Lana plucked a grilled cheese sandwich out of the pan and noticed she had burned one side. She dropped it onto a plate with the burned side down and carried it over to Mark at the kitchen table. “Here you go, babe.” She studied his receding hairline and thought about the night she first met him. He was prowling a Serbian nightclub, looking for an easy one-night stand, and there
Several years ago, New York Jets safety Jamal Adams told a group of Jets fans, “If I had a perfect place to die, I would die on the field.” In response, Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett tweeted, “Look football is great but I ain’t dying for this shit. Lol.” This begs the question of why so many people will gladly die for country, family, religion, politics, humanitarian ideals,
Dennis woke up lying face-first in a field at noon. His car sat twenty feet away with the driver’s door open, engine running, and headlights on. A half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels stood upright on the ground directly between him and the car, and the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” was playing on the radio. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten there, nor could he remember what he
Whatever concept an artist imagines Is a reflection of a latent form that lies within A block of marble; the hand alone, Guided by the intellect, can give it form. from Michelangelo’s Sonnet 15 The “reflection of a latent form” Michelangelo characterizes in his poem has inspired debate among artists, aesthetes, and philosophers for thousands of years, with little resolution. A procession of thinkers from Homer on have claimed that the
The man across the table glared at Howard Collins and said, “Hey, I pay your salary, dude. You have no right to hold out on me. You know damn well I’m allergic to Tramadol. I need Percocet. I’m in pain! Can’t you see that?” Howard considered the irony. He had spent several years and $140,000 on his education to secure his job as a physician assistant. Now, a homeless man
It’s easy enough to argue that revenge in its most ethical manifestation serves as a necessary form of retributive justice. Sometimes, threats and the damage done by others must be punished or eradicated through moral and physical correctives. In this regard, revenge stands as an essential survival skill for individuals and groups alike. At a subtler level, successfully prosecuted acts of revenge usually require intricate behavioral patterns that help us
