Just One Different Thing

by Randall Amster

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I awaken every day knowing that one thing will be different—one item out of place, one song lyric changed, one person here or not, one event remembered differently by others, one part of myself altered in a way that only I would notice. I’ve named this experience temporal arrhythmia because it sounds cool and smart and sciency, but I have no idea what it all really means in any tangible sense.

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Learning to Live with Fear

by Matias Travieso-Diaz

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Freedom is when one hears the bell at seven o’clock in the morning and knows it is the milkman and not the Gestapo.

– Georges Bidault

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity.

– George Carlin

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The sudden banging on the front door startled Ricardo, who was not expecting visitors that early in the morning. His first instinct was to flee, but there was no back door through which he could escape, and his two-room apartment had nowhere to hide. He approached the door and asked: “Who is it?”

“It’s the Posse! Open up!”

Ricardo opened the door and was shoved aside as four armed men wearing brown military fatigues entered and encircled him. “Are you Ricardo Trovador?” asked their leader. “Yes, I am. But…” started Ricardo.

“Mr. Trovador, you are under arrest. You have ten minutes to get dressed and contact any friends or relatives.”

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The Letter Contract of the “Civilised”

by Roukia Ali

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“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell, “1984”

Before you are to be welcomed into the ranks of us Civilised people, we ask that you review the criteria of your adherence below. Failure to abide by and/or blatant infractions committed in regards to these articles will not go unpunished. Know that in either case we are just, good, peaceful people. We weigh all matters impartially, as is the responsibility of our faculty as the supreme holders of power. Yet to ensure the order by which these operations are made possible, we hold you in writing and in action to the same regard of compliance and critical thought.

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