19 Comments
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Stephen D Forman's avatar

I call this "soft launching" my day

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David's avatar

Love this (physical momentum as moral momentum!). reminds me of my today already

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Yoram Ong's avatar

Same here. Steps counted, motivation still missing.

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Sara Castaneda's avatar

This is completely my husband. He always gets furniture that you have to put together yourself. It sits in a box for like a year. The cats like to sit on the boxes as their furniture. I've finally taken over the ordering of larger items and order the complete package which comes with someone who comes and puts it together for you.

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Yoram Ong's avatar

The cats were probably happier with the boxes anyway.

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Sara Castaneda's avatar

The cats love it! They are always very very out of sorts when one of their boxes disappear and becomes human furniture. They think it's very unfair.

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Chelsea Caffey's avatar

Deeply relatable and hilarious.

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Yoram Ong's avatar

Thanks, glad it hit home!

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Christopher Manson's avatar

Funny and truthful.

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Yoram Ong's avatar

Appreciate that, thank you.

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Alter Kacker's avatar

Here’s the Thing …

https://tombstonetimes.com/the-thing/

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Stephen D Forman's avatar

"...eventually leading to the final stop, where, with bated breath, the visitors could peer through the scratched, yet protective Plexiglas and see just what all those signs led you to see! I won’t give it away here."

Boo!!!!

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Stephen D Forman's avatar

"So, the Thing is a mummy?"

"No, son. That's nobody. The real Thing is under its sombrero. It's a doozy."

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Greg Nix's avatar

So you’ve been?

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Maria T.C.'s avatar

Do the things! All the things! Swallow the frog first thing in the morning (I think that’s the saying)!

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Alter Kacker's avatar

Is that a thing?

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Liza Blue's avatar

I very much enjoyed this essay, and thanks to Chortle for posting it. We are told that the author has "published" elsewhere. I wonder how this impacts 1) whether or not I choose to read the essay; and 2) whether or not these credentials ensure a higher quality of writing.

What the publishing credits suggest to me is that the author is "doing the thing," seeking publication and threading their way past the choke hold of a single editor or editorial board. There is a satisfaction in that type of publication for sure, but in my limited experience, this satisfaction is fleeting; it does not guarantee that many will read it, the writer may not receive any feedback and in the process the author probably had to wait many months for publication (with the exception of McSweeney's).

I have posts many essays on my Substack account (https://lizabluehumorist.substack.com/) that I feel confident could find a home in a curated journal, but for now I am not ""doing the thing" to get them formally published.

Maybe I'm lazy or have trouble with delayed gratification....but I think of Substack as type of crowd-sourced publishing.

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Greg Nix's avatar

Hey Liza, thanks for the comment! I paste the guest writer bios at the top of their posts to give them credit for their work, partly because side I don’t want readers thinking I write every piece. I also hope it helps readers find more work from writers they enjoy.

I agree with your general premise! I started Chortle because I personally didn’t like waiting for publication and wanted to write more pieces.

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