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Fear and Loathing in Hollywoodland by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Drugs and Alcohol

/ Stories

I usually begin my day with a cup of coffee and a microdose of psilocybin. A microdose is defined as 80 micrograms of the carefully grown and prepared mushroom. I also take a dropper full of lion’s mane, a mushroom that, like psilocybin, has restorative properties in the cognitive realm. Eighty micrograms is a holistic…
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From Yo Yo’s Hand to Johann’s Ear by
100
(170 Stories)

/ Stories

A soft, blue velvet regaled The Los Angeles night. The concentric circles of the Hollywood Bowl’s procenium glowed with a warm, eggshell white. White-jacketed waiters served last suppers on trays and scuttled away. Onstage, two microphones bracketed a single, straight-backed chair. Without announcement, a man in white tie and tails walked from stage right, carrying…
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The magic’s in the music…* by
100
(170 Stories)

/ Stories

I’m not much for magic, although I love “believing” the magician, probably out of sympathy for the performer. I don’t try to figure out his or her tricks, and I don’t feel cheated. I tried to watch Guillermo Del Toro’s adaption of Nightmare Alley, an epic novel about the rise and fall from grace of…
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The Great Arkansas Freeze Plug Blow Out by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Car Trouble

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I smelled the rubbery stink of an overheated engine.
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The Two Sisters of Antofagasta by
100
(170 Stories)

/ Stories

Antofagasta is a northern port city in Chile.
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Men in Suits by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Broadcast News

/ Stories

The Brown family, a farming family with roots in the American Revolution, invited my family to watch the McCarthy hearings on television. We didn’t have a TV and, like most of the established families in our little Massachusetts town, the Browns wanted us to know they didn’t like Joe McCarthy and his witch hunt one…
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Why do I write? by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Why We Write

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I write to change the world. Why do I want to change the world? Because it needs it.
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Lost in Translation by
100
(170 Stories)

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Please note that the word "justice" never appears in this broadside.
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Conversations with my old man by
100
(170 Stories)

/ Stories

He never talked to me about girls or women or sex or marriage...
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Busting a Banned-Book Barbecue by
100
(170 Stories)

Prompted By Banned Books

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It was a cool gig, for sure.
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