Short Relief

Short Relief: Restricted

I was scrolling Twitter yesterday and I came across something that sent a chill down my spine and sent me into the doldrums for a quick second. This wasn’t an injury or a bad call. Instead, it was the sight of a man being stripped of his individual creativity. It was a screencap of Edwin...

Short Relief: Déjà Vu

by Shakeia Taylor, Mike Bates, and Holly M Wendt 6/17

It doesn’t matter what ballpark I go to. It doesn’t matter where I sit. It doesn’t matter whether I am alone or with others. Every time I attend a ballgame, I end up sitting in front of “that guy.” You know the guy. Or maybe you don’t. And if you don’t, take my word for...

Short Relief: Subtext

by Patrick Dubuque, Matt Sussman, and Krystal Languell 6/14

In 2001 he was arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespassing; the newspapers didn’t go into details, probably because they didn’t have any details. It’s the sort of crime where someone decides they don’t like where you are. The original complaint came, they said, when someone saw him trying to deposit an empty envelope into an ATM...

Short Relief: Tipping the Scales

by Justin Klugh and Roger Cormier 6/13

TO: All staff FROM: Doug RE: Office laptops Hey gang, just a reminder that your work computers are just that–for WORK. They are NOT for personal use. Please don’t remove them from the premises without checking with me. Thanks. TO: All staff FROM: Doug RE: Office laptops, again I can’t believe I have to do...

Short Relief: Future Shock

by Matt Ellis, Beth Davies-Stofka, and Nathan Bishop 6/12

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is often credited for developing one of our society’s most important modern philosophical concepts, that of the dialectic. Hegel’s dialectic builds off and extends classical philosophy’s Greek concept of a dialectical exchange, in which two opposing sides of an argument–a thesis and its antithesis–stake out a kind of territory...

Short Relief: Out in Style

by Mary Craig and Demetrius Bell 6/11

On Friday it was announced that The Good Place will end after its upcoming fourth season. Mike Schur, its creator, attributed this end to the natural conclusion of the story, which the writers had planned from the beginning. It’s incredibly rare for American television shows to reach such an end. Either they end prematurely, like...

Short Relief: Eyes on the Prize

by Holly M Wendt, Mike Bates, and Shakeia Taylor 6/10

The circumstances of the Black Sox scandal of 1919 have generated a plethora of richly imagined reiterations, from the iconic Eight Men Out to the fanciful and forgiving representations in Shoeless Joe and its Hollywood adaptation, Field of Dreams. W.P. Kinsella’s Joe Jackson carries no taint of treachery, and even the apparent architect of the...

Short Relief: Caught Off Guard

by Krystal Languell, Matt Sussman, and Patrick Dubuque 6/07

I sometimes like to see the flag flapping at the top of a construction crane. The loneliness of the flap, the anthem’s punch line, consoles me like the moon or a good cloud. When a vulnerable person sings the anthem, the crowd sweeps me up in the swell. I can resist strong performances; a wavering...

Short Relief: Tall Order

by Roger Cormier and Kate Preusser 6/06

It was a nice hotel suite. My guest paid for it. He was sweaty the entire time, in any sense of the word I have seen it used. It was obvious he practiced his questions beforehand. I felt sorry for how hard he tried to make them sound off the cuff, to be honest. Each...

Short Relief: To The End

by Patrick Dubuque, Matt Ellis, and Beth Davies-Stofka 6/05

There are so many places where there is not baseball. There are the early morning bike paths, teeming with rabbits and tree roots, where dreams hide within the quadriceps tendons as each small hill rolls into view. There are the choir lessons in the church annex, where your daughter and seven other less adorable children...

Short Relief: Tape Delay

by Demetrius Bell, Sandra Marchetti, and Mary Craig 6/04

The NCAA baseball tournament and the Women’s College World Series are in full swing and it’s an exciting time to watch the college game. It just so happens that this moment of fun-yet-intense baseball coincides with the annual MLB Draft, which started yesterday. Compared to other sports, the MLB Draft is almost quaint in its...

Short Relief: Missing Out

by Holly M Wendt, Mike Bates, and Shakeia Taylor 6/03

In a box of computer-related detritus my parents didn’t want to get rid of without my input exists a still-in-package CD-ROM, complete with what can only be cereal dust caught in the tighter corners of the plastic. On further inspection, the disc is #6 of a six-disc collaborative promotional effort from Post, AOL, EA Sports,...

Short Relief: Altered Perspectives

by Justin Klugh, Krystal Languell, and Matt Sussman 5/31

The teacher handed me an envelope, and my heart started racing. I never got envelopes. I never got called out. I was very much a background character of my second grade class, putting my books in my bag and thinking about Nintendo. I wondered what it could be. Had I won a prize? Had they...

Short Relief: Adrift

by Kate Preusser and Roger Cormier 5/30

Former Giants outfielder Angel Pagan is safe and sound after being rescued at sea in Puerto Rico (via @DaltonJ_Johnson) https://t.co/e7E6pth5br pic.twitter.com/RVrWDCzH74 — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 29, 2019 He did not know, when they set out– Two men and a boy, on a fishing trip, The rhythm of his days now, Retired at...

Short Relief: Out of Right Field

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Nathan Bishop, and Matt Ellis 5/29

Last week, I was driving down a wide city street lined with box stores, chain restaurants, and strip malls. I could have pulled off into Discount Shoe Warehouse, or Best Buy, or Wendy’s. I could have grabbed a taco while getting my oil changed. I was provided the opportunity to pick up my dry cleaning,...

Short Relief: Forgiveness

by Mary Craig and Demetrius Bell 5/28

Life is more or less a series of mistakes, and atonement for these mistakes. Some are so miniscule that forgiveness is a foregone conclusion. Others are so damaging and irreversible that asking for forgiveness seems foolish no matter how many decades have passed. The closer we come to the end, the more heavily our mistakes...