e c l e c t i c a
n o n f i c t i o n
e c l e c t i c a
n o n f i c t i o n
While pondering Becky's communiqués, I rocked back and forth on whether it made sense to give money to someone I didn't know, who was pulling the reins of my emotional chariot. If she were a distant relative, so what? Because we might actually have no ancestors in common, shouldn't I regard her like a random raggedy on the street stopping me with a tale of need? I already donated plenty, to our local food bank and ambulance fund as well as to national social service and environmental causes.
Marcia Yudkin
The Mystery of the Parking Lot Doll Hair
Some weeks I find a braid with not a single strand out of place, as if the entire plait got beheaded in one brisk yank from its plastic dome. Other times there's a messy clump, as if the whole thing became worn from too much tending and eventually got torn loose from an overzealous comber's one too many pulls of the hairbrush.
Randi Stern
Actually, though, alcohol prevents memories from forming in the first place, blocking the processes that convert short-term memories into long-term ones. So, when you can't remember something after a night of drinking, it's not because the alcohol destroyed that memory; it never existed. This is most noticeable in cases of full blackouts, but even moderate levels of intoxication can cause what psychologist R. S. Ryback labels "cocktail party memory deficits." At that level, you can recall the overall play-by-play, but try remembering a specific line of conversation and you might find yourself drawing a blank.
J.P. Burns
I Wonder
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)
The plastic tubes running between me and my hanging IV bags are four feet long. Everywhere I go, the tubes, the bags, the rack-on-wheels, go with me. If I stray farther than four feet from my bags—which I don't—the tubes would yank out of my chest. I learn really quickly to be aware of where my tubes and I are in relation to each other at all times.
Eve Goldberg
