Story
Guy Walks into a Bar circa 1997, Hollywood
Karen Lillis
So this guy walks into the bar last Thursday, and he sorta “lets it slip” that he’s Lawnchair Larry. This older guy, you know? He says it to me right before I’m gonna tell him what he owes me for a light draft. I...
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Story
The Battle of Skinner Butte
Ray Jicha
Moving north from San Francisco I slept on the beach near Arcata then made my way to Eugene where I got dropped off around 10:00 p.m. I found a little downtown bar, ordered a draft to pay for the stool and washed down t...
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Evergreen
How to Stop Smoking in Nineteen-thousand-two-hundred-and-eighty-seven Seconds, Usama
Chavisa Woods
I asked no questions about anything. i just wanted to smoke cigarettes. Lots and lots of cigarettes.
I come back once a year to visit. I only stay a few days. I try not to ask too many questions. There’s noth...
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Story
If You Play and If You Die
Jim Feast
Artemis Brewster owned a large retail store in New Jersey, the Bargain Toy Mart (Toys for Less!) And he loved science fiction as much as what he sold. But his was not the doting, immature love of the geeky fanboy, it was...
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Story
If You’re So Special, Why Aren’t You Dead?
Jim Greer
Alphonse samson stood before the mirror in his bathroom for a long time before deciding to. The mirror had no frame but its edges were beveled and the soft light from the neighbor’s bright room shining through a small squa...
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Story
Pardon My French
Thaddeus Rutkowski
When i arrived in paris by train, I tried to place a call to a friend, someone I knew from my home city. Surprisingly, there was a phone service with a human attendant in the train station. I gave the phone woman the numb...
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Story
Medium
Jennifer Adams
The notice was small, a half-sheet of paper tucked, unauthorized, into the frame of the subway map.
“Mrs. Taylor and she says DON’T GIVE UP.”
Elizabeth leaned closer, oblivious to the discomfort she was ...
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Classics
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius – Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
I
I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia. The mirror troubled the depths of a corridor in a country house on Gaona Street in Ramos Mejia; the encyclopedia is fallaciously called Th...
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Story
Mt. Eden 1978-82
Drew Hubner
It started in a pool hall. Juan Colon had a girl friend, and so did the cop, Jimmy O’Donnelly. The problem was it was the same girl. Usually a policeman is issued whatever number comes up, but special requests can be made....
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Story
"Li’l Punks", A Screenplay
Mark Netter
It's 1977 and four upstate-New York high school students who have formed their town's first punk rock band are in NYC together for the best night of their lives. They've been brought to NYC this particular Friday night b...
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Story
Pilgrims
City of Strangers
An excerpt from a novel
I met Dupont at the Bar X, a totally anonymous-looking place with tinted windows wedged in-between a McDonald’s and a pizzeria. I might never have noticed it had it not been for the neon Bud sign i...
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Story
Fat Wallet
Díre McCain
As luck would have it, Tecate Flats turned out to be a goldmine. Throughout the duration of my addiction, I had a fortuitous knack for attracting people—more specifically, men—who not only facilitated my habit, b...
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What I Did Today, Part IV
Ron Kolm
So we’re about to be hit by hurricane Irene, alright! And, at the same time, Carl Watson spends the day in an upstate hospital with something akin to colitis – so it goes. Carl is the very person who would give both his ...
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Rich
Michael Aanavi
I’m an old time smugglin’ man,
I know just what to do.
I sell guns to the Arabs,
I sell dynamite to the Jews.
—Tim Hardin
I first met Rich soon after he and my mother started seeing each other. My mother had come f...
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