lesser_celery | Recent Entries

“The people and places in our new issue are all gone, sunken, buried, bottled, or vanished, often forgotten. We have a demon trapped in a storm-tempered bottle, a father trying to reach through time and space to his drowning son, a fairy making people disappear in a wink, a house sunken in the earth but still home. Our poets bring us last words spoken in vain, pennies thrown at an outcast man, forgotten places and husks of time, a name buried under a curse. Our artists add more: a man mysteriously digging behind a stump, a century-old bar scene, and a 1960 party dance…so very gone.”

Contents:

Distilled Fire, by Malory
Penultimate (poem), by J. J. Steinfeld
Frogspawn in My Hand, by Steve Toase
The Price of Silence (poem), by Patrick G. Roland
Wink and You’re Gone, by Christian Fiachra Stevens
The Subsidence, by J. M. Vesper
Below Surface (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Forgotten Places (poem), by Vincent Bae
Art: John and Flo Stanton

We’ll be mailing the contributors’ and subscribers’ copies over the next week.

Temporary website address to view guidelines and subscription information: https://legacyliteraryservices.com/not-one-of-us/
PayPal address: wombatjb@comcast.net. Be sure to include your postal address when ordering.

Send submissions as attachments to wombatjb@comcast.net.

Current Music: Violent Femmes, “Gone Daddy Gone”

For a long time, I used to post annual accounts of my publications the previous year. These lists included whatever issues of Not One of Us we had published, but also an often-large number of articles published in public policy, polling, and medical journals. Once I retired from my job of 30 years, I was no longer doing much work-related publishing, so I stopped doing the annual lists.

This post is a make-up for the two missing years of publications, 2023 and 2024. Added to the Not One of Us issues and a couple of journal articles are online reports of poll results I have co-authored as a consultant for the big survey research firm SSRS. I help design questionnaires, analyze data, and write up reports for these polls.

Magazine issues (editor and publisher)

Not One of Us #73, January 2023.

Not One of Us #74, April 2023.

Not One of Us #75, July 2023.

Not One of Us #76, October 2023.

Not One of Us #77, January 2024.

Not One of Us #78, April 2024.

Not One of Us #79, July 2024.

Not One of Us #80, October 2024.

Journal articles

Adrianna McIntyre, Robert J. Blendon, Mary G. Findling, John M. Benson, and Eric C. Schneider, “Popular… to a Point: The Enduring Political Challenges of the Public Option,” Milbank Quarterly, 2023; 101(1):26-47, link.

Robert J. Blendon, John M. Benson, and Natalie B. Le, “The Implications of the 2024 Election Outcome for Health Policy,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2024; 391(15): e33,
doi: 10.1056/NEJMsr2411712, October 17, 2024; e-pub October 2, 2024.

Survey reports for SSRS

“The Public’s Views on the Most Important Issues Facing the Country Today,” August 2023, link.

“Public Attitudes About the Taylor Swift – Travis Kelce Relationship,” October 10, 2023, link.

“The Public’s Expectations for 2024,” December 2023, link.

“The Public and Taxes,” April 22, 2024, link.

“The Public’s Interest in the 2024 Summer Olympics,” July 22, 2024, link.

“The Public’s Methods of Paying,” November 26, 2024, link.

“Americans and Birthday Celebrations,” December 17, 2024, link.

Current Music: Taylor Swift, "Shake It Off"

“Our latest issue looks at what happens after the end. We have a stalker trapped as still life, a man outside himself, soft tears of regret after telling him to leave, thoughts of an ending to achieve another’s goal, what ‘after’ always looks like, the trials of getting old, and, well, ‘The End.’ Then we stick a fork in him because he’s done.”

Contents:

Still Life, by Gwynne Garfinkle
Locusts, by Francesca Forrest
A Passage Through Ruins (poem), by Jennifer Crow
Exstasis, by Sam Derby
Gentle Lullaby (poem), by Gretchen Tessmer
Snowborn, by Rachel Cordasco
Soporifia (poem), by Jordan Hirsch
He Will Make It Plain, by Sophia D. Merow
The End, by David Kloss
Tarnished Gold (poem), by Ed Ahern
Art: John and Flo Stanton

Current Music: The Doors, "The End"

“Welcome to our replacement issue. No, it doesn’t replace another issue: it’s a brand-new look at people or things replaced by others. We have one sinister wish-giver substituted for another, shells for hearts, beloved for beloved, and a ghost review. Our poets bring us ballast and wings, fabric and crumbs, carving, recleansing, and alien dissemblance. And to start things off, our artists present Faces Replaced.”

Contents:

A Harvest That Lingers, by Jennifer Vaknine
Ballast (poem), by Devan Barlow
Shells for Hearts, by Devan Barlow
Tell Me I’m Real Under All This (poem), by Jordan Hirsch
Corpus Navi, by A.E. Dethlefsen
Recleansing the Fabric (poem), by Michael Roque
Dissemblance (poem), by A J Dalton
Hyperboloids of Wondrous Light, by Sonya Taaffe
The Crumbs Leading Back (poem), by Samuel Louis Spencer
Art: John and Flo Stanton

Current Music: Example, “Perfect Replacement”

We’re all surrounded by numbers, sometimes without our even knowing. In this our 80th issue, we have a thousand revolutions and a million wings, a prime-number loving monk (and editor) and a number-obsessive commuter, a captive decimal and four pills to make you feel better. (But no 666.) Add to this, the desires of the drowning and dead men gone to Cambodia, not on holiday, but to die a final death.”

Contents:

The World Has Turned a Thousand Times, by CL Hellisen
Freeing .33333…, by Francesca Forrest
Catch the Bus (poem), by Zhihua Wang
A Million Wings Moving As One, by Jay Kang Romanus
Where Dead Men Come to Die, by Ed Teja
Protest (poem), by Rebekah Postupak
Loneliness and Other Looming Things, by Devan Barlow
Fair Exchange (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Art: John and Flo Stanton

Current Music: 311, "Amber"

“A house can be a peaceful home, but it can also be a death trap. In this, our house issue, we have a dying woman who inherits a house that keeps its owner alive by killing others (talk about a ‘killer house’); a psychologically housebound ex-scientist whose desire for purity wastes him away; a couple in a shambles of a house turning buried remains into a bone-dog kept in the attic; a man with a familiar face in a shack with lead pipes; and Bluebeard’s neighbor watching the police search for evidence of murder in the killer’s house.”

Contents:

The Death Trap, by Neil Williamson
The Adoptee Tells Her Story (poem), by Shoshauna Shy
Unnatural Summer, by Devan Barlow
Bluebeard’s Neighbor (poem), by Jennifer Crow
A Visitation, by Christopher Yusko
Ted in the Mirror (poem), by E. Martin Pedersen
The Shambles, by Morgan Delaney
Slipped (poem), by Patricia Russo
Art: John and Flo Stanton

Current Music: Babes in Toyland, “House”

“The first and last stories of this issue each involve a train. Add our locomotive cover art and we decided to call this our train issue. We have a horror in a sleeping car and an erstwhile Charon at the end of everything, a crying child and a civic lullaby, hagstones and totem stones, daisies and mistletoe, rats and cats and seals, a mixed couple parting in the snows of night…plus a nod to Greer Garson.”

Contents:

Did You Pay for This Room?, by Pamela Weis
You Cry, Child (poem), by Lynn Hardaker
When I Was Switched at Birth, My Parents Were Sent Home with a Jar of Tongue Depressors and Didn’t Notice for Six Months (poem), by Robert Beveridge
Skinner, by Tessa Bahoosh
Hagstone (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
The Dedication of Sleep, by Devan Barlow
Mistletoe Theodicy (poem), by Marissa Lingen
Troth, by E.C. Wonder
At the End of Everything, by Spencer Nitkey
Rat Bush, by Patricia Russo
Art: John and Flo Stanton

Current Music: The Doobie Brothers, “Long Train Runnin’”

“Sisters and brothers, cats and birds, plus so much more. We have five eerie sisters, a dead sister’s whispers, and a brother’s changing tune; a cat and chicks lying down together; blackbirds and butterflies; faux food, lizards and familiars; Zanzibar, a world tree, and a cage of shadows.”

Contents:

Slip on Stone, Whispers in Walls, by Cassandra Daucus
Scarcity Economics (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Trutnov, by Leen Raats
The Butterfly (poem), by Patricia Russo
First, Snare a Blackbird, by Sarah McGill
Lost on a World Tree (poem), by Marissa Lingen
The Familiar, by Edward Ahern
Count (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Art: John and Flo Stanton

We’ll be mailing the contributors’ and subscribers’ copies during the coming week.

Temporary website address to view guidelines and subscription information: https://legacyliteraryservices.com/not-one-of-us/
PayPal address: wombatjb@comcast.net. Be sure to include your postal address when ordering.

Send submissions as attachments to wombatjb@comcast.net.

Current Music: The Psychedelic Furs, “Sister Europe”

“Our dual theme this time is eat and breathe. We have alien data eaters taking away human history, a woman learning not to breathe so she can do her job better, a suspected witch on a breathtaking vacation in Venice, and breakfast to maintain some order in an unpredictable world. Plus, a young witch adding a faery to her collection. Our poets speak of bloodstains locked in wood grain and crevice, a faery champion who ‘rescues’ and raises a human baby, and the hook of hell’s antechamber.”

Contents:

Breath, by Romie Stott
All This Water, by Nicole M. Wolverton
An Iron Ring (poem), by Jennifer Crow
Night of the Data Eaters, by Kyle E. Miller
Changeling Child, or the Oak King’s Champion Rescues a Baby from a Hot Car (poem), by Meep Matsushima
Lovely, by Nicole Walsh
Our Daily Bread (poem), by Ed Ahern
The Green Room (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Art: John and Flo Stanton (cover); John Stanton

Current Music: Duncan Sheik, “Barely Breathing”

“Music, music, music! That’s the theme of our stories this time. We have a piece of classical music, once hidden behind a wall, that becomes an earworm for a violinist; three performers in the late 1970s getting plastic surgery to become better impersonators as their manager mourns the loss of his folksinger-girlfriend; a piano moving on from its longtime loving relationship; and a bizarro racetrack wedding, featuring an Elvis impersonator and someone even more special. Our poets speak of aging and loss of control, wake-up calls, steampunk, and a sister beyond the sea.”

Contents:

Ohrwurm, by Steve Toase
Senescence – When Cells Decide to Become Something Else (poem), by Alicia Hilton
Dear Aunt Clara (poem), by Gwynne Garfinkle
Beverly’s Sonata, by Jennifer Hudak
Wake-up Call (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Steam Punk Steady (poem), by Gretchen Tessmer
Plastic Elvis, by Leah Mueller
The Afterlife of Stars, by Anne Baldo
I Have a Sister Beyond the Sea (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Art: Flo and John Stanton (cover); John Stanton

Current Music: The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Do You Believe in Magic?”

“This issue is a palette of dark prose and poetry. We have a bog burial and a deadline, a hollow girl and a ghoul in a ravine, a concerned caregiver for a psychic, a raven walking in rhythm, and wasps galore! Plus, literally, a painting and a palette.”

Contents:

She Drew Monsters, by Rodney K. Sloan
Elegy for Another Hollow Girl (for – or at – Susan Cooper) (poem), by Marissa Lingen
Mirth, the Wasp, and the Sun, by Sarah McCall
A Palette (poem), by Jennifer Crow
La Madre de la Barranca, by Brad Munson and Bruce McAllister
Deadline (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
How to Take Care of Your Psychic in Ten Easy Steps, by Alexandra Seidel
Drained (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Art: John Stanton (cover); Flo and John Stanton

We’ll be mailing the contributors’ and subscribers’ copies over the next week.

Temporary website address to view guidelines and subscription information: https://legacyliteraryservices.com/not-one-of-us/
PayPal address: wombatjb@comcast.net.

Send submissions as attachments to either wombatjb@comcast.net or john@not-one-of-us.pub.

Current Music: The Rolling Stones, “Paint It Black”

As some of you have noticed, the Not One of Us website is down. In the time he can spare from his job, my son the webmaster is trying to figure out the problem, but it may take a little while.

In the meantime, I want to make it clear that we’re still operating. To submit a story or poem(s), attach the manuscript as a Word or rtf file to an email message addressed to john@not-one-of-us.pub.

If you want to purchase a single copy or subscription, the easiest way is to use PayPal. My PayPal address is wombatjb@comcast.net. Or you can send a check made out to John Benson, 12 Curtis Road, Natick, MA 01760 USA.

A single current issue of Not One of Us costs US$3.50 plus postage and handling ($1.00 for US, $1.25 for Canada, $2.50 for the rest of the world). Four-issue subscriptions are US$16.00 postpaid for the US, $17.50 for Canada, $22.50 elsewhere.

Not One of Us #73 debuted earlier this week.

Current Music: The Beach Boys, “Please Let Me Wonder”

“Welcome to our urban/rural issue. We have an urban legend and a city with a mind of her own, a family visit to a country horror and little lying gods in a backwater swamp. Our poets speak of the black between neon, dark devouring light, and being invisible to those who breathe.”

Contents:

The Family Visit, by Mackenzie Hurlbert
In Memoriam (poem), by Yuliia Vereta
Sawhands, by Rob Francis
Exposure (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
The Mind of the City Is Her Own, by Alexandra Seidel
Nothing Holy About It (poem), by Kent Kruse
Little Lying Gods, by Matthew McConkey
Notes From Forever Ago (poem), by Gerri Leen
Art: John Stanton (cover); Flo and John Stanton