaughlin: “Yes. I don’t know what that means.” Alan Jackson: “Was the defendant waving her arms?” __Testimony during the re-trial of Karen Read, Mass. vs. Read, May 2025. I was fortunate. The…
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CLASS ANXIETY
My MFA graduation lecture at Bennington College was titled “Class Anxiety in Literature and Writing.” This morning, I was reminded that I am a creature of habit. Before we bought our current home, we rented a small house nearby. On most early mornings, you could see me on my lawn, fussing with plants and the…
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ICEBERGS
I think this iceberg image is a fine way to understand people and characters. After many years, for instance, I am reading a book written by someone whose ideas I still value, but nonetheless, he is an asshole, who years ago chose someone, allowed her to jump the velvet rope, because she gave him so…
Mary Louise Penaz 