On "The Floor Champion of Foosball" by Carrie Hall (2859 words) ****

I admit it. I was first taken in by this story because of the title--specifically because of the word foosball. I'd never been much of a fan--I always preferred air hockey growing up. But when I moved to Athens half a decade ago, my friend Al and most of my other acquaintances were big into foosball, and as a result a certain adoration for the game budded within me. Sure, I'd still take air hockey or shuffleboard over the other, but the fact is that when Al and Aaron and Julien and company stopped playing, there was a small hole in my bar world.

So the story . . . Set on a psych ward in some place we don't know, the way pysch wards often are worlds unto themselves, this story manages to convey the essence of four very interesting and disturbed characters, as well as the setting itself. For our narrator, foosball is her way out--or maybe perhaps more accurately just another way for her to lord herself over the others. I can't say this piece makes me hope for the white-suited men to take me away anytime soon, but I suppose that's a good thing--you know, that I want to continue to be normal, rational, stable. . . . Read the story here.