I wanted to write a new story but I didn’t know what to write. Once I had my specific audience in mind, though, all it took was a few minutes of relative quiet and a few rows of knitting, to get the ideas forming in my brain. The problem now, is not so much getting… Continue reading Barbarians At The Gate
Category: 100Words.com
Love
Round, frozen, hard, white. Watery now, shedding your ice. Patting, drying, there-there. (Heating butter, adding garlic, a dash of oil.) Take a teriyaki bath, there you go. Scrubba dubba. Time to come out now! Lift you, Sea Scallops, gently out of your tub. Thrust you into the searing, flashing, firework pan. Scorch your edges. Throw… Continue reading Love
Snow Delay
[audio:http://www.julieduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/snowdelay.mp3|titles=Snow Delay] Snow delay for the kids today. It was barely worth it for a dusting. There was no policy for this when I grew up. Here, now, everyone knows that a delay means the day starts two hours late, A snow day means everything is canceled but work. Growing up, there was just snow,… Continue reading Snow Delay
Back In The 1980s, Kids…
[audio:http://www.julieduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/legwarmers.mp3|titles=Legwarmers] Yesterday I bent down and slid legwarmers over my feet for the first time since 1985. Instantly, I was 13 again; in my bedroom in my parents’ house, faintly worried. Will I look stupid? Is my hair right? Will he notice me? Where’s my electric-blue eyeliner? But these were a modest brown, not the… Continue reading Back In The 1980s, Kids…
The Crazy Uncle
Every family has the crazy uncle, right? I had two. One related by inclination, the other by marriage. Growing up I saw one almost every weekend, the other much less often. I miss them both. One was witty and daft and completely off the wall; kind and generous and possibly quite brilliant; more like my… Continue reading The Crazy Uncle
Conflicted
I want a fresh start. Isn’t that what the New Year is supposed to be all about? But it’s not. It’s half way through the school year. It’s a third of the way into a work commitment. It’s almost seven years into one son’s life, five for the other. It’s us on the way to… Continue reading Conflicted
Where’s My Vertiport?!
At the Helicopter Museum today, saw a diorama all about ‘vertiports’ and how, in The Future helicopters would ferry everyone from the city out to the airports or nearby cities. The skyline behind the artist’s rendering of the Heliport was New York pre-Twin-Towers. So where’s my vertiport? Where’s my hover car? And where the hell… Continue reading Where’s My Vertiport?!
Happy New Year At Last
So here we are on a cold and mercilessly bright New Year’s morning. I kind of hate New Year’s Eve, but as soon as midnight rolls around I have the happy, fresh-slate feeling that comes as a surprise every time. I’m always very pessimistic, fatalistic, on Hogmanay, which is not like me. But maybe I’m… Continue reading Happy New Year At Last
Mother Of The Year
Stop hitting people, stop touching them as you walk by, don’t barge between them, don’t swing your lunchbox. Sit still. Use your knife and fork. Put your fork in the proper hand. Use your napkin not your sleeve! Sit up, sit down, don’t talk with your mouth full. Stop saying “no” before I’ve even finished… Continue reading Mother Of The Year
“I Bin Sayin’ It. I Bin Sayin’ It All Along…”
I’ve been saying it all along. I watched a clip on YouTube pirated from a DVD I own. The uploader added music, turned it into something new and wonderful. And that’s a breach of copyright on two fronts (derivative work and stealing music). But it made me so happy that I immediately loaded up iTunes… Continue reading “I Bin Sayin’ It. I Bin Sayin’ It All Along…”