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“Oh, Indeed”: What The Wire Taught Me About Poem Endings

Disclaimer: For those who haven’t experienced David Simon’s HBO series The Wire, you should probably tune out now and hit up your Netflix. Same thing goes to those Wire fans who haven’t finished Season Four. I don’t want to spoil the narrative arc of the season for you. * In my vision, Michael Lee is…

The Blue Flower cover and The Beginning of Spring cover

Sh*t My Mom Says: Women, Men, and Humor

Ellen, Rosanne, Whoopi, Tina.  They’re women, they tell jokes, and we’re on a first-name basis.  These comedians have imposing brains but often focus on their thighs: they write frequently about their relationship with food, this being one theme that connects them.  On the popular NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon is known…

a red colored pencil against a white background

Red Pens and Other Ego-Paring Tools

In “Dr. Deneau’s Punishment,” one of eleven excellent short stories in Lori Ostlund’s Flannery O’Connor award-winning collection The Bigness of the World, the title character despairs over the current trend in American schools to reward students for their mediocrity.  Under the new regime of the militantly optimistic, the red pen is suspect, likewise the honest…