On "Coulrophobia" by Cody Walker (344 words) ***

Some people hate clowns. Some people dread them. Me, I find them amusing in a theoretical kind of way. What I mean is that, say, you mention that there is a clown at the mall. Ooo, I would say, and want to go see the clown. Then, we'd actually go. I'd see the clown, and I'd be disappointed. The clown, in reality, would fill me with apathy, although the clown in theory would be particularly interesting. More interesting to me is the person who plays the clown, the person who actually puts on the clown makeup. What's the deal with that? I wonder. Why would anyone set out to be a clown? I mean, a made-up clown, not a comedian. Walker's story (or prose poem or whatever you want to call it) takes clowns a step further. He puts them into an underground society of has beens and drunkards. The effect is at once engaging and--to those who find clowns strangely scary (you know who you are, you, who watched too many psycho killer movies growing up)--horrifying, and also sort of funny, which is sort of the point of a clown. Read the story here at Tarpaulin Sky.

On "Treatment" by Barbara DeCesare (314 words) ***

In the film Stranger Than Fiction, poor Will Ferrell discovers that his life is being made into a movie--and it's a tragedy. In my own life, as a kid, I used to pretend my doings were all being captured on television, as in that Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show. I'd go to the bathroom, and the TV station would go to commercials. I know longer think that way, knowing my life is about as exciting as watching a snail eat a leaf (or whatever a snail eats). But that my concept of life on film is not unique is evidenced by the many movies that take such an idea as their subject. And stories too. In this story by Barbara DeCesare, however, the protagonist is not the main character (or is, depending on how one reads the story), which is itself an interesting twist on the theme. Not even the main character of one's own life. These days, in the midst of all the turmoil, with forces we have little to do with crumbling our lives around us, it seems apropos. Read the story here at Tarpaulin Sky.

On "Tough Day for the Army" by John Warner (2378 words) ***

Want to rethink a word or a concept? Try putting the item into an unfamiliar context. Say, wind, inside a book, a series of letters. Or say, as Richard Brautigan does, Trout Fishing in America in any number of guises--drinking water, walks. Here's a piece that does a similar kind of thing, placing an army in a waiting room. How do the two concepts work off of one another? What does putting an army in a literal waiting room suggest about waiting armies, about armies amassed on a border waiting orders? These are the thoughts to come to mind as I read this. You can try reading it too, here, at Tarpaulin Sky.