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The Term Paper Artist Curious about the state of higher education in America? Take a job churning out pages on Shakespeare, Faulkner, and the man one client called "Plah-toe."
By Nick Mamatas |
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"My Grandson, the Writer" My grandmother was the grande dame of an elite summer colony in New Hampshire; I was the brooding 18-year-old living with her.
By Bill Donahue |
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Anatomy of an Earthquake My apartment was just 100 miles from the epicenter of the Chinese disaster. Living now in a friend's car, in a tent city of refugees, I realize that even solid ground can't be taken for granted.
By Victor Paul Borg |
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Small Town Cinderella At the tiny amusement park where I worked, my costume smelled, the pirate boat had an awful driver, and the teacup ride could've taken a kid's leg off. Story Land was no Disney World.
By Meg Favreau |
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At a Crossroads I spent four years at Harvard. A year in Japan. And then two at my parents' house in Reading, Pennsylvania. An excerpt from a new illustrated book.
By Kate T. Williamson |
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Tales of a Home Shopping Employee How fake diamonds, meat by mail, and Marie Osmond turned an aspiring fiction writer into a QVC employee...and shopper.
By Meg Favreau |
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Welcome to America...You're Under Arrest As a Pakistani living in the U.S., I spent a night in jail over an unpaid speeding ticket. I was denied citizenship because of a DUI. And I was mistaken for the guy who beat me up.
By S. Abbas Raza |
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Confessions of a Community Theater Critic It's not a gig for the weak of heart. It's for the eternal optimist,
the dead-end journalist who doesn't believe in dead ends.
By John Barry |
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Acts of Confession Christian hookups, stolen sandwiches, a sexy weekend in Duluth, and the most stupid argument ever. A video essay in multiple acts.
By Dave Mondy |
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Drama and Melodrama One person tells another that they no longer want to grow old with them, and the toast pops up. Notes towards a definition of maturity.
By Alain de Botton |
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Forgive Some Sinner His father was one of the greatest sportswriters of Sports Illustrated's golden age. And then it all fell apart. Now, a son tries to make sense of his father's legacy.
By Mark Kram Jr. |
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Chasing Gauguin's Ghost The artist's critics argue that he was unpleasant and a misogynist. I don't disagree. Yet, as with a potentially dangerous lover, I followed him. To Polynesia.
By Heather Waldroup |
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Something Personal
True-life tales.
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Stadium Seating Retracing a roadtrip of my youth via Segway, I realize that much has changed (beyond the invention of the Segway).
By Karl Taro Greenfeld
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Fast Friends? There's no place like home for the holidays. Unless that home is next to a Wendy's.
By Jesse Smith
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X-Men and Suicide Girls Used to be a girl could read comics with the boys. Then the boys saw that a few X-Men had breasts.
By Meg Favreau
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The Impracticality of Poets Breaking news: Life as a poet not lucrative!!!
By Kristen Hoggatt
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Private Eye, Public Ear I thought life as a private eye was fast cars and faster women. It's ended up being a lot of sob stories.
By Steve Wilson
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Disposable My father just closed the wood mill our family owned for 50 years, and here I had him assembling a particleboard bed from IKEA.
By Meg Favreau
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A Bigger Boat I went to Cape Cod with my girlfriend. Her ex-boyfriend came, too. And so did a shark.
By Michael Trudeau
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License to Carry a Gun You might think a poetry teacher and a loaded gun would make an unlikely pair. You'd be right.
By John Skoyles
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Hustling Nakamura-san Our English-language school needed money. Nakamura-san was a salaryman looking to get lucky. A plan was hatched.
By Andrea Ronkowski
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The Breast-Laid Plans My mother told me: 'It’s about time you got some breasts.' Implants weren't a car. But, hey, she was buying.
By Jessica Allen
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Marathon Session Marathon season just got off to a rough start in Chicago. Two years ago, I started off down this 26-mile rocky road myself.
By John Barry
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Feeding People Cooking for someone is an act of optimism. We expect the guests to show up. We expect to be around long enough to burn the calories.
By Kathleen Volk Miller
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Monkey and Dog I tried to write about a monkey/dog friendship, but I just keep coming back to myself.
By Adam Eisenberg
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Tough Love My husband wants to be Rocky. But am I willing to be Adrienne?
By Rachel McCrystal
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