A friend in need Stories

The plan to walk home seemed more ill-advised by the second. The drizzle had turned to steady rain, and then Alan found himself caught in a downpour. Alan decided to take refuge in a bar. He wasn't familiar with it, although its proximity to the university quarter made him feel sure of the crowd it was aimed at. It was a Monday evening. The bar wasn't busy, but a group of eight women around one of the tables was certainly...

“I feel so sorry for Jennifer. Since Rob died, she has been so withdrawn. She’s like some sort of sad zombie, just stumbling through her days.” I understood where my wife Lisa was coming from. Jennifer and Rob have been our friends for five years. Rob died suddenly, horribly, a year ago. Some conspiracy-addled idiot decided to take out the local government. Rob happened to be in the city building paying his water bill whe...

Of late, I have been complaining often and loudly about the increased number of ads on TV. My wife, helpfully points out that if I weren’t such a cheapskate I could pay for ad-free content. My rejoinder is that is that TV content is barely worth watching for free and that football games pause for ads anyway. As an interesting sidelight to this situation I have noticed that, often, when a couple is featured in an ad the ma...