Emily Appelbaum
Emily Appelbaum
Recent Stories
Be Glad: Boot-Scootin’ Bill Fischer ’66
Little chance of that, jostled as we are between jugs, jars and jeans, platters being passed (this one’s yours — those biscuits were divine! — no, no, not that — yes, here, the blue), rascals (Billy stop that runnin’ or I swear I’ll knock ya here t’Tuesday) only knee high to a grasshopper, and sweat and stink and good cheer.
Appelbaum: Still fishing, 10 years later
There was a time when I couldn’t sit down to write, except to write about writing. As a bratty 11th grader, I’d fashioned not a single line of verse when I boldly proposed an “independent study” in poetry with the impeccable Ms. Cherie Thompson, who, though young-ish, wore tweed and glasses and talked incredibly fast. I don’t remember much of what I produced, squirreled away in her small white cubicle with the shade drawn. I know the cobalt-blue VW Bug of my high-school boyfriend Mike featured prominently (hi, Mike), but other than that, all I remember is Ms. Thompson foisting upon me that universal piece of neophyte-literati wisdom: Keep a journal.
Broken in, but not worn out
Mariono Purpora started Star Shoe Repair in the midst of the Great Depression, and it’s no real news that tough times have returned. Despite the hardship that generations of mom-and-pop businesses face across our nation replete with chain stores, Purpora manages to stay afloat.
scene in the neighborhood: Brick Oven Pizza
Everyone is Kadir Catalbasoglu’s brother: the students, the landlord, the cop or two who come in regularly, the guy with sagging jeans and cap turned backward. Even the faces he’s never seen before, Kadir greets the same way. “What can I do for you, brother?”
Appelbaum: The community beyond bells
I had just sat down in one of the wire chairs in Thain Family Café in Bass Library and opened my computer, when a girl I recognized turned to me from the next table. “Did you see that e-mail?