Switching Geertz
How I dismantled my kids’ enjoyment of the ‘6-7’ phenomenon By Zach HagadoneReader Staff I often pity my kids. They have a lot to deal with that I didn’t when I was their age,...
Category: Back of the Book
Bloody fingers, happy soul
By Ben OlsonReader Staff My first guitar was used more as a prop than an instrument. I convinced my parents to buy it for me when I was in sixth grade. It was a...
Make it make sense
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff A dear friend of mine recently checked in on my mental state — not because of my 45th birthday, which occurred in the past week — but because he described...
Chainsaw therapy
By Ben OlsonReader Staff “Ugh,” I sighed, slamming shut my laptop. It’s a common way to end a period of scanning national news stories. Between attempts to bypass our First Amendment rights, the president...
Summerween
By Soncirey MitchellReader Staff Never underestimate the power of a store display. As a kid, nothing ruined my summer like seeing “Back to School” in big yellow letters above shelves of pencils, notebooks and...
Breaks in memory
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff It was one of those mornings when you wake up way too early for some reason, and lay there thinking about things that you never have time to think about...
The unlikeliest of outcomes
By Ben OlsonReader Staff If you noticed some pigs flying by your living room window earlier this summer, the sun rising in the west and a fine frosty crust settling over Hell, don’t worry;...
The season of shame
By Soncirey MitchellReader Staff Anyone who’s met me knows that I’m not a summer person. The heat is one thing, but with summer also comes unattainable expectations. Everyone needs a bikini body, a new...
Major mea culpa
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff Consider this the largest “correction” the Reader has ever published — and, horror of horrors, it’s because of something the editor (me) screwed up. (True fact: Rarely anyone edits the...
Becoming (in)human
By Ben OlsonReader Staff “Operator…” “Agent…” “Help…” “Rrrgh, just let me freaking talk to somebody, you son of a…” If anyone had overhead me trying to call my internet provider’s support line over the...
