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Monthly Archives: August 2002

Tomatoes

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

I generally don’t mind eating tomatoes much – in salads, in sandwiches, on pizza. In moderation, I find tomatoes inoffensive. I understand, of course, that people have different tastes – I don’t begrudge you your tomato.
A couple of days ago I read this:
The Jer Zone – “Cherry, grape, pear…whatever they are, the small [...]

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Hardly a Fragment

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

The sky is still the same blue it’s been since the morning, but the sun is low in the west. The next part of the day that I have a name for is dusk. It’s pre-dusk, I guess. One would expect long shadows, but there aren’t any. Streaks of yellow-tinted light [...]

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Taken Out of Context

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

“My clutching a notebook while searching for the perfect one-liner will be a comfortable distraction from what might result in my feeling something, which is never my first choice.”
-David Rakoff, Fraud

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Unnerved

Sunday, August 25, 2002

I find it unnerving to suddenly remember that my childhood teddy bear had a butt-crack. The bear’s white fur got dirty pretty early on. And I remember prying apart the little butt-crack and noticing that the fur in there was pristine, clean and white.
I don’t remember the bear’s name, but I remember its [...]

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The Doorknob

Saturday, August 24, 2002

We walked down the hall to my apartment door. There was an unspoken anxiety in the air and I was hyper-conscious of every move I made. I slipped my key into my apartment’s doorknob, wiggling it a couple of times before getting the key to turn. The lock to my apartment door [...]

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Greetings

Thursday, August 22, 2002

Joe: Browsing blogs, I’m surprised to stumble across a page by my old roommate Joe. So I send send him a quick email.
Robert: He’s pacing around the park while I walk past. We notice each other and adjust our directions so that our paths will converge. I ask, as I [...]

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Drenched

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

I was sitting outside the cafe, reading, soaking in caffeine and sunlight. My head was finally clearing of the noxious effects of carpet cleaner fumes.
The air was thick, vaguely muggy. The horizon was hazy.
I thought I could smell the construction two blocks away, even though I was upwind. A week ago Olive [...]

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Crossed Paths

Friday, August 16, 2002

“Is your name Jeff?”
“Yes.” I looked at my questioner’s face and tried to match it to an acquaintance’s.
“Your last name is Sharman?”
“Yes.” I felt disarmed for a moment and studied the face behind the beard. Just before he said it out loud, the name of a high school classmate surfaced in my [...]

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Missing Seals, Beached Jellyfish

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Down at the piers, looking out at the water (like always). Actually no, looking down at the water. Looking at a jellyfish, mindless. My eyes follow two grey masses beneath the water. They come from under the pier, move out into the water without breaking the surface. I flinch, and [...]

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The Crowd

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Walking up past a big hotel, I have to maneuver around a couple of dozen people lined up on both sides of the exit end of the hotel’s little horseshoe driveway. The crowd could be categorized as a minor throng. I crane my head over to the driveway – there’s some activity among [...]

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