I Wrote the Book I Was Born to Write

Fifty years is a long time to prepare for a single sentence. I did not know I was preparing. I thought I was living, which I was, and writing, which I was, and teaching, which I was, and publishing, which I was. I thought the Fractional Fiction novels and the EleMenTs trilogy and the Prairie Voice reporting and the Human Meme episodes and the dramatic literature and the ASL linguistics and the cultural criticism were separate projects, separate impulses, separate rooms in the interior country I have been building since I was old enough to read. They were not separate. They were all rehearsals for this.

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The Arrogant American: Bad Parenting Alone at Sea

Over the weekend, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland was plucked from the Indian Ocean by a French fishing vessel after she activated two emergency beacons indicating her ill-fated attempt to sail around the world alone as the youngest person — was over.  The caustic, and nearly fatal, irresponsibility of Abby’s parents — Laurence and Marianne Sunderland — earn them year’s award for Worst Parents Ever.

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