First Person | The Smart Set

Pokey’s Cinematic Multiplex

Paula Marantz Cohen — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

I often think about my deceased dog, Pokey. He was a Wheaton terrier with a genetic predisposition toward stomach problems, and he eventually succumbed to gastric cancer in his 11th year. I miss Pokey and have nostalgia for his daily routine. He had a fairly mellow disposition (except with the mailman and the gasman, for […]

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Out of Hiding

Camille DiBenedetto — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:30:00 +0000

This piece contains detailed discussions of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), including descriptions of intrusive thoughts, compulsions, and rituals that may be distressing to some readers. If you are sensitive to content about mental health conditions, particularly OCD, or if you find such topics triggering, please proceed with caution. When I first came across Emma Noyes promoting […]

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First Story

Naomi Anne Goldner — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:30:00 +0000

On my first birthday after the death of my father, all I wanted was to spend the afternoon with him at the cemetery. He had never missed a birthday of mine; not even when he was in a wheelchair in a recovery facility, and I was a little girl on the other side of the […]

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Life in Mississippi

Gresham Riley — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 19:34:21 +0000

I was born in the Jackson, Mississippi Baptist Hospital on June 27, 1938, to parents Isaac Gresham Riley and Vernella Gertrude Riley; a younger brother (Keith) would come along three years later. Both my parents were in their early 30s at the time and had only recently moved to Jackson from farming communities located in […]

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Loneliness, Love, Hope and the DeBarges

Labeja Kodua Okullu — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:30:00 +0000

I peeled a tangerine, left it on the side till its wrinkled orange skin, grew crisp and when it touched my lips it stuck there, like an envelope waiting to be sealed sending a message home, I bit down and the tracing paper crispness retreated to a wonderful onslaught of sweetness. I hope you will […]

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Revenge Condo

Sadie Scotch — Mon, 20 May 2024 15:59:02 +0000

My friend Iskra sent me the condo real estate listing on the last morning of my trip to Turks and Caicos a few months ago. I awoke to her texts urging me to buy this and rent it out, and let’s be Golden Girls one day and that we’ll build a fireman’s pole connecting the […]

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Forgetting Gareth

Michael James — Mon, 13 May 2024 15:54:49 +0000

My all-boys high school seems more extraordinary to me the further away from it I have traveled in time. It was closer to Hogwarts than any real school should be. It had an assembly hall and a chapel and a music school and a gymnasium and a swimming pool and diving boards and a 20-plus-foot […]

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The Creator Almost Broke Me

Fred Onyango — Thu, 09 May 2024 18:46:21 +0000

Typically, the career path to film criticism doesn’t start with a 7-year-old in class declaring that they want to review movies when they grow up. As a kid from Nairobi, my journey toward a life dedicated to analyzing film began when my elder brothers exposed me early to movies that required me to access more […]

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Off-Trail at Your Own Risk

Emily Dell — Mon, 06 May 2024 11:30:00 +0000

There is an inch-long scar snaking across the top of my index finger, a thin white line that bisects my permanent government records. You should know I’m no giant to begin with, 5 feet 4 inches at my bravest, with hands that were never going to palm a basketball. What looks like a forevermore smudge […]

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The Hard Sell

Stephen Gambescia — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:30:00 +0000

The season has passed when the girls (and their guardians) are loading up the wagons, setting up tables, and selling the beloved, but seasonal Girl Scout Cookies. Whether you go for the low-key shortbread cookie (Trefoils) or the high-powered Caramel deLites (formerly Samoas), most of us are delighted to see the girls in brown and […]

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