magazine weekly blogs folks about
An archeology of living people

Friday, August 9, 2013

Rollin' In Dough



The neighborhood bakery was closed, yet at the front door sat a table with two baskets, one loaded with goodies wrapped in white paper bags, the other with slender envelopes. A casually dressed man stopped, picked out a bag listing the baked good it contained and the price, took out his wallet, slipped money into an envelope, dropped the envelope through the mail slot, and left with his treat. It’s called the honor system.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Invisible Birds


A man walking along the sidewalk was stopped by a clamor above him. Staring up into the tree branches, where a deafening blast of bird chatter sounded, the man strained to see what was the deal, but could see nothing other than the dense leaves. Just then, a jogger came pounding past, and, without looking up or to the side, the jogger quipped, “There’s a few of them up there, yah think?”

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

That's Ur Job



A vagrant sitting on the sidewalk nodded and said to a man passing by, “Have a good one.”

“You too,” the man replied.

“I already did,” said the vagrant, “that’s ur job.”

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Speed Street...

A street runs steeply down the lower piedmont of Mt. Tabor, the road gracefully marked with a dotted yellow line down the middle, the line suggesting speed, speed, speed, as if too excited by the sharp incline to police traffic. A few cars trickle past at a reasonable pace, and then, for a time, the street is empty and the sun shines. Out of the blue, a young man appears at the top of the hill and comes shooting down on a longboard, knees bent, crouching low, shirt off, hair blowing back in the rushing air.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Ballistic Bird

Houseguests at the shore were accosted by a ballistic gull, which strategically positioned itself on the railing directly in front of the open door, and barked. Over and over, the gull screamed, scraps, scraps, scraps! Like a thing from hell, it persisted. Scraaaaps!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Seeing the Light


In a resort hotel room, a man noticed that a light bulb had burned out, and contacted the maid. The maid showed up, nodded, made a call, said it would be taken care of, and left, never to return. When no bulb showed up either, the man felt a strange sense of peace, sitting on the couch, looking at the sky from the dark room.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mystery Date

During a conference near Disney World, a woman met a fellow tradesperson, a man. The man introduced himself as a devote Christian and asked if he could take the woman to Disneyland. She declined, skeptical as to just which magic kingdom he had in mind.