For the past 35 years, Bernadette, Natalie, and Nathan met in the Argentinian restaurant for lunch on an anniversary...until a tragedy ruptures their friendship.
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Edward A. Novak, Jr. 1931-2021
Passed away on December 6, 2021, Edward Andrew Novak, Jr. of Sterling, Va., retired physician, naval officer and Kiwanian, devoted father of Edward A. Novak III, of Greenbelt, Md.; and cherished grandfather of Anna H. Novak of Lower Allen Township, Pa., and Katharine N.N. Allgood of Susquehanna Township, Pa.
Ulysses: All Parents Damage Their Kids
They strolled leisurely to Birgit’s apartment and talked about their children. Perhaps for the first time today, Hopper relaxed. He admired the lengths to which Charlize went to protect her children from all the ways that parents encourage and feed their children’s paranoia and neuroses. “All parents damage their kids,” she said. “I just want to keep that damage to a minimum.”
Ulysses: The Tilley-Blandin Family Leaves Westbeth
At that moment, Hopper Tilley-Blandin was feeling mostly…annoyance. Once again -- in his mind -- his mother and his younger sisters Olympia and Silver had foisted upon him an act of fealty to a family whose ties were fraying following his parents’ sudden divorce and his father’s subsequent, freakish death.
Five Golden Rings
The following text exchanges were captured from the mobile devices of Huey Newton Wallace, Huey’s ex-girlfriend Olympia Tilley-Blandin, Ingrid Brzezinski, Ingrid’s ex-husband Hopper Tilley-Blandin, the actress Charlize Theron. The fifth installment of the short-story series, “The 12 Days of the Tilley-Blandin Coronavirus Christmas.”
Two Turtle Doves
On the day before Thanksgiving, while on their daily stroll through a section of Washington, DC that this nauseatingly cute, white hipster couple had dubbed the “Death Zone,” Silver Tilley-Blandin turned to her boyfriend Louis Guidry and said, “Your name came up again on the internet.” Thus begins the second installment of the series, “The 12 Days of the Tilley-Blandin Coronavirus Christmas.”
Who is Allowed to Marry My Daughter, Based on Baseball Hat Fashion
The whole reason baseball hats were invented was to keep the sun out of ballplayers’ eyes. However, too many young people choose fashion over practicality, revealing their unsuitability. My daughters deserve better.
Sorry
As I was listening to Tracee Ellis Ross’ TED talk, my mind turned to the women in my life who say “I’m sorry.”
The Secrets of Miss Olympia Tilley-Blandin
Since tweendom, they shared secrets with each other to which no one else was privy. The Tilley-Blandin Sisters Secret File. Every year, over pizza at John’s of Bleecker Street, they shared a single new secret, ranked it compared to previous years’ secrets, wrote them down, and put them in a safe place.
Louis Guidry Prevents Death by Nugent
Louis returned to sleep, but not the dream of the beignets or the woman. When he finally awoke, he was in the middle of a dystopian vision of heavily armed police officers shooting unarmed white men without provocation. For the last month, since the passage of the PPE Act of 2020 in August, this vision had become a recurrent dream.
Third Ed Novak 