Her nose had been broken once, and perfectly. By everyone’s measure, Cidaris Musz is the most beautiful creature to matriculate Caliyuga University since its conception, buried deep in our colonial past. Her looks may be characterized in many ways but never accurately or consistently described by anyone. She looks different to every camera. The problem of…
AGENCY CREATIVE BRIEFING
Tate Shelby’s lieutenant, the talented Lanville Hardge, is handling the dull parts. But the meeting belongs to Shelby. Hopefully, everything will be dull parts unless Ambien gets a bug up his ass as he usually will. Especially on a project this big, this secret, this… well, Morris Ambien will certainly knicker-knit on this one, controversy-wise.…
THE TWELVE STEPS OF CHRISTMAS
A Christmas Carole i After a decade and two years without a drink, Harry Partridge awoke thirsty. On this morning, the dawn of his 50th birthday, he drove Moira to the train and returned to his quiet house and chose this time to reinforce his coffee with the simple, clarifying taste of Irish whiskey. A “Little…
ANOMALY FARMS
“There’s the heavenbird,” my colleague, Professor Anton Fogarty exclaimed, his voice a funny croak through his throat mike, excitedly pointing to a glowing mass visible amidst the metallic branches six miles up in the early evening sky. “Oooh, and look!” he continued, in our noise-canceling headphones. “A solaris!” The darkness high above acquired a shape,…
QUARANTINE ISLAND
PART ONE: QUARANTINE ISLAND “You ain’t going anywhere, today. We ain’t.” “Why’s that?” “There’s no flights going to New York.” “Newark, then?” “Nix, man. No place. No where. No York, No Newark. No Wark. No… Body.” I shifted to the other desk. “What about you?” Still no. I ventured over to HeronAir. “You guys going?”…
SELF-INFLICTED WORLD
Three new moon lets and everybody apprehensive and talking, sparking conversations with perfect strangers, the intimacy of the truly novel. The weather is a peculiar hot. The sun presses on you and it's like the air is boiling into existence, transitioning from a hot organic broth into a gas still too hot to be actually…
THE SILICON CEILING
CLASSIFIED REMARKS OF OUTGOING IBM CHAIRMANIt should perhaps surprise no one, in reference to these thinking machines that we have developed over the long decades since the Second World War, that we at IBM feel we’ve earned a very special, almost parental affinity and responsibility for our charges. I don’t think it unfair to say…
A THANK-YOU FROM YOUR NEW FRIENDS AT BMAIL
SUBJECT: A THANK-YOU FROM YOUR NEW FRIENDS AT BMAIL newfriends@bmail.com 1823 Friday (3 hours ago) Dear Reader, You will find an Amazon credit of $100,000 for your recent exploit with the laser as well as an offer to find out important information about people you know and work with. Maybe you can buy fun rifle…
ALWAYS A GHETTO SOMEWHERE
The cost of a habit is something never properly assessed. On the one hand, smoking undeniably produces some undesirable effects. On the other hand, so does fornication. And, for that matter, so does overeating, which nicotine affects to inhibit. Now, how many of us suffer a diabetes tobacco might have forestalled? Thus reasoning, tobacco found…
Alarm clock. 5:30. Pop's in town. That means dinner at the latest, hottest new place. Tonight. Some Balkan joint I've never heard of. With his latest arm confection, no doubt. Shower: Uneventful. Too anxious to engage in "The Thinking Man's Television." Bathroom Scale: Too much. It's the damned biz-dev job. No time…
SELF-INFLICTED WORLD 