Opinion
Opinion pieces published in Piker Press, a weekly journal of arts and literature.
1,093 articles — page 31 of 37
With the holidays approaching, your only hope is to contract some mysterious and highly contagious disease. Otherwise you'll have to put up with... the relatives.
Europe's tiniest dictator has gone from the amazing feat of using the French army to thrash almost the entire world to appearing on the cans of baby corn. Ponderous, baby.
It's hard to take meaningful dramas seriously. They're just so unreal. A touching moment between a married couple, the faithful guard dog protecting family from danger, even an attractive woman riding her motorcycle down the street: in the books, that all works perfectly. Since when does real life let any of those people get away with even a scrap of dignity?
Run for your life! Hold your breath! Get the gas mask! Weapons of Mass Destruction, move over! When perfume allergies can cause you to cough until your throat bleeds, trying to get people to ease off the Eau du Paris is worth raising a stink.
The Chinese have been swearing by it for centuries. Who's to say that acupuncture doesn't work? To this westerner exploring the medical mysteries of the east, the results are good enough to keep going back. From needles to the skin, to medicinal herbs taped directly to the ear, Monique finds that she is all for reordering the flow of her <i>Qi</i>.
When your daughter's first and best loved dolly, the one named after a dearly departed family member, is just too decrepid and smelly to go on, there's only one way to dispose of it. Break out the little horned helmets: it's time for a Viking Dolly Funeral.
Do you dream about buttery cookies, pies crammed with fruit, the brown glaze of fat turkeys just out of the oven, and mounds of garlicky mashed potatoes? This holiday season, just kick those skinny little lo-carb Nazis to the curb and enjoy yourself. After all, carbs are organic.
A good costume should be topical, relevant, witty and not too expensive. Don't worry about the good taste -- that's pretty much not a requirement.
A mystery of health. Obesity and smoking cause heart disease, so why does an extremely fit non-smoker have a heart that's 20 percent dead? A personal account of the guesswork behind the science of health and fitness.
Canning fruits and vegetables used to be a common practice. Is it still practical? Take a look at some of the pros and cons. After all, what other household task can you do just once or twice year and still reap the rewards all year long?
Marriage is a mysterious thing. A normal quirk in one partner can combine with a normal quirk in the other partner to create a synergistic insanity that outsiders find boggling.
Do you dream of fresh vegetables but have nowhere to grow them? No need to sneak into the neighbor's yard, simply follow these steps to create a container garden that will fit anywhere.
When a friend finds out she's going to undergo chemotherapy, Sand shaves her own head to show moral support. Hilarity ensues.
<b>Gypsy's Guide to Good Living</b>: A final word of advice on the upcoming National Novel Writing Month. A few tips on researching help you get the information you need from the internet quickly, without losing valuable time surfing.
Who appreciates fine poetry any more? Your family definitely won't. Compromise with Clerihews: lose the "fine" and replace it with "fast" and "funny".
So you've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo and write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! But as nice as it may sound, the odds of wrangling a month of no housework, no day job, no school and no interruptions is not part of the package. So how <i>will</i> you get it all done?
Poetry should rhyme. It's the law, and anyone who says otherwise is a pinko communist.
Was the "Pirates of the Caribbean" a perfect tale? Analyze the elements to see what made this story such a success. Nonfiction,
<b>Gypsy's Guide to Good Living:</b> How to make sure everyone eats when you're busy writing 50k words in 30 days for National Novel Writing Month.
The job of a reference librarian is livelier than you might think. Some of the questions they receive in the course of the day are real, well...
"Why is pink considered a girl color and blue a boy color?" It's a little known fact that gender was invented in the 1930's to combat the Great Depression.
<b>Gypsy's Guide to Good Living.</b> Have you ever longed for an oasis in your own home? With a little bit of creativity and frugality, you can create an oasis in your own home for less than $50.00.
Set on the eve of the first Women's Rights Convention, Miriam Grace Monfredo's Seneca Falls mystery series provides tales of murder and intrigue that are both historically accurate and satisfying, cozy "cold weather" reads.
Tell some drivers about common traffic laws and they'll look at you like a small weasel just poked its head out of your mouth and started speaking Mandarin Chinese.
A semi-true account of the first annual Piker Press Conference. After the business was taken care of, there was plenty of time to show everyone around the Valley. Home is always a lot more interesting when described by a writer.
<b>Gypsy's Guide to Good Living</b> When I was Your Age: My Daughter and Myself. The teen years are the most challenging since the "terrible two's", and teens today live in a different world than the one their parents grew up in. Despite that, there's plenty of room for common ground.
Marketers just don't seem to think when they create merchandise to go along with films. Faux Dalmatian hide? Extra copies of Sauron's Ring? A Wiggles Tarot Deck? Sick. Just sick.