Five Star Friday's Edition #103 Is Brought to You by Henry David Thoreau

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

     — Henry David Thoreau

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by the U.S. postal system, a question of gender, then and now, adoption, panties, homosexuality on television, anger at a mother, the exhaustion of parenting, good ham, good tweets, a stuffed animal, a list, environmentalism, depression, and health care reform.

Please leave urls to your own good writing in the comments, because we like you and want to know what you write.

Happy Monday!

"Postal Employees Conduct Experiment To Determine If Non-Postal Employees Can Be Goaded Into Going Postal" from Flurrious:

Oh, for God’s sake. Yes, Lone Postal Employee, you have discovered my nefarious scheme. I stake out other people’s mailboxes until — oh happy day — I discover one that contains a postage due note. I take the note, drive to the post office, locate a parking spot a mere three blocks away, pay for parking, tell the dude standing next to my car that no, no I do not want to purchase a Street Sheet, walk to the post office, stand in line so long that I become the common law bride of Mr. Tobaccy McReekerson, and then my disgusting new husband and I live off the ill-gotten proceeds of oversized greeting cards that do not rightfully belong to me.

"S/he: In the Beginning" from Schmutzie.com

"A Plan for Change (A Bit of a Social Rant)" from Wish Jar

"One Mother's Courageous Choice" from Mommy Words:

or all her courage as a mother in a way we never expected, I applaud my baby sister. For all her courage as a woman after giving up what was most precious to her and doing something good with her life, I am proud of her. For all her weaknesses as a sister and a friend while she was in her darkest hours, I forgive her.

"Facebook Group Pushes For Gay TV Couple To Kiss On ABC's 'Modern Family'" by MayoPie at MamaPop

"Panties In a Bunch" from Cry It Out

"Satellite of Love" from The Little Paper:

Recently, I was starting to feel like a kind of satellite of love, orbiting my daughters with purse and pockets full of tissues, snacks, lip balm and sippys; delivering explanations, juice, stories, hugs, squabble mediation, undivided attention and under-doggies with an immediacy the patrons of a five star hotel would envy.

"The Source of All Deliciousness" from How Does She Do It?

"Favortweets, Round #17" from Jayesel

"The Safety of Objects" from Sweetney:

When I see children with dolls and stuffed animals now I can't help but think about how hard it is to be so little and alone in this world. Perhaps the shock of our physical separateness begun at birth echoes on through those early years, a nagging but nameless anxiety we can't quite shake. And so it makes a kind of sense that these stuffed things, these comfort-objects -- if only by virtue of their solidity and our ability to physically connect with, cradle, and hold them -- would make us feel less alone somehow. They are a child's reinforcements. They are their tangible rejection of our inherent aloneness as humans.

"Frontal Lobe Deficits: Part 5 (The End & The Beginning)" from Slouching Past 40

"Simple Reminders" from The Ignition Point

"How Summer Used to Be, And Is Now" from Maternally Challenged:

I long--LONG--for the days when we'd go out and pick our own beans and then string them and put them up in our own Mason jars and eat them all winter long in vegetable soups. I'm sure this memory is covered with a heavy haze of nostalgia, but it sure as hell beats buying something shrink-wrapped and gassed within an inch of its life, and which tastes like cardboard.

"Health Care Reform: My Take" from Joanne's Life

"No, I'm Not OK." from From Here to Four

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

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Five Star Friday's Edition #102

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

     — Harlan Ellison

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by Arizona, a bathtub, chat roulette, seed bombs, children sitting vigil, a maudlin clinger, becoming a piccolautist, sex addiction, soldiers returning, food poisoning, plagiarism, a tooth, commercialism, May Day, turning 40, a maternity leave ending, feeling like an idiot, failure, mental illness, cancer, and addiction.

Because we can't possibly round up all the good reading the internet has to offer, feel free to leave urls to your own good writing in the comments.

Happy Friday!

"Mi Amiga" from One Plus Two:

Back when she was fleeing that terrible situation she was in, the man who wanted her dead, she grabbed her babies and she ran. She ran so far she ran all the way from Mexico to here. She ran her in the dark and she emerged in the light. She's a citizen now, she pays her taxes and owns a home and has for many years. She is grateful every single day to this country, this country who in her eyes saved her life.

"Coming Clean" from Tori Klassen

"Forever Burned — A Chat Roulette Essay" from thea lux (dot) com

"Seed Bombs With the Kids of the Georgia Street Neighborhood" from Sweet Juniper!:

After the initial excitement wore off, the kids sat down with a book I'd made of many of the photos that I've taken in this city. It was pretty interesting for me, to suddenly see my photographs through their eyes. Occasionally Mark would point to something and tell them where in the city the subject was; when they saw this photo one of them said, "Hey, that's Tippy-Toe Ty! He's always asking for a dollar." When I admitted to giving him a few, the kid replied, "See, now that only encourages him." When Mark saw the first photo inthis post he laughed, "I know that dog. My wife named him. Zeus." The things they knew about my own photos confirmed to me the reason I wanted to give them cameras. I hoped they would help them tell their own stories in a way I never could.

"The Strength of a Child's Love" from Califmom

"I Have Seen the Future, Baby" from cribchronicles.com

"Bones. Teeth. Dinner." from 15 Minute Lunch:

"Did you lose one?" I did another quick inventory. I couldn't help myself. One of my worst recurring nightmares is one in which my teeth fall out. Nope. No gaps. Where the hell did this tooth come from? I didn't remember killing a drifter.

"The Piccolautist" from Gently Said

"And the Circle Is Now Complete" from Sun Tzu Says

"Moving On" from Dad Gone Mad:

It’s time to celebrate that. It’s time for my ego to take a break from its glory-hounding and chest-pounding. Sure I want to write more books and get this site back to where it once was and so forth. But I spent the last decade on all of that, and now I want that part of me to take a nap. Because when I sit down ten years from today to take stock of my forties, I’d rather be content with who my kids are and what my marriage is than frustrated that I spent another significant chunk of my life trampling people while I chased a spotlight that was never really there.

"'The video at the end of this post...'" from Blogging Like I've Never Blogged Before

"I'm a Method Writer. So, I Wrote This Post From My Bathroom Floor." from Barefoot Foodie

"Things That Can Make You Feel Like an Idiot Almost Instantly" from Hyperbole and a Half:

At some point in your life, you are going to have to hold a baby. When that time comes, you will discover that babies are terrifying and they hate you.

"A Double Serving of Serving Done Right!" by Jurgen Nation at MamaPop

"Why There Will Be No Mother's Day Special At Nummies" from Nummies Blog

"Twamble: Admitting That You Need Help and Sleep" from Tales of an Underachieving Overachiever:

I’m a handful. Period. Very difficult to know or love. This isn’t esteem talking, it’s the truth. And I forget why sometimes. because I like to forget it. Pretend it’s not real. People take it wrong. I hate the stigma. I hate the way people treat me when they find out. I hate that they don’t know what it really means. That it doesn’t mean I’m “crazy”. It only means that my brain works differently. Only means that I have to try harder to get over small hurdles.

"On Early Failures" from Sarcasmically

"Minnesota Mamaleh: Random Acts of Kindness" by Galit at TC Jewfolk

"First and Last" from Leahpeah:

The first time I tried meth was behind a gas station with a one-armed guy named Brett. Brett had a hook on his left arm starting a few inches under the elbow. He delivered ice blocks and used his hook to peg one side of the block, then grabbed the other side with his right hand and loaded the freezer.

"WOHM Is Me" from One N Jen

"Your Superpower Is Love" from Toddler Planet

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

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Five Star Friday's Edition #101

The writer's intention hasn't anything to do with what he achieves. The intent to earn money or the intent to be famous or the intent to be great doesn't matter in the end. Just what comes out.

     — Lillian Hellman

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by an old home, politics, a poem, inappropriate sexual touching, a third birthday, heartbreaking news, and the difficulty of parenting.

Leave urls to your own good weblog writing in the comments, because this week's collection is small, and we need good reading to tide us through the weekend.

Happy Monday!

"21 Years" from Spin Me I Pulsate

"By the Time I Get to Arizona" from Suebob's Red Stapler:

I know it's not an either/or, but I'd rather have illegal immigration with all of its benefits, than legal corporate emigration, which doesn't seem to have any for me.

"You Know It Is" from Breed 'Em and Weep

"Cheerleader" from Is There Any Mommy Out There?

"Lilacs" from Bossy Betty:

Sunday my best friend E, that same one I played with under the lilac bushes, called to tell me that she most likely has a terminal illness that will slowly, painfully, take her life in the next six years.

So this is what a hard kick in the stomach feels like.

"The Birthday Demon" from sweet | salty

"Where's the Line?" from Princess Prose

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

And because you are a fan of finding good new writing on the internet:

Subscribe — Subscribe to this website to keep up with us every week.

Show your pride — Take one of our badges for your website and spread the word.