Odysseus Wandering (How I Became a Prison Guard) By Tim Trask Here’s how it started. I’m on an overnight flight from San Francisco to Boston on January 10-11, 1969, after spending a year in the Republic of Viet Nam. There aren’t many people on the flight, but even the few…
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Boarding School Blues: Chapter 21 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 21: Inspection Desk inspection replaced morning chores the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Blanche and her classmates welcomed the shake-up in the schedule and felt confident that Madeleine’s tidying techniques would serve them well. “Girls, Sister Gerald will soon join us. We want…
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On the morning of Wednesday September 20th 1922 – the closing months of the Irish Civil War – soldiers of the Freestate army shot dead six anti-Treaty Volunteers atop Sligo’s Benbulben Mountain. How did it come about? That Irishmen, former comrades, after together winning a bloody war against the British…
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All Over America By David Daniel Was it the recent summer Olympics that put it in my mind? Or, somehow, the TV footage of the chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan? I’m not sure, but . . . does anyone remember the great high-jumping mania that once gripped the nation? All over…
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Boarding School Blues: Chapter 20 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 20: Orderliness That Friday evening in study hall, Sister Roger had special instructions. “A week from today, you will be home eating leftover turkey sandwiches and telling tales of your first weeks here – the friends you have made, the academics,…
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Spangeldorff’s Got It By David Daniel My niece is going off to college in a few days and was telling me she was approved for a new credit card. She already has two. “Is that a good idea?” I asked. She shrugged. “Sure, I guess.” It got me remembering a…
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Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin Ch. 19: Post Conference Assessment Blanche swallowed a few bites of ground beef and mashed potato while reliving the afternoon’s events. With shoulders back and chin up, she had survived the ordeal of walking around the reception hall in the bright red outfit her…
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The Lowell Review Several writers featured in Trasna (2020) have been included in a new annual publication, The Lowell Review. Copies of The Lowell Review are available for purchase, or online through Richardhowe.com. Below are selections from those Trasna pieces included in the 2021 edition with selections from 2020. We…
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Notes from a Plane By Christine O’Connor After a brief vacation in the American southwest, I jotted a few notes on the flight home: there are 16 million Mormons worldwide; the canyons had nine formations over 150 million years; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed in Zion; roadside…
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Dental Tales By David Daniel One: Music The dental hygienist wants to talk about music, which is issuing quietly from the speaker in the laptop open on the counter. The screen displays my most recent set of x-rays. But x-rays seem incidental; she’s going on about singers she likes—Nora Jones…
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