Todd, our hired-hand, clipped the goats’ hooves: a citified, a clean, a bit sissified boy. Left too long, they’ll prance around lame, having elf-slipper toes or tottering with high-heels like some two-bit drag queen. You’re supposed to scrub the crud and manure with a toothbrush then trim parallel with the growth rings. He took quick snips with bolt-cutters without first washing their feet. Those filthy…
Letter to the Editor of Rolling Stone Magazine, From Rabbit Foot Baker, Bluesman (by James Potter)
Dear Sir, I am not the kind of man who likes to make a stink. But I was just down at Shelly’s Porkpie Shack in Shreveport, Louisiana talking with a few folks having a high-time when I looked up and saw in one of those spindly racks behind the counter your magazine with The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. I recognized some of those…
The Minotaur by Alfred Lord-Telecom
He lay on the rock then and dreamed, not knowing if the dream was memory or the memory a dream, a dream of milk and straw and warmth and slices of sunshine in the high rafters. His early life had been a certainty of earthy smells, sounds of chewing and of tails that swished against the summer flies that came in with the sunshine. He…
Application of Jesus Christ to the Columbia Executive MBA Program by Joshua Bernstein
Looking back on it now, I think the event that inspired me the most was my crucifixion. From an early age, I was taught to comport myself modestly; after all, I come from humble origins, despite being the son of God. And yes, it’s true I was reared in a manger, although I prefer to think of it as a temporary dwelling and part of…
Summer Help by Randy Simons
were summer help. Temps. Red hats. High school heroes bound for college. They trained us to pull and stack lumber. 2×4’s and 2×6’s from the green chain. Rough cut. Heavy. Tools of our trade were rigid leather gloves and Beechnut tobacco. Payday Fridays we snuck into King’s and drank draft beer, playing darts with men twice our age. Danced with women who wore too much…