Category: Writing
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Gun Talk—COEXIST
This morning I wrote my representatives in Congress*, remembering the words of a strident conservative who came to my book talk looking to bristle with me over guns. ‘Call them by their first name,’ he said. ‘Reminds ’em who they work for.’ He told me at the outset, ‘I’m a shade right of Scalia,’ and noted…
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This Is Why We Write
Why We Write We write not to be read. We write not because we have something to say, but because something must be said and needs our attention. We write to put down the tracks of our thought and, through this process, clarify our intent, to give form and understanding to our own inscrutable intuition.…
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May the Bird of Paradise Rest in Your Armpit
The man with the 70’s hangover—big stache, wide lapels, swooping toupee—assigned to teach my fifth grade class regularly heaped this wish upon us: ‘May the bird of paradise rest in your armpit.’ What this meant, and why it should happen to us, was never made clear. It was only, mysteriously, repeated. This was a 1982-83,…
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Stock Recovery Plan
So what if the stock market is on a rollercoaster this week? Grab some cheap thrills and laugh off your losses with a 15% savings on Patchworks, a hilarious office satire about the ordinary bureaucrats working hard for you in Washington DC. Price too steep? Check it out at the Fairfax County Public Library! Can one…
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A Borrower Be
The patient wait is over. Patchworks is now available through the Fairfax County Public Library. Reserve your copy today. Can one intern save us from ourselves, when the government he works for keeps shutting itself down? Patchworks shares a pound of absurdity for every ounce of tragedy, winking in dismay at the circumstances of our…
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The Portable Art
Unlike the stuff we writers produce, art and music seem to make no demands of those who encounter it. The artist puts it out there—hangs it on the wall, pours it through speakers—and the public responds. They see it. They hear it. They get on with their day, likely the better for having encountered these…
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Swamp Talk
Why do the murders keep happening? What are we doing to stop them? Can one earnest intern make a difference, when the government he serves keeps shutting itself down? Join the whole Patchworks crew for a bite at The Fed Buffet. Great Falls Library 9830 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA Saturday Feb 3rd, 1:30-4:00 America’s next gun…
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Writers’ Tip—Go Away!
Five weeks of surfing stretched out before me off the white beaches of northern Brazil. On the bus from Salvador to Ilheus, a teacher on summer leave, a young man with no duties, I felt the ultimate exhilaration of liberty. A peak experience, anticipating surf in the mornings and writing in the breezy shade of…
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A Tic Is Not A Style
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve observed a natural tic in my writing lately. I wish I could call it a style, but it isn’t. It isn’t something pretty. It’s a tic. If I had a tendency to do something that made my writing stand out—Raymond Carver, T.C. Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston—it would be…
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Rock Paper Scissors Shutdown
Gun violence isn’t the only systemic failure of the federal government to be yodeled at with doomed futility in Patchworks. Furloughs and government shutdowns also pepper a story full of recurring small deaths. There comes a point—moments before the plot’s big turn—when two sympathetic colleagues must choose: which of them will take a round of furloughs instead of…
Ben East Books 