Careers Harmony wanted a career–she was just not certain what.  She graduated with a B.A. in literature, which opened no career except staying in University for a Masters, then a PhD.  Her liberal arts education was supposed to qualify her for a junior executive position.  These days, she had worked as a server, driving a…

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Stilts Herman loved living on the coast, facing the blue ocean and the breaking waves on the shore.  He was an IT CEO, in charge of a new data mining operation twenty miles away.  Ironically, as the ocean grew and the shore shrank, the data mining centre created local water shortages, needing huge amounts of…

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Fast Forwarding Max enjoyed fast forwarding—skipping through movies, books, whenever he could–looking at only the ‘good parts.’  It was the good parts he enjoyed the most.  He loved spaceships, so in science fiction films he fast forwarded and only watched the spaceships.  In books he skipped pages with too much dialogue—exposition.  (And let’s not talk…

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Caring Carl cared about caring.  He cared about his family, his work.  He also cared about society.  There was not enough caring and it seemed to grow worse every day.  Pretty much everyone could care less about caring (Carl was never sure what that meant—care less about caring or careless about caring?  It was confusing.) …

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Mental Dope Arnold knew the time had arrived come for good mental dope.  The nation, unstable, disrupted, needed it.  He needed it: the prolonged escape only solid mental dope could provide.  Recreational drugs were no longer enough–escaping reality had little appeal after you sobered up and there was reality all over again.  The nation’s new…

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Jezebel Jezebel hated her name.  Her parents told her it meant ‘Where is the Lord?’  When people called her Jezebel, they were labelling her—bad enough, but Jezebel was a faithless, immoral cheater.  The name plagued her in high school.  She disliked labels such as ‘girl’ and ‘white’ and ‘colleague,’ but labels were everywhere these days. …

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The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times It was the best of times for many, the worst of times for more.  People continued to starve even as the new President held sumptuous dinner parties.  Why did some folks starve?  The new President believed them low level cheaters, swindling the Government with food stamps to…

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Parenting They desperately needed a solution.  Having babies was a lot of work, more than Jim and his partner had realized.  They knew but here was reality.  However, the baby part, sleepless though it was, was a piece o cake compared with toddlerhood.  With toddlerhood, the demanding, unrelenting nature of parenthood truly emerged.  They desperately…

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Better Drugs For A Better Tomorrow Society thrived on drugs.  Jim thought that was natural–he thrived on drugs himself.  When younger, he drank, and it helped him get through.  Drugs in the processed food he ate also affected him (but he was not sure how, except eventual cancer was probably involved.)  As he aged, Jim…

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How To Relax In A Stressful World Bombs dropped, drug running speedboats blown up, war overseas, at home, troops and fear in the streets.  Costs soared, especially food–just staying alive felt tough.  Millard woke each morning dreading the news, what horrible information the day would bring.  He was an accountant who loved working, losing himself…

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