A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
Sean Clark slammed his hand on the desk and raced out of his office cubicle. “Shut that damn thing off.”
The man with the vacuum froze. “Yes, yes.”
Sean tapped his watch. “You’re not supposed to start until six!”
The vacuum continued to whine.
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On December 28, I returned to work, hoping to hide out in the holiday-hollowed halls of academia. No such luck. The first of the three dastardly “Ds” in my life, my ex-wife and fellow faculty member, Daphne, anticipated my strategy and beat me there. She stopped me as I reached my office door to ask if I’d decided on the song I wanted.
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by Barbara Eliasson
Nellie and Edgar Nicholson didn’t know it at the time, but their lives changed when their neighbor, Miss Mary Ryan, tripped on her hall rug and broke her hip. Miss Ryan had lived in the apartment above the Nicholsons for thirty-five years; for the last twenty, after her mother died, she lived alone. She listened to classical music, played her television softly, gave no parties, and spent the holidays with her niece. Then she fell and within two months had moved out of her apartment and into a nursing home near her niece.
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They say New Year’s Eve in New York is special. Well, this one was, that’s for sure. At least for me.
I stare down at the stained blue rug. The corpse has been wheeled out to the mortuary van, but the chalk outline of the literary critic’s tortured body remains as a creepy reminder for me and the other ten members of my writing club. The clock is striking twelve; the New Year has begun. But still — I can’t take my eyes off that outline.
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In low doses, these substances can elicit positive effects like euphoria, mild stimulation, relaxation, and a lowered sense of inhibition and anxiety. However, prolonged use can garner an array of negative consequences. In the wake of continued worldwide financial woes, use and abuse rates of drugs and alcohol are up in the United States.
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