Category: Uncategorized
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KEEPING HANDS BUSY, BRAIN BUSY
I am late to the world of knitting and crocheting. After reading Sutton Foster’s memoir, “Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life,” a few months back, I found a beautifully written, moving backstory of a traumatized childhood. The Audible version is narrated by her. Foster makes crochet and knitting into art, and she uses it to…
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WRITING WILL SAVE YOU
Imagine my surprise when I attended a workshop billed as WRITER TO AGENT, with the promise that agents read your five page submission, but when the “Ask An Agent Anything” rolled around, one agent in particular told everyone that he preferred submissions that came from a referral, because that writer has put their entire faith in…
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ON PRESIDENTIAL SHAME SPIRALS
Did you hear the bar when it hit the concrete sidewalk? Trump wants Governor Walz to take responsibility for the shootings, and he won’t even call him. It’s illogical to teach young people that it’s okay not to care about others, it’s downright mean, and show’s once again, how Trump is invested in getting back…
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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…
Mary Louise Penaz 