#tbt: Five Lessons Grosse Pointe Blank Will Teach You About Attending Your Ten Year Reunion
Aug15

#tbt: Five Lessons Grosse Pointe Blank Will Teach You About Attending Your Ten Year Reunion

Tony Soprano was a professional killer, but he was also just a man with anxiety issues, and who dealt with said issues by visiting weekly with a therapist. Since Tony was a mobster first and a person second, the therapy sessions on The Sopranos were just a device—what we really wanted was to see the inner-workings of a killer, so having him, say, write in a diary would have been just as effective. Conversely, Martin Blank is a man...

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What Happens When People Stop Being Polite
Aug05

What Happens When People Stop Being Polite

  During the Trayvon Martin trial, one of the (many) points of debate brought up by the American public, if not by the attorneys themselves, was who exactly Trayvon Martin was. Conservatives argued that he was a large and intimidating presence, 6’2”, 175 lbs., covered in tattoos, a thug who spent his free time flipping off his webcam. Liberals countered that in fact Trayvon Martin was a skinny kid, 158 lbs., 5’11”, a child who...

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To Be Clear: In Praise of Reza Aslan
Jul30

To Be Clear: In Praise of Reza Aslan

  “Ma’am, you may not have heard of me,” Reza Aslan told Fox News reporter Lauren Green on the internet show Spirited Debate, “but I’m actually a fairly prominent Muslim thinker in the United States.” Well, that’s an understatement. Aslan is not only a “fairly prominent” Muslim thinker but arguably the most widely- and well-respected religious scholar we have. Thinker being the operative word, because Aslan is neither a...

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Surprisingly More Perks than One Might Have Expected
Jul29

Surprisingly More Perks than One Might Have Expected

Consider one scene in particular, the way it’s portrayed in the book and the 2012 cinematic adaption. Charlie (Logan Lerman), Sam (Emma Watson), and Patrick (Ezra Miller) leave a party one night, in the first blush of friendship. The trio drives around aimlessly, as teenagers are wont to do, and as they approach a tunnel, a song pops on the radio. None of the three of them have ever heard it, but are instantly smitten with how it...

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Disneyland
Jul25

Disneyland

Oh it’s the week of Ted McLoof.  We’ve been fortunate enough to have some back logged short stories of his.  Hope you enjoy.  This one was originally posted in Gertrude, Spring 2011.    Disneyland By, Ted McLoof When I was sixteen I still hadn’t grown breasts, but I had already fallen in love for the first time. Beneath that flat chest beat a heart to be reckoned with, and Penny, the girl I’d fallen for, was hell-bent...

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The Second Person
Jul24

The Second Person

Resident author and brilliant wordsmith Ted Mcloof gives yet another published short story.  This one originally appeared in Hobart, November 2011 http://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/the-second-person.  But it’s just as good today as it was then.  Enjoy. The Second Person By, Ted McLoof You are a good-looking man. You know this because people tell you all the time, sometimes out of nowhere. You assume that people don’t get...

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