Selling Yourself Down the River

The path to salvation is paved with pre-made, frozen lunches. Right? With thriftiness. With thinking ahead. It took a long time for me to recognize these notions as middle class mantras. You repeat them enough, you realize they are nonsense. There is no protection from the future. I suspect that if I copy enough vocabulary […]

Practice

Everyone in a bar is supposed to look at least a little jovial. Isn’t what’s on that TV fascinating? Aren’t you perfectly okay with how your friend is saying that same thing that always hurts your feelings? Isn’t it totally okay with you that your boyfriend is late, and you’ve been sitting there alone forever, […]

Eulogy for No Child Left Behind

Although no one seemed to pay it much attention, seeing as how the economy continues to behave like a two-year-old without a nap, No Child Left Behind died on August 8, 2011. After nine years of causing teachers and administrators great heartache, the federal powers that be quietly said, “Our bad,” and went back into […]

Full Stop

I had to pull over my car and yell at my friend last night. We had been talking politics. “I can’t talk about this anymore!” He looked at me. “I’m too upset!” Normally, I would have clammed up, had a glass of wine, and nursed my little resentment until the next time I saw him– […]