The Literate Kitty

By now—a quarter of the way through the 21 st  century—we probably couldn’t survive without the internet.   We use it for shopping. Keeping up with friends and family. Work. Job hunting. Looking for love. And finding answers to every  “How do I fix this?”  or  “What do I do now?”  question that pops into our heads.   But it isn’t  just  a shopping mall/phone-and-snail-mail alternative/meeting place/encyclopedia.   Because while it  does  draw us together, it also allows for anonymity... a murky, shadowy space where con artists, conspiracy theorists, and bullies converge.   And sometimes, where maniacs come out to play.   Thriller author Sara Driscoll’s latest,  Shadow Play , looks at the downside of online.     When physical therapist Krista agrees to be part of a weekly, live-streaming show offering relationship and life advice with her best friend, Hailey, it sounds like a fun hobby.   After all,...

Most people, I’ve always figured, aren’t like me… because it’s far more common to get into some kinda groove semi-early in life and “settle down” (the marriage/partnership, kids and/or furbabies, a couple cars, and a mortgage)… all of which involves, staying put . And that means—whether you really want to, or not—getting to know your neighbors (at least a little bit). But, even if you don’t invite each other over for backyard barbecues or babysit the others’ kids, most people who live that traditional lifestyle tend to see their neighbors enough to make reasonable assumptions about them. Things like, “ they’re good people (or not) ”, or “ she’s really funny but her wife is a total beyotch ”, or maybe “ wow, they're the best parents, ever, and I’d give anything to be like them ”.  Rarely, though—again, just guessing, here—does anyone ever think to themselves, “I bet that guy’s totally a murderer”. [I mean, property values wouldn’t do well with those kinda thoughts, now, would ...

There’s plenty of uncertainty in this thing we can “life”, but there's one thing we can always count on: time is gonna keep right on doin’ its thing, marching along at its own pace. No matter how much we might want to stop it, or at least to slow it down a bit, that’s just not gonna happen. It’s not always bad, that passage of time; some things actually improve with it. Wines and whiskies become smoother and mellower. A favorite t-shirt or pair of jeans grows softer and more comfortable. Trees stretch taller and fill out to provide more shade and beauty. (Okay, I'm sure there's more, but that's all that springs to mind.)    Most things don't have such a positive relationship with time, of course. The cycle of life as we know it is such that, after a particular point, all living things cease growing or regenerating and begin the gradual process of decline, leading, inexorably, to... well, a last hurrah, if you will. Generally speaking, animals (including humans) go t...