Our tax dollars buy bullying, not representation — The US of A is no longer a melting pot or even a salad bowl. Instead, rich Ol’ Uncle Sam is all about keeping our preferred colors separate — Blue rights, Red lefts, Green money dominant — while paying lip service to rainbows and equity. We Are Broken Do politicians’ parents teach them…

How to respond when the Grim Hacker invites you for drinks — R.S.V.Peeing to the Grim Hacker, aka Grimsby Hackney — Thanks for inviting me to your fantasy pre-dinner drinking session. I’ll be there toting a box of Peter Vella Cabernet Sauvignon, which per their website is “created in a light-bodied, easy-to-enjoy style with soft notes of cherry fruit and a wonderfully smooth finish.” For those without a clue,

It didn’t warp me in any meaningful way — My father was a freethinker regarding movies the way my mother was about books. He’d take me to any movie of my choice when I visited during school vacations. I remember seeing Easy Rider with him, which was released in 1969. I turned 11 in 1969. He lived in a…

Who speaks to or for the dead? — Today is Halloween! What better day to communicate with spirits? Here you’ll find how-tos and tales of ghostly social intercourse by live & faux-dead writers.🎃 Did I Dream It, Or Was It A Ghost? In this short, disoriented tale, Keith Dias finds ways to scare himself late at night. …

Do you feel ghosted, punk? — Happy Day-Before-Halloween! First up in this collection of tales — a latrine, a mansion, an antique store, a hotel, and a crosswalk walk into a New England bar. Then, real live ghosts.🎃 On Location Ghost in the Latrine — Nothing good happens in a campground bathroom, according to Mike Range, whose wife…

Is white the new orange for pumpkins? — A neighbor kid once asked if my mom was really a witch. Supposedly, another kid heard her talking to plants to make them grow. Mother found this hilarious. She gardened, and our cat often kept her company. …

A mashup of ‘The Masochism Tango’ and the NATO phonetic alphabet — A vignette in the life of two fictive golfers. If there is a hell in my future, I’ll be playing golf there. Thanks for releasing your musical poetry to the public domain, Tom Lehrer! Tom’s funny lyrics follow mine. Let’s Golf️ to the Alpha Bravo Tango I love when you Golf in the buff, Mike; Even more…

What’s Elon gonna do, toss us all off the platform? — What’s in a name? Unlike Elon, I’m not obsessed with X. If I must pay, I will not play his game. I find X useful when playing tic-tac-toe. X marks the spot, indicates a mistake, and even labels a discarded love. X is less than ideal for a social media…

A fairytale featuring Bubbles, Fizz & Nosey —