1. Karen Yuan on why she loves the work of Henri Matisse.

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  2. This about covers it, I should think.

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  3. Aubrey Hirsch on why she doesn't like to hear or tell birth stories.

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  4. In which Don Draper's lines from Mad Men are repurposed for use following a natural disaster.

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  5. In which two womyn agree as to the terms of their cohabitation.

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  6. Sonya Lea on her life with her husband since he lost his memories of their life together.

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  7. All I know about female heterosexual desire that I've managed to glean from decades of reading (mostly fan fiction).

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  8. Link Roundup!

    The Toast presents a selection of delightful information in the form of a link roundup.

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  9. We can help you figure out if you're in a J.D. Salinger story.

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  10. D.L. Mayfield on her Christian punk rock teenage years.

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  11. Hermione Granger squares off against Katniss Everdeen in the latest Literary Ladies Cage Fight column for The Butter.

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  12. Previously: Ayn Rand Reviews Children's Movies. Thomas the Tank Engine When I ride on the 20th Century Limited, nobody touches a lever on the control panel but me. To ride a train is to take ingenuity itself as your lover; children should be given books about trains early and often. All trains are important. Thomas the Tank Engine is the most important train that there is, because he believes himself to be so. Other, lesser trains attempt jealously to confuse him, to delude him into thinking he is no better than the rest. Do not listen to them, Thomas! Do not allow them to dampen the divine spark that illuminates your rear engine; do not allow yourself to be linked up with inferior box-cars who hang on to you and dog your steps and cause you to doubt yourself. You are the molten steam heart of America, the greatest country in the world. I am not ashamed to admit that a tear very nearly came to my eye when the Controller told Thomas, "You are a really useful engine." I have never been so moved in all my life, and had to light a cigarette. I named the cigarette Thomas.

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  13. A weekly spotlight on a writer on fire.

  14. Elizabeth Preston imagines her thirty-year life performance review as delivered by a not especially sympathetic boss.

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