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A Dystopia of Respiratory Crimes: The sneeze prison
By Didi Gorman ** Author’s note: The following piece was written as an imaginary dystopia. The morbid humor is not meant to offend but to make us think. **The other inmate was staring at me with mild interest as the officer pushed me into the poorly-lit cell, my hands cuffed behind my back, the cold metal pressing against my wrists.“What’ya in for, sistah?” [...]
More Musings by a Serious Book Guzzler: Reading two novels, back to back, by the same author
By Didi GormanA new COVID lockdown is upon us, my fellow book lovers, and public libraries, our sanctuaries, are about to close down again. No sooner was the edict made than I skedaddled to our local library, ready to assail its shelves.Too late. When I got there, orange cordons were blocking off access to the aisles.No browsing until further notice. Alas!Luckily, [...]
Quick and Easy Tomato Soup
By Didi Gorman Our soup today is ideal for busy people. We’re going to take a few shortcuts which will save us a lot of time: We’ll use some frozen vegetables and dried herbs instead of fresh ones, and the result is going to be just as delectable.Preps: 20 minutes (cook time: 50 minutes) Makes: 1 large potYou will need:3 [...]
Musings by a Serious Book Guzzler: Which factors make a fiction novel a page-turner?
By Didi Gorman Fellow bookworms, today we have an important issue before us: Fiction! Like many bibliophiles out there during these frequent lockdowns, I’ve been gobbling quite a few novels in the past few months, a task I have performed ardently – from the comfort of my couch and at the expense of many a good night’s rest, and even (alas!) at [...]
The Sleepover
By Didi GormanIt’s 9:52 p.m. The phone is ringing.An apologetic voice on the other side of the line: “Oh, hi, I’m so sorry if I woke you up, but little Cody wants to go home. He’s right beside me now, so here, I’ll let you speak to him.”You knew it. You knew it the moment you dropped him off for the [...]
Gone too Soon
By Didi GormanIn the past few years, you’ve become part of my life; you, my precious little companion.But this morning, when I came to check up on you – as I have been doing every morning since the day you entered my life – you didn’t wake up. I tapped my fingers on you, as I always have, and lifted [...]
Who’s that behind the Mask?
By Didi GormanI don a mask and a winter hat and head to the grocery store. Only my eyes are visible in-between those face coverings.While at the grocery store, I run into two colleagues of mine and we chat about work (and about our children and politics and gardening). After we part ways, I hear one of them asking the other, [...]
The Cellphone Trade-In
By Didi GormanOh, hey, long time no see! Funny running into you like this, just as you were about to cross the street. How’ve you been?Really? You’ve just started a new job? That’s exciting! In what field, if I may ask?A cellphone store? What a coincidence! I traded-in my old phone the other day for this impressive new model, and it [...]
There’s More to Folks than Meets the Eye: The Price of Thinking in Simplistic Terms
By Didi GormanMany of us have a tendency to make all sorts of assumptions about other people. Often though, those assumptions are wrong. Then we realize the person is different from the image we’ve had of them, and we find ourselves disconcerted by this discrepancy.My premise in this essay is that all too often, we draw conclusions about other people [...]
My Green Onion Therapy
By Didi GormanI’ve recently discovered an easy and non-expensive stress-reducing technique. It’s called ‘green onion therapy’. No need to cringe. It’s a tried-and-true-ish method which I had tested on my own person, and I can (almost) safely say that it kind of works somehow!By the way, did you know that plant cultivating is a soothing activity that has a restorative effect on [...]