A Stranger's Tear

“Welcome to our New World Order issue. We have a police inspector in post-Soviet former Yugoslavia using an unconventional camera to solve a murder; a freedom fighter in a frighteningly plausible future where the world order to which we have been accustomed has broken down; sailors on a near-future Earth where nations compete to obtain time travel but meet unexpected competition out of time; a moon-sister’s choice to change; and a couple involuntarily trading minds, disrupting a once conventional marriage. Our poets speak of hell as a destination location; words like blades and a jar of words unspoken; stale silence and glorious rupture.”

Contents:

Former Yugoslav State of Mind, by B. Mancer
My Students Don’t Like It When I Tell Them That We Have No Reason to Believe a Single Thing Montressor Says, by Patricia Russo
Blood to Blood (poem), by Jennifer Crow
All Dogs (poem), by Emer Curley
Fractured, by Andrew McFarlane
Hell Is a Destination Location (poem), by Larina Warnock
The Ambler at Kwajalein, by Douglas Kolacki
Stale (poem), by Malcolm Morris
Hoard (poem), by Christiaan Sabatelli
Snares and Snapping Jaws, by Devan Barlow
The Scar, by Hap Aziz
The Walls (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Art: John and Flo Stanton



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

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“Talent can be expressed in unusual ways. In this issue we have a wedding photographer who can glimpse a couple’s future, a woman who uses her gift for embroidery on a new medium, two graffiti artists with a chance to tag a ‘plateau’ risen mysteriously in the middle of town, even a house that uses its talents to reunite a triangle of lovers. Our poets bring a falling gift from the cosmos, changeling moods and small stabilities, an unintended witch, a life lived forward and backward, flak and scramble and glass-skinned sea.”

Contents:

Crawling Across the Flokati, by Joseph Hirsch
Found and Kept (poem), by Murray Eiland
Invitation, by Bruce McAllister
Evolution (poem), by Marissa Lingen
Gramarye (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Stitches, by L.M. Conkling
Moodless (poem), by Melissa Miles
Retaining Walls, by J. Hellend
Circle of Life (poem), by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Art: John and Flo Stanton



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

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Send submissions as attachments to wombatjb@comcast.net.

Here’s the standard account of my publications for the year.

Magazine issues (editor and publisher)

Not One of Us #81, January 2025.

Not One of Us #82, April 2025.

Not One of Us #83, July 2025.

Not One of Us #84, October 2025.

Journal article

Robert J. Blendon, John M. Benson, and Natalie B. Le, “Health and Medical Research Funding in a Divided America — How to Increase Support,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2025; 393(10): 942-945, doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2507924, September 11, 2025; e-pub September 6, 2025, link.

Survey reports for SSRS

Since I retired in October 2022, I have been working as a consultant for the big survey research firm SSRS. I help analyze data and write reports for various of their polls.

One of those was a serious examination of Americans’ attitudes about federal statistics:

“The Public’s Views on the Value of Federal Statistics,” June 23, 2025, link.

Here is a list of other SSRS polls (some less serious than others) for which I analyzed data and wrote reports of the findings:

“Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune: Which Game Show do American viewers like better?,” January 17. 2025, link.

“The Public and Online Dating in 2025,” March 9, 2025, link.

“How the American Public Sleeps,” March 10, 2025, link.

“The American Public and Tipping,” March 24, 2025, link.

“The Public and Taxes 2025,” April 10, 2025, link.

“Employed U.S. Adults’ Experiences of and Views About Working from Home,” August 21, 2025, link.

“The Public’s News Media Consumption,” October 6, 2025, link.

“The Public and Investments in Speculative Assets,” October 8, 2025, link.

“Support for Veterans: Attitudes of the General Public and Veterans,” November 5, 2025, link.

“In this our flight issue, there’s a whole lot of soaring, reaching, and just plain trying to get away. We have a construction worker on a miles-high bridge, the symbol of his nation’s striving for a new image; a man who has been buying a lottery ticket each Friday in order to escape his life of sleeping in doorways; old friends with a child, each come to seek their nest amid their strange lives; a woman with an unattainable desire, making do with a quiet, non-standard love.”

Contents:

Come Each Bird That Seeks Its Nest, by Jeannelle M. Ferreira
The Burnt Layer (poem), by Sonya Taaffe
Bridge, by Zary Fekete
The Intrepid Botanist Insults the Wrong Plant (poem), by Gretchen Tessmer
The Moon in His Eyes, by Francesca Forrest
Star-Clad and Howling (poem), by Beth Cato & Rhonda Parrish
Benny Was a Binman, by Aaron Long
Vestments (poem), by Susan Shea
Blue and Black, by Patricia Russo
Endlessness of Oracles (poem), by Devan Barlow
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.

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.

“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



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.

“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



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/
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Send submissions as attachments to wombatjb@comcast.net.

“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.

“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



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 either wombatjb@comcast.net or john@not-one-of-us.pub.

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.