On "The Punch Line" by Jared Yates Sexton (2596 words) *****

Ostensibly a story about drugs, this piece makes the subject new again by putting it in a dentist's office and selectively dropping out details. Sexton hits the right tune here, doing, as one fiction writer once noted to me, well by not mentioning certain things better left unsaid. Sometimes the eggregious seems more eggregious when we don't have it described for us--and sometimes we don't really want to know. Read the story here at Juked.

On "One by One" by Meg Pokrass (1110 words) ****

Coming of age in a quick and bad way. That's what appears to be happening to the narrator of Pokrass's short piece here--but there's an exuberance as well. After all, it's wonderful to grow up, to be bad, before everything starts to fall apart, as it does for one's parents, one's sister, one's self. Read the story here at Juked.

On "To Be Happy" by Sean Lovelace (535 words) *****

Here's a short piece with wise advice . . . or not. Lovelace has a handle on the language to admire. He's also got a sense of zany originality. In this piece, he puts those two talents together with a little bit of suggestiveness, a little undertone of angst, and provides something that is much more than what at first seems to pop to the surface. Why do we throw things? Does it make us happier? Do we like to think on the past? Is happiness really even the point? Read the story here at Juked.

On "Virgins" by Claudia Smith (2060 words) ***

"I wasted it"--the words sting. And in a sense, they're the heart of this piece. Two girls who can share everything about each other. It's that portion of life when you're discovering for the first time, as adults. It's that portion of life when a good friend to share it with is the most wonderful thing in the world. Claudia Smith captures it well. Read the story here at Juked.

On "Are You Somebody?" by Andrew Roe (1238 words) ***

I don't know that I've read a story about a gold digger before, though the notion is one I have seen many times in film--and in the tabloids. This is gold digging with a twist, however, gold digging in the sad confines of the former celebrity. These kind of lives do fascinate, perhaps more, in some ways, than the lives of current celebrities. I love those whatever happened to stories. I don't know exactly why. Maybe it's that such a person is like someone dropping out of the sky and becoming again just like one of us nobodies. Do I see new money-making schemes afoot? Get your own former celebrity--just buy this pamphlet that shows you how. Or just read the story here at Juked.