“My people are dying,” said the whale. “Our only salvation lies in becoming land animals again. Each time the dolphins and we beach ourselves, we get a little farther inland. I’ve gone past…

“Marie was organizing a photo shoot over the week-end in which a number of women would disrobe and hold sample ballot forms over their lady parts. The caption of the photo was a…

“The earth’s supply of beauty is diminishing./Add to it what you can and say/I do this in memory of my friend, my loved one./I do it so that his light remains between two…

“Over the next few generations, more and more of the Baal Shem Tov’s miracle-making ritual was forgotten, so when the fourth Hasidic leader was told a now-familiar tale of woe, he was crestfallen.…

  Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner “A frozen tableau right off the frozen food aisle: Jamie, holding out his credit card, the open-jawed clerk and Yours Truly glancing down as if my package…

“‘Your groceries. I’d like to pay for them.’ Check for hidden camera. None in sight. ‘But . . . why?’ ‘It’s something I do.’” —Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner  GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly…

“He tentatively lifted the eraser. Where to begin? What did he fear the most? Blindness. Yes, that was there on the board. He deleted it. Dying alone. Gone with a stroke. Never finding…

“I have great respect for the scientific method, but I’ll put my faith every time in those who sing me to sleep with poems.” Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly…

Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner “No one is about to confuse the human heart with a bowl of pasta, although both can be deeply satisfying or terribly messy, depending on how they’re handled.”…

“I went to the emergency room and X-rays revealed that the sutures holding my breastbone together were coming apart. So I had a second operation and a second reminder that intense boredom and…