Nov 14Slantindicular | Sound ProofIt begins when the teacher sends home a note. I am mortified to be sent home with a teacher’s note, knowing from televised situation comedies that teachers’ notes are usually bad news, with the child in enough trouble to warrant a collective “oooh” from a studio audience. There had been…Essay11 min readEssay11 min read
Sep 6Slantindicular | The Art of Sitting QuietlyAre you tired of always being the centre of attention? Does it usually fall to you to keep conversations lively at parties? Are you naturally loquacious and prone to talking to anyone in your general proximity? Are you frequently regaling fellow queue-joiners with your favourite queue anecdotes? Do you incessantly…Humor3 min readHumor3 min read
Aug 16Folderol | Masking and Social Obligations in a 21st Century Pandemic*record scratch* How Did I Get Here? crazy times lol Mask Up Scream Inside Your Heart Living Life vs. Living in Fear Let it Rip or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learn to Live with the Virus (for Everyone Else) You Do You How to be Covid-Cautious (When…Covid-1965 min readCovid-1965 min read
Jul 22To whom it may concern —I don’t know who needs this, but — This is a love letter. I mean, I guess this is a love letter. But it’s not the sort of love letter one typically thinks of when one thinks of “love letters.” It might not be Webster’s definition of “love letter.” …Love7 min readLove7 min read
Jun 24Slantindicular | The Backseat Goes Where the Front Seat GoesIt’s 11:30 on a Friday night in the summer of 1989. Most young people are out with their permed mullets and jean jackets having Swayze-fueled times of their lives. I am in the backseat of my mother’s car, with my mother sitting beside me, the front seat populated with my…Essay8 min readEssay8 min read
May 21Folderol | lurk mode activatedSo, I quit social media. Well, I finally quit the centralized social media platforms that get their kicks out of jiggling the algorithms at the expense of everyone’s mental health. Since the introduction of Web 2.0, virtually every nook of the Internet has some social component to it, so the…Social Media18 min readSocial Media18 min read
Sep 13, 2022Folderol | Apple iBookIt was during an NBC Must See TV commercial break in the autumn of 1998 when I first saw the Jeff Goldblum iMac ad. I looked up from my Packard Bell in mid-dial up connection to the America Online server and saw the dazzling Bondi blue monitor. I was smitten…Essay13 min readEssay13 min read
Sep 13, 2022Folderol | Tween Painted Ceramic TurtleAh, summertime! For kids giddily tearing out of school buildings as the chorus from Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” blared out of car windows from FM radio on the last day of classes, summer meant 10–12 weeks of blissful freedom. For single working mothers with school-age children, it meant scrambling to…Essay10 min readEssay10 min read
Sep 13, 2022Folderol | My Adventure in Mother Goose LandOne of my earliest memories is reading an oversized hardcover edition of Holly Hobbie’s Nursery Rhymes while sitting in my low, chrome-plated stroller parked in the middle of the living room. The lap-sized book had a caramel brown cover and was filled with sepia-toned illustrations of girls in bonnets and…Essay7 min readEssay7 min read
May 12, 2022s p a c e s: overnight stayAnywhere, U.S.A. c.2010 It’s check-in time at the motel we’re stopping at for the night. Where are we going? Where have we been? We don’t recall. We only know that we’ve been riding in a car for hours and now it’s time to stop and rest, our bodies jangling from…Essay33 min readEssay33 min read
