Five Star Friday's 115th Edition Is Brought to You By Douglas Adams

A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.

     — excerpt from Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by the atomic bomb, medical high jinx, a changed relationship, Craigslist, a negative work environment, social anxiety, speech therapy, dreaming, Mumbai, a dog, bike theft, rape, BlogHer, Momsie, feminism, and a childhood remembered.

Paste urls to your own good weblog writing in the comments. Don't be shy!

Happy Friday!

"The Fourth Dog" from Breed 'Em and Weep:

"I saw her, and I thought of you immediately," Nanette wrote. "Let me know if I should pull her." The photo attached was, of course, Fanny (who was initially called "Chippie" by the intake staff). She was terrified and cowering against the painted cinderblock backdrop of the Brooklyn Center for Animal Care and Control. Something vaguely collie-ish, yes, but the soul in those eyes is what got me. I began to cry, looking at the fear and the bewilderment there, in that face.

And she looked like a mix of Ferf and Nina and Eli genes. She was a dirty, grimy, broken mix of something very familiar, and very beautiful.

"That's my girl," I said before I knew I was saying it. "That's my girl."

Yes, I wrote. Yes. I could not have said no.

"Peace Festival" from Theresaurus

"Alone In a Crowd" from Miss Britt

"The Gift of Voice" from In These Small Moments:

Over the past 18 months, Lyndsey has become a part of our family. She is the person who knows Katie best aside from us. She is the one that I turn to who I know will understand the way I feel about this child. She feels it too.

"All Wand, No Magic" from Not Undecided

"Syncretic Shrines – II" from Wayfarers and Pathfinders

"Intira" from Mr London Street:

This isn’t about false sentiment. Intira wasn’t a nice woman and she and I would never have been friends, that would have been unthinkable. If I close my eyes and ignore the television blaring in the corner, I can almost still hear her barking incomprehensibly down the phone at someone, or cross-examining me with suspicion when I asked her whether she wanted something from the coffee machine. But sitting here now, with the benefit of nearly fifteen years of hindsight, I can’t help but find it a little sad that I wasted all that time back then ridiculing probably the only person in that whole office who fitted in even less than me.

"OK" from ShaunaGlenn.com

"My Dream, Our Dream" from My Tornado Alley

Trigger warning – this is a story of rape –
"UnSilenced" from Life On a Tightrope:

I didn’t say a word, just slipped through the window to safety.

Twenty years have passed.

Twenty. Years.

I have been silent for long enough.

"Massage This" from Dirty Hooker

"Justice In Brooklyn" from Whatever-Whenever

"Unsolicited" from Not Really:

I didn’t lean against the wall waiting for the right people to talk to me. I don’t even know who the right people are. The right people were the ones who stood and engaged with me about whatever fucking subject it was for however fucking long the conversation worked. And I’m sorry, truly sorry, if you didn’t find those people. They were there. They were everywhere. Wonderful, interesting, kick-ass women with valuable stories who were looking for you to get outside your own head, to get the fuck over yourself, and talk to them.

"I's the B'y That Catches the Fish" from cribchronicles.com

"Where Did Women Folk Get the Idea That Writing About Their Lives Might Be Interesting?" by Catherine Lacey at HTMLGIANT

"The Last Deposit" from Mom-101:

Funny how sometimes you feel the absence of a person more than you can feel a presence. It's like physics f*cking with you. A universal practical joke.

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Comments

[Mom101]

My grandmother would have loved knowing she was in the same post with Douglas Adams. After I explained what that meant.

Thank you so much.