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Merkin

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Everything posted by Merkin

  1. It's a rich standalone and makes the reader work a bit, but we all need exercise. James
  2. I hope everyone is following Circumstances as it posts. I usually can't do that with a serialized story, but since it was one of Cole's I started it and of course was immediately hooked and continue to be. I'm dying to discuss it as it unfolds but of course that would spoil it for those who wait, so I will just have to hide all my thoughts and feelings, sorta like the boy in the story--oops, sorry about that. So I'll wait it out and hope I don't forget all the great things I want to say about it. Thank goodness it posts twice a week. James
  3. Ritual At Daybreak by Merkin "Do you want a cigar?" The young officer spoke in fluent English. "Do you even have a cigar?" Simon stood against the brick wall, his hands bound behind him. "Oh, yes. We keep one in this little box, just for this occasion. It is seldom requested, so this one is maybe five years old." "No cigar." "Do you have any last words?" "No, I have been shouting those for the past week." "I admire your bravado, Englishman. A pity it did not serve you when you committed your act of insanity." Simon shrugged. "Do you have any regret?" The young officer looked searchingly at his prisoner. Simon hesitated, then cleared his throat. "I regret I never learned your language. I would like to have read its poetry." "You do not speak Farsi?" The young officer was astonished. "No, not a word." "But the crime for which you have been convicted..." "I have been curious." "It was blasphemy. You were found in the middle of the riot you caused, shouting curses against our culture." "Actually I was asking directions to the market. I wanted to buy some bacon." The young officer paused for a moment. "Do you want a blindfold?"
  4. I think Blondie should offer to check under his hood. James
  5. Although I have never put a real book to that use, I have very often fought off a desire to wipe my butt on various malfunctioning electronic gizmos. James
  6. I'm enjoying it, too, Cole. But I didn't see it on IOMFATS so I'm reading it on crvboy: here James
  7. Think of all the lives you and David have touched, and helped, and changed.James Merkin
  8. That's the one. Good sleuthing, Altimexis. I must confess I've only been in Amherst a few times, years ago, but I thought the Pioneer Valley would be a lovely setting for Jesse to grow up within. It's distance from Boston will figure in a later story. Thanks to you and Cole for your kind comments. James
  9. Merkin

    Bookworm

    I'm sorry if it touched a nerve, Trab. I suppose that's one of the reasons I folded the entire series into a single short story, "Jesse's Year," and added some new elements to weave it more tightly together -- including, by the way, a revised version of this mother's conversation with Fred, hoping to give it a more comic turn. James
  10. Don't tell me poets aren't out ahead of the philosophers. This is from an April 20th 2009 posting on the Poet's Corner: How Homosexuals Can Save Civilization Perpetual rut: oh what a mixed blessing; Once it begins, it grows without lessening! It somehow controls us beyond understanding, Thanks to its urging and constant demanding. Originally intended to prolong our fine race, It seems to have increased since we've fallen from grace. Now we can barely remember our aim To control our own destiny, once sex is our game. When inserting Part A to another's Part B Our pleasure takes over without referee, And instead of tending to selective breeding We become only intent on continual seeding. Thus it behooves us, in saving the race To identify B Parts that breed no disgrace. Boy to boy bonding, girl to girl love Will insure our redemption by heaven above. And guarantee food enough, plus adequate space So our descendants (more properly paced) Will have room to grow and to find their true pair: Though this time around breeders get the ten percent share. -James Merkin
  11. I think he's speaking judiciously.
  12. Go back to bed, Colin. I hope you two are going to the Esplanade this evening to hear the Pops. James
  13. I sorta agree with Cole's point, because we are always hungry to know more. But I sorta don't agree. Flash Fiction is so effective precisely because we don't know more, and so we are forced to construct much of the story for ourselves. Thus we become participants in the creation of a story and, as Kapitano points out so effectively both by his comment above and by his story, the story we help create is subtly different for each of us. What a rush! Sometimes that can be more rewarding. James
  14. it need not be tantalizing if Kapitano is willing to write up what happens next -- even if it becomes a short story or even a long one. These two underachievers deserve more than that one flash glimpse, don't you think? James
  15. I've been away, but the flash section is always one of the first I head for, and it is always rewarding. This piece indeed holds to that standard, and I find it deliciously wry, almost a send-up of the passionate affair where hormones talk louder than words and when the hormones go off the boil it is discovered that the words are the wrong ones. The ending is wonderful, a fifteen minute reprieve from the inevitable. James
  16. Russia - Bring it all in, so we can see how to imitate it to excess and exploit even more children.
  17. Hearty hetero sex play can sometimes turn violent... James
  18. Ah, but if it is someone sharing a toothbrush with someone else, it would be worth noting. James
  19. Graeme asks a good question, James. If you set the whole of this exchange in French, how will it play for readers who cannot cope? Merkin
  20. Your poem is moving and chillingly apt, Des. I clicked the link and read the article. This proposal to give the U.S. chief executive a "kill switch" allowing him to disable the (world-wide) internet in response to a perceived case of 'cyber 9/11' demonstrates, among other wrongheadedness, the sad paranoia rife among our legislators and the bellicose thinking available to knee-jerk proponents of an imperial Fortress America. One is led to imagine two figures walking a few steps behind the U.S. president: the U.S. Air Force colonel who carries padlocked to his wrist the attache case containing the nuclear keyset, and another, somewhat less imposing personage slouching along in tattered corderoy trousers and wearing a pizza-stained Mickey Mouse hoodie. It is the official Nerd, bearing a backpack stuffed with the Deathstar Killswitch Modem. James
  21. I cannot see how any new limited "compromise" agreement as proposed by the current IWC chair to allow Japan, Norway, and Iceland to continue their unregulated commercial whaling industry would serve any conservation effort whatsoever. Except for the already allowed whale taking for subsistence purposes by indigenous peoples, whaling of any sort is an abominable practice. I should think that the people of Iceland and Norway and Japan would share our horror at this practice. James
  22. Merkin

    Bookworm

    Hi, Pipo. All good questions. What I tried to get across in the short story version of these flash episodes was that Jesse's dad is deceased, a Marine deployed abroad who never came back, and that Jesse's uncles have stepped up to give him male support within his family situation during this key year for Jesse. As to Keith, he only had a walk-on part in this story. Keith served the purpose of being Brian's first crush but, since he was a senior and a jock, perhaps never even noticed Brian who was a sophomore at the time. James
  23. Merkin

    Bookworm

    Thank you for these kind comments. I'm afraid I've lied to all of you when I said this was to be the last glimpse of Jesse. James
  24. Merkin

    Timing

    Proving once again that life can change with just a few words. Or without. Excellent flash, Kapitano. James
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