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from the publisher
He told her do not play games with me
and she thought monopoly, scrabble, boards
unending in that cabinet at home, cards, dominoes....
~ Emily Koehn, Something to Do with All Night Classical Bowling
Returning after seven years to San Francisco at the end of 1999, I found the land of slackers gone and replaced by a world of young urban cellphone-carrying internet employees who spoke in a vocabulary of acronyms and, like Frosty the Snowman's magician, were always "busy, busy, busy." But now, severance pay and pink slip parties have replaced pre-IPO and stock options; gyms are crowded in the afternoons; and in the cafés, latte-sipping former "yuccies" ponder the merits of faraway places as they leaf through Lonely Planet travel guides.
All this is to introduce week 3 of Outsiders and Community, connected by the strand of leisure.
bowling
Emily Koehn's Something to Do with All Night Classical Bowling playfully tangles together details of life, from salt and pepper shakers in the shape of hands, to previous marriages, to the woman behind the shoe counter, to her uncle the professional bowler.
Worried about bowling alone? You'll have to wait a few more days to learn about the dangers, but you can read what Paul Tough has to say on the sport as creative inspiration.
the movies
Todd Schindler exposes the devil's food in his one act play, Le Petit Chocolat, published in an open letter to prolific correspondent and Catholic League president William Donohue.
smoking
Julia Bloch describes the pleasures of this vice in her poem titled Leisure.
bars
In Room at the Inn, Susan Parker hunts down a comfort zone amid motorcyclists, sex workers, tourists, and the blues.
self-help (and self-hatred)
Laura attends a self-help course in part two of Vera Djordjevich's short story The Jar by the Door. If you missed part one, you'll find it here.
free time?
Read about a hedgehog and bison, life in Missoula and small-town Arkansas, a sea nymph, the new religion, the city of Prague, indecisive shoppers, and Kornblatt's magnificence. View portraits from South Africa, or just indulge in our selected quotes and other ephemera.
what plans should I make for next week?
Fake lesbians will show up soon enough, along with Woody Guthrie, Albert Einstein, Tuna Helper, crying in public, the good, the bad, and the freaks.
more free time?
Send us a letter. Or send us a submission, but please, read our guidelines first. We look forward to hearing from you.
nada
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