text:
“You can’t hit that!” says Tommy.
	“Sure I can” Billy claims, loading his slingshot, a small can of Bush’s beans sits atop a junkyard car about thirty yards away.
	Billy has always been the best shot in the neighborhood, but this time he may have overestimated himself. He stuck his tongue out, and pulled the stiff elastic back, a marble sized rock awaited blastoff.
 He was ready when “Billy Ray!” came  from their trailer down the road. “coming mom!” he stood up, flimsily letting the rock go. Flying nowhere near the can.
	“Told ya’ so” Tommy smirks.
	“Didn’t count” Billy whines.
	Running side by side back to their trailer these two brothers have the iconic “Did not”, “did too” argument.
	Billy and Tommy sit in the back of the trailer where a limestone table is surrounded by a blue stained booth. Rust peppers the sides of the oversized van, the steps are sharp and dirty, lockjaw waiting to happen. The cabinets hang off their hinges, the sink is full of small insects and dirty dishes. It has a back bed room where the mother and whomever else she brings home stays. The two bunk-beds outside the room are for the boys, but the mom doesn’t want the boys to stay there. The mom tricks for a living, so she bought them a tent the boys set up a couple hundred yards into the forest.
	“Meatloaf and corn on the cob, Tommy’s favorite!” she exclaims. She is a good mother, just dealt a bad hand. She does what she can for the boys, but in rural Tennessee prostitution in the trailer parks is her only bargaining chip. Billy is big for his age, at 11 he towers at 5’6 and weighs 130 pounds. He is a pale boy with greasy blonde hair always molded under a Boston Bruins baseball cap. He can’t even tell ya’ where Boston is, but he found the hat in the trunk of an old Mustang in the Junkyard. He tells his friends it stands for Billy and with his temper, no one ever questions it.
Tommy is thirteen years old and stands 5’3 108 pounds. The mother tells the boys they have the same father and that he was off fighting in the war. Tommy knows his father was black but never brings  it up to his mom, he knows there is a reason she won’t tell him.
 Billy and Tommy race to wash their plastic plates in the sink. “Race ya’ to the tent!” Tommy pants as he grabs his knapsack and runs out the door.
	“No fair. Mom I wasn’t ready.” Billy cries.
	“Tommy get back here and brush your teeth.” She says as she holds onto the handrail and leans out the door.
	“Mauuuuum.” Billy says walking head down towards the trailer.
	“Smack” Tommy hit Billy in the arm the second he got into range. Tommy might have been the runt but Billy had a severe case of little brother syndrome.
	“Now I am going into town tonight. If you need anything go down to Buck’s and you can each spend five dollars. I don’t want y’all coming back to the trailer until the flag is out the window in the morning. Okay?”
	“Okay mom.” the boys say in haunting monotone unison.
	The boys are so used to this routine, they run out to Buck’s mini-mart and each grabbed a root-beer and a myriad of snack foods. Back in the tent, Billy says “what does mom do every night?”
	Tommy of course knows how their mom makes her money but wasn’t about the be the one who breaks the “good ole’ mommy illusion” to an eleven year old.
	“She has friends over. Ever since dad went to war, she needs people to talk to.”
	“What about us?”
	“Adults are different, adults talk about things that we haven’t learned yet.”
	“Like what?”
	“I don’t know, shut up and go to sleep.”
The soundtrack of birds and crickets put the boys into a deep sleep. One giant Spider-man sleeping back carpeted the tent. Under blankets and starlight the boys were never bothered.
Until later that morning “ERRRRRRRRRR–VROOOOOM” woke up the boys. Billy and Tommy peeked out of their tent and saw a black Ford Expedition peel out of their drive way.
	“Can we go home?” Billy asks.
	“We have to wait for the flag first.”
	“But her friends are gone.”
	“Still momma needs to rest some from hanging out all night.”
But that old Coffee stained American flag, never flew again.

title: [16M] Be gentle. "Memoirs of a Trailer Park"

question: Summarize why Tommy and Billy's mother turned to prostitution.

answer: She did it to make ends meet. It was one of the few options left for her because of her social status and where she lives, which was rural Tennesee. Also, she has no husband living with her - Tommy and Billy's father may be died or have run away considering the social implications of a black man impregnating a white woman.


split: train

text:
Strong (well-distributed and unpredictable) hashes:

-   Portable implementation of SipHash
-   HighwayHash, a 5x faster SIMD hash with security claims

Quick Start

To build on a Linux or Mac platform, simply run make. For Windows, we provide a Visual Studio 2015 project in the msvc subdirectory.

Run benchmark for speed measurements. sip_hash_test and highwayhash_test ensure the implementations return known-good values for a given set of inputs.

64-bit SipHash for any CPU:

    #include "highwayhash/sip_hash.h"
    using namespace highwayhash;
    const HH_U64 key2[2] HH_ALIGNAS(16) = {1234, 5678};
    char in[8] = {1};
    return SipHash(key2, in, 8);

64, 128 or 256 bit HighwayHash for the CPU determined by compiler flags:

    #include "highwayhash/highwayhash.h"
    using namespace highwayhash;
    const HHKey key HH_ALIGNAS(32) = {1, 2, 3, 4};
    char in[8] = {1};
    HHResult64 result;  // or HHResult128 or HHResult256
    HHStateT<HH_TARGET> state(key);
    HighwayHashT(&state, in, 8, &result);

64, 128 or 256 bit HighwayHash for the CPU on which we're currently running:

    #include "highwayhash/highwayhash_target.h"
    #include "highwayhash/instruction_sets.h"
    using namespace highwayhash;
    const HHKey key HH_ALIGNAS(32) = {1, 2, 3, 4};
    char in[8] = {1};
    HHResult64 result;  // or HHResult128 or HHResult256
    InstructionSets::Run<HighwayHash>(key, in, 8, &result);

C-callable 64-bit HighwayHash for the CPU on which we're currently running:

    #include "highwayhash/c_bindings.h"
    const uint64_t key[4] = {1, 2, 3, 4};
    char in[8] = {1};
    return HighwayHash64(key, in, 8);

Printing a 256-bit result in a hexadecimal format similar to sha1sum:

    HHResult256 result;
    printf("%016"PRIx64"%016"PRIx64"%016"PRIx64"%016"PRIx64"\n",
         result[3], result[2], result[1], result[0]);

Introduction

Hash functions are widely used, so it is desirable to increase their speed and security. This package provides two 'strong' (well-distributed and unpredictable) hash functions: a faster version of SipHash, and an even faster algorithm we call HighwayHash.

SipHash is a fast but 'cryptographically strong' pseudo-random function by Aumasson and Bernstein [https://www.131002.net/siphash/siphash.pdf].

HighwayHash is a new way of mixing inputs which may inspire new cryptographically strong hashes. Large inputs are processed at a rate of 0.24 cycles per byte, and latency remains low even for small inputs. HighwayHash is faster than SipHash for all input sizes, with 5 times higher throughput at 1 KiB. We discuss design choices and provide statistical analysis and preliminary cryptanalysis in https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.06257.

Applications

Unlike prior strong hashes, these functions are fast enough to be recommended as safer replacements for weak hashes in many applications. The additional CPU cost appears affordable, based on profiling data indicating C++ hash functions account for less than 0.25% of CPU usage.

Hash-based selection of random subsets is useful for A/B experiments and similar applications. Such random generators are idempotent (repeatable and deterministic), which is helpful for parallel algorithms and testing. To avoid bias, it is important that the hash function be unpredictable and indistinguishable from a uniform random generator. We have verified the bit distribution and avalanche properties of SipHash and HighwayHash.

64-bit hashes are also useful for authenticating short-lived messages such as network/RPC packets. This requires that the hash function withstand differential, length extension and other attacks. We have published a formal security analysis for HighwayHash. New cryptanalysis tools may still need to be developed for further analysis.

Strong hashes are also important parts of methods for protecting hash tables against unacceptable worst-case behavior and denial of service attacks (see "hash flooding" below).

128 and 256-bit hashes can be useful for verifying data integrity (checksums).

SipHash

Our SipHash implementation is a fast and portable drop-in replacement for the reference C code. Outputs are identical for the given test cases (messages between 0 and 63 bytes).

Interestingly, it is about twice as fast as a SIMD implementation using SSE4.1 (https://goo.gl/80GBSD). This is presumably due to the lack of SIMD bit rotate instructions prior to AVX-512.

SipHash13 is a faster but weaker variant with one mixing round per update and three during finalization.

We also provide a data-parallel 'tree hash' variant that enables efficient SIMD while retaining safety guarantees. This is about twice as fast as SipHash, but does not return the same results.

HighwayHash

We have devised a new way of mixing inputs with SIMD multiply and permute instructions. The multiplications are 32x32 -> 64 bits and therefore infeasible to reverse. Permuting equalizes the distribution of the resulting bytes.

The internal state is quite large (1024 bits) but fits within SIMD registers. Due to limitations of the AVX2 instruction set, the registers are partitioned into two 512-bit halves that remain independent until the reduce phase. The algorithm outputs 64 bit digests or up to 256 bits at no extra cost.

In addition to high throughput, the algorithm is designed for low finalization cost. The result is more than twice as fast as SipTreeHash.

We also provide an SSE4.1 version (80% as fast for large inputs and 95% as fast for short inputs), an implementation for VSX on POWER and a portable version (10% as fast). A third-party ARM implementation is referenced below.

Statistical analyses and preliminary cryptanalysis are given in https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.06257.

Versioning and stability

Now that 21 months have elapsed since their initial release, we have declared all (64/128/256 bit) variants of HighwayHash frozen, i.e. unchanging forever.

SipHash and HighwayHash are 'fingerprint functions' whose input -> hash mapping will not change. This is important for applications that write hashes to persistent storage.

Speed measurements

To measure the CPU cost of a hash function, we can either create an artificial 'microbenchmark' (easier to control, but probably not representative of the actual runtime), or insert instrumentation directly into an application (risks influencing the results through observer overhead). We provide novel variants of both approaches that mitigate their respective disadvantages.

profiler.h uses software write-combining to stream program traces to memory with minimal overhead. These can be analyzed offline, or when memory is full, to learn how much time was spent in each (possibly nested) zone.

nanobenchmark.h enables cycle-accurate measurements of very short functions. It uses CPU fences and robust statistics to minimize variability, and also avoids unrealistic branch prediction effects.

We compile the 64-bit C++ implementations with a patched GCC 4.9 and run on a single idle core of a Xeon E5-2690 v3 clocked at 2.6 GHz. CPU cost is measured as cycles per byte for various input sizes:

  Algorithm          8       31     32     63     64     1024
  ------------------ ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
  HighwayHashAVX2    7.34    1.81   1.71   1.04   0.95   0.24
  HighwayHashSSE41   8.00    2.11   1.75   1.13   0.96   0.30
  SipTreeHash        16.51   4.57   4.09   2.22   2.29   0.57
  SipTreeHash13      12.33   3.47   3.06   1.68   1.63   0.33
  SipHash            8.13    2.58   2.73   1.87   1.93   1.26
  SipHash13          6.96    2.09   2.12   1.32   1.33   0.68

SipTreeHash is slower than SipHash for small inputs because it processes blocks of 32 bytes. AVX2 and SSE4.1 HighwayHash are faster than SipHash for all input sizes due to their highly optimized handling of partial vectors.

Note that previous measurements included the initialization of their input, which dramatically increased timings especially for small inputs.

CPU requirements

SipTreeHash(13) requires an AVX2-capable CPU (e.g. Haswell). HighwayHash includes a dispatcher that chooses the implementation (AVX2, SSE4.1, VSX or portable) at runtime, as well as a directly callable function template that can only run on the CPU for which it was built. SipHash(13) and ScalarSipTreeHash(13) have no particular CPU requirements.

AVX2 vs SSE4

When both AVX2 and SSE4 are available, the decision whether to use AVX2 is non-obvious. AVX2 vectors are twice as wide, but require a higher power license (integer multiplications count as 'heavy' instructions) and can thus reduce the clock frequency of the core or entire socket(!) on Haswell systems. This partially explains the observed 1.25x (not 2x) speedup over SSE4. Moreover, it is inadvisable to only sporadically use AVX2 instructions because there is also a ~56K cycle warmup period during which AVX2 operations are slower, and Haswell can even stall during this period. Thus, we recommend avoiding AVX2 for infrequent hashing if the rest of the application is also not using AVX2. For any input larger than 1 MiB, it is probably worthwhile to enable AVX2.

SIMD implementations

Our x86 implementations use custom vector classes with overloaded operators (e.g. const V4x64U a = b + c) for type-safety and improved readability vs. compiler intrinsics (e.g. const __m256i a = _mm256_add_epi64(b, c)). The VSX implementation uses built-in vector types alongside Altivec intrinsics. A high-performance third-party ARM implementation is mentioned below.

Dispatch

Our instruction_sets dispatcher avoids running newer instructions on older CPUs that do not support them. However, intrinsics, and therefore also any vector classes that use them, require (on GCC < 4.9 or Clang < 3.9) a compiler flag that also allows the compiler to generate code for that CPU. This means the intrinsics must be placed in separate translation units that are compiled with the required flags. It is important that these source files and their headers not define any inline functions, because that might break the one definition rule and cause crashes.

To minimize dispatch overhead when hashes are computed often (e.g. in a loop), we can inline the hash function into its caller using templates. The dispatch overhead will only be paid once (e.g. before the loop). The template mechanism also avoids duplicating code in each CPU-specific implementation.

Defending against hash flooding

To mitigate hash flooding attacks, we need to take both the hash function and the data structure into account.

We wish to defend (web) services that utilize hash sets/maps against denial-of-service attacks. Such data structures assign attacker-controlled input messages m to a hash table bin b by computing the hash H(s, m) using a hash function H seeded by s, and mapping it to a bin with some narrowing function b = R(h), discussed below.

Attackers may attempt to trigger 'flooding' (excessive work in insertions or lookups) by finding multiple m that map to the same bin. If the attacker has local access, they can do far worse, so we assume the attacker can only issue remote requests. If the attacker is able to send large numbers of requests, they can already deny service, so we need only ensure the attacker's cost is sufficiently large compared to the service's provisioning.

If the hash function is 'weak', attackers can easily generate 'hash collisions' (inputs mapping to the same hash values) that are independent of the seed. In other words, certain input messages will cause collisions regardless of the seed value. The author of SipHash has published C++ programs to generate such 'universal (key-independent) multicollisions' for CityHash and Murmur. Similar 'differential' attacks are likely possible for any hash function consisting only of reversible operations (e.g. addition/multiplication/rotation) with a constant operand. n requests with such inputs cause n^2 work for an unprotected hash table, which is unacceptable.

By contrast, 'strong' hashes such as SipHash or HighwayHash require infeasible attacker effort to find a hash collision (an expected 2^32 guesses of m per the birthday paradox) or recover the seed (2^63 requests). These security claims assume the seed is secret. It is reasonable to suppose s is initially unknown to attackers, e.g. generated on startup or even per-connection. A timing attack by Wool/Bar-Yosef recovers 13-bit seeds by testing all 8K possibilities using millions of requests, which takes several days (even assuming unrealistic 150 us round-trip times). It appears infeasible to recover 64-bit seeds in this way.

However, attackers are only looking for multiple m mapping to the same bin rather than identical hash values. We assume they know or are able to discover the hash table size p. It is common to choose p = 2^i to enable an efficient R(h) := h & (p - 1), which simply retains the lower hash bits. It may be easier for attackers to compute partial collisions where only the lower i bits match. This can be prevented by choosing a prime p so that R(h) := h % p incorporates all hash bits. The costly modulo operation can be avoided by multiplying with the inverse (https://goo.gl/l7ASm8). An interesting alternative suggested by Kyoung Jae Seo chooses a random subset of the h bits. Such an R function can be computed in just 3 cycles using PEXT from the BMI2 instruction set. This is expected to defend against SAT-solver attacks on the hash bits at a slightly lower cost than the multiplicative inverse method, and still allows power-of-two table sizes.

Summary thus far: given a strong hash function and secret seed, it appears infeasible for attackers to generate hash collisions because s and/or R are unknown. However, they can still observe the timings of data structure operations for various m. With typical table sizes of 2^10 to 2^17 entries, attackers can detect some 'bin collisions' (inputs mapping to the same bin). Although this will be costly for the attacker, they can then send many instances of such inputs, so we need to limit the resulting work for our data structure.

Hash tables with separate chaining typically store bin entries in a linked list, so worst-case inputs lead to unacceptable linear-time lookup cost. We instead seek optimal asymptotic worst-case complexity for each operation (insertion, deletion and lookups), which is a constant factor times the logarithm of the data structure size. This naturally leads to a tree-like data structure for each bin. The Java8 HashMap only replaces its linked list with trees when needed. This leads to additional cost and complexity for deciding whether a bin is a list or tree.

Our first proposal (suggested by Github user funny-falcon) avoids this overhead by always storing one tree per bin. It may also be worthwhile to store the first entry directly in the bin, which avoids allocating any tree nodes in the common case where bins are sparsely populated. What kind of tree should be used?

Given SipHash and HighwayHash provide high quality randomness, depending on expecting attack surface simple non-balancing binary search tree could perform reasonably well. Wikipedia says

  After a long intermixed sequence of random insertion and deletion, the expected height of the tree approaches square root of the number of keys, √n, which grows much faster than log n.

While O(√n) is much larger than O(log n), it is still much smaller than O(n). And it will certainly complicate the timing attack, since the time of operation on collisioned bin will grow slower.

If stronger safety guarantees are needed, then a balanced tree should be used. Scapegoat and splay trees only offer amortized complexity guarantees, whereas treaps require an entropy source and have higher constant factors in practice. Self-balancing structures such as 2-3 or red-black trees require additional bookkeeping information. We can hope to reduce rebalancing cost by realizing that the output bits of strong H functions are uniformly distributed. When using them as keys instead of the original message m, recent relaxed balancing schemes such as left-leaning red-black or weak AVL trees may require fewer tree rotations to maintain their invariants. Note that H already determines the bin, so we should only use the remaining bits. 64-bit hashes are likely sufficient for this purpose, and HighwayHash generates up to 256 bits. It seems unlikely that attackers can craft inputs resulting in worst cases for both the bin index and tree key without being able to generate hash collisions, which would contradict the security claims of strong hashes. Even if they succeed, the relaxed tree balancing still guarantees an upper bound on height and therefore the worst-case operation cost. For the AVL variant, the constant factors are slightly lower than for red-black trees.

The second proposed approach uses augmented/de-amortized cuckoo hash tables (https://goo.gl/PFwwkx). These guarantee worst-case log n bounds for all operations, but only if the hash function is 'indistinguishable from random' (uniformly distributed regardless of the input distribution), which is claimed for SipHash and HighwayHash but certainly not for weak hashes.

Both alternatives retain good average case performance and defend against flooding by limiting the amount of extra work an attacker can cause. The first approach guarantees an upper bound of log n additional work even if the hash function is compromised.

In summary, a strong hash function is not, by itself, sufficient to protect a chained hash table from flooding attacks. However, strong hash functions are important parts of two schemes for preventing denial of service. Using weak hash functions can slightly accelerate the best-case and average-case performance of a service, but at the risk of greatly reduced attack costs and worst-case performance.

Third-party implementations / bindings

Thanks to Damian Gryski and Frank Wessels for making us aware of these third-party implementations or bindings. Please feel free to get in touch or raise an issue and we'll add yours as well.

  By                                    Language              URL
  ------------------------------------- --------------------- -------------------------------------------------
  Damian Gryski                         Go and x64 assembly   https://github.com/dgryski/go-highway/
  Lovell Fuller                         node.js bindings      https://github.com/lovell/highwayhash
  Vinzent Steinberg                     Rust bindings         https://github.com/vks/highwayhash-rs
  Frank Wessels & Andreas Auernhammer   Go and ARM assembly   https://github.com/minio/highwayhash
  Phil Demetriou                        Python 3 bindings     https://github.com/kpdemetriou/highwayhash-cffi

Modules

Hashes

-   c_bindings.h declares C-callable versions of SipHash/HighwayHash.
-   sip_hash.cc is the compatible implementation of SipHash, and also provides the final reduction for sip_tree_hash.
-   sip_tree_hash.cc is the faster but incompatible SIMD j-lanes tree hash.
-   scalar_sip_tree_hash.cc is a non-SIMD version.
-   state_helpers.h simplifies the implementation of the SipHash variants.
-   highwayhash.h is our new, fast hash function.
-   hh_{avx2,sse41,vsx,portable}.h are its various implementations.
-   highwayhash_target.h chooses the best available implementation at runtime.

Infrastructure

-   arch_specific.h offers byte swapping and CPUID detection.
-   compiler_specific.h defines some compiler-dependent language extensions.
-   data_parallel.h provides a C++11 ThreadPool and PerThread (similar to OpenMP).
-   instruction_sets.h and targets.h enable efficient CPU-specific dispatching.
-   nanobenchmark.h measures elapsed times with < 1 cycle variability.
-   os_specific.h sets thread affinity and priority for benchmarking.
-   profiler.h is a low-overhead, deterministic hierarchical profiler.
-   tsc_timer.h obtains high-resolution timestamps without CPU reordering.
-   vector256.h and vector128.h contain wrapper classes for AVX2 and SSE4.1.

By Jan Wassenberg jan.wassenberg@gmail.com and Jyrki Alakuijala jyrki.alakuijala@gmail.com, updated 2018-10-02

This is not an official Google product.

question: Why does the application use a uniform random generator?

answer: To avoid bias, the hash function be unpredictable and indistinguishable

question: Why are the registers are partitioned into two 512-bit halves?

answer: Because the AVX2 instruction set is limited.


text:
PRINCES HOUSE (formerly NORWICH UNION HOUSE) is an office and residential building in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The prominently sited building, an example of Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's “inimitable response to Modernism”,[1] was purpose-built as the headquarters of the Brighton & Sussex Building Society, forerunner of the Alliance & Leicester.[2] The office was later used by Norwich Union, another financial institution, and now houses a restaurant and flats. The steel-framed structure is clad in red bricks with inlaid mosaicwork, forming a carefully detailed façade, and the corner elevation has an arrangement of brickwork and windows which suggests “the pleated folds of a curtain”. The building is listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.[3]

History

The Brighton & Sussex Equitable Permanent Building Society was founded in 1863 in Brighton by three businessmen: Marriage Wallis, Frederick Tooth and Richard Bevan. Its chairmen included Alderman Sir Herbert Carden (1929–39) and Lewis Cohen, Baron Cohen of Brighton. Under Carden's leadership, its assets increased by nearly 225 times to nearly £5 million.[4] In 1935 the society commissioned architect Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel to design a new head office on North Street, Brighton's main commercial street since the start of the 19th century and home to many large banks and offices.[5][6] A site on the corner of Prince's Place was chosen; this short street, dominated by the Chapel Royal, was laid out in the 18th century and originally led to Promenade Grove,[7] Brighton's first pleasure gardens (now part of the Royal Pavilion grounds).[8] The office opened in 1936, although some clerical staff still occupied premises on New Road nearby. During World War II, important documents and other assets were moved to Saddlescombe on the South Downs, where they were stored underground, and the roof of the building was used to mount a battery of anti-aircraft guns.[9] The building society established a sports and social club in 1935 and housed it in the basement of the partly built office. Consisting at first of “15 members and a second-hand table tennis table and dartboard”, over the years it developed into the Alliance Sports Club, a major corporate sports and social club.[10]

The Brighton & Sussex changed its name to the Alliance Building Society in 1945. After mergers with more than 20 other building societies, culminating in its amalgamation with the Leicester in 1985, it took the name Alliance & Leicester and was Britain's fifth largest building society by 1990, holding assets in excess of £13 billion.[11][12] It is now part of Santander Group.[13] Much of its postwar growth came under Baron Cohen of Brighton's leadership, and in January 1956 he announced that a new headquarters would be built on land overlooking Hove Park in neighbouring Hove. The steel-framed concrete and granite building opened in 1967.[14] Princes House was acquired by insurance company Norwich Union and was renamed Norwich Union House, a name it retained at the time it became a listed building in 1994.[15] At some time before this, “a rash of modernisation” added “incongruous” canopies to the south and west elevations and removed a backlit triangular staircase which led up from the entrance hall, a heptagonal room reached through the original entrance at the southwest corner.[16]

In 2002, property developer Baron Homes Corporation acquired the building and converted the upper storeys into 34 flats.[17] (There are now two penthouse apartments and 30 standard flats.[18] In early 2017, when the entire building had to be evacuated because of a fire, there were 50 residents.)[19] As part of this work, to meet Brighton and Hove City Council's planning and conservation requirements, the original Crittall steel windows were replaced with identical new windows powder-coated with the same pale blue finish as the originals.[20] The ground floor remained in commercial use, and for several years it was occupied by a branch of tapas bar La Tasca. A fire in 2012 caused damage to the restaurant and caused the evacuation of the rest of the building.[21] La Tasca's owners then used the premises to test a new format of tapas bar: in January 2013 the restaurant closed and was reopened under the name Bellota Bar y Tapas, still under the same ownership but giving the appearance of being an independent restaurant.[22] It included a separate cava bar.[23] This closed in 2016[24] and the premises were converted into a branch of the Bella Italia Italian restaurant chain.[25]

One of the penthouse apartments, which has an octagonal kitchen and two balconies with extensive views over the city and its hinterland, was bought by local businessman Mike Holland from a former owner of Crawley Town F.C..[26] Holland owns several heritage buildings in the city, such as the Astoria Theatre, the Grade I-listed Stanmer House and the Grade II*-listed British Engineerium.[27][28][29][30]

Heritage

Under its former name of _Norwich Union House_, Princes House was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 4 November 1994.[31] This status is given to “nationally important buildings of special interest”.[32] As of February 2001, it was one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.[33]

The building is within the Valley Gardens Conservation Area,[34] one of 34 conservation areas in the city of Brighton and Hove.[35] This was designated by Brighton Council in 1973 and covers .[36]

Architecture

[The brickwork is inlaid with blue tile and glass fragments.] Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel was an architect, architectural writer, former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and former Brighton resident who adopted a distinctive interpretation of Modern architecture in his designs, particularly at St Wilfrid's Church (1932–34) in the Elm Grove area of Brighton and at Princes House itself.[37][38][39] “Much more idiosyncratic and edgy” than the “polished” conventional Modernism of Embassy Court, built a year earlier,[40] the building's simple steel-framed construction contrasts with the “decorative treatment of [its] cladding materials”, which include reddish handmade sand-faced bricks, blue glass and tiles inlaid between the bricks, and green slate.[41][42][43] The overall design is both “progressive and indebted to 19th-century traditions”.[44]

The five-storey building has elevations facing south (on to North Street; five bays), west (with 11 bays facing Prince's Place) and north (six bays facing the Royal Pavilion Gardens). The structure of the steel frame is emphasised by being overlaid with handmade bricks in a soldier course pattern both horizontally and vertically. At each join, the brickwork is laid in a starburst pattern, and pieces of blue tile and glass are inlaid into the joints between the bricks.[45] Green slate is used as a sheathing material at ground-floor level on the rear elevation.[46][47] Between each section of steel framing, each bay is treated identically in the form of “a cell of identical dimensions and design”, consisting of a full-width steel casement window (those at first-floor level slightly taller than those above them) above a panel of red bricks laid in the header bond pattern. The top storey is expressed differently, with single or double pairs of narrow windows alternating with larger, slightly projecting windows in the style of a shallow bay window. The whole of the top storey is also set forwards slightly. Above this, a parapet runs around the whole roof except at the southwest corner, where there is a tower in the form of a short cylinder with zig-zag walls. This zig-zag effect is carried on down the whole of the southwest corner, where the windows have this layout and are slightly recessed.[48][49]

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[49]

title: Princes House, Brighton

question: Why was Princes House built?

answer: Princes House was built as the headquarters of the Brighton & Sussex Building Society.

question: What is Brighton?

answer: Brighton is an area of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove.

question: When was the Brighton & Sussex Equitable Permanent Building Society founded?

answer: The Brighton & Sussex Equitable Permanent Building Society was founded in 1863.

question: Where is Princes House?

answer: Princes House is in North Street, Brighton's main commercial street.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Princes House was built as the headquarters of the Brighton & Sussex Building Society, later used by Norwich Union, another financial institution, and now houses a restaurant and flats. The office opened in 1936. The Brighton & Sussex Building Society changed its name to the Alliance Building Society and merged with more than 20 other building societies becoming Britain's fifth-largest building society by 1990. In 2002, the upper floors were converted into 34 flats.


text:
"I'm sorry, but I just can't deal with your sob stories tonight," she said to me as I sat beside her brushing my fingers through her hair.
"It's not a sob story," I protest. "I just want you to understand why I feel the things I feel."
"Sometimes I think you just need to be checked for some kind of mental disorder."
Five minutes passed as I continued to brush her hair. Finally I broke the stillness and whispered to her.
"Are you still afraid of me?" I breathed.
A soft nod was all that she managed to show. That was the worst pain of all. I kissed her on the head as I got up to go but I felt her quiver upon the touch of my lips. It was difficult to get up and go to my car with my heart dragging me down the whole way. I still needed to get gas. Coming to see her before I left town again used the last of the gallon that I had.

Before making it to the gas station I saw a trooper waiting with his lights on pointed towards the speed trap. He would find his man. Tonight it would not be me. My mother gave me her debit card to use for gas. We weren't extensively wealthy but she felt that if she didn't buy me gas I would stay at school across state. She enjoyed spending time with me so she would make sure I had a way to come see her.

I reminded my mother of my father. Before he became self absorbed, sheltered, and cynical. I loved my relationship with her but I often knew how much of a burden I was being financially. An engineering degree isn't free and every day I felt like I was leeching the life from her. As the debit card failed to make a transaction the realization struck me harder than it had before. I took out the cash I had to pay for the gas instead. Ashamed that I had ever thought about using her card, I quickly shuffled it into my back pocket behind my wallet closest to my body.

As I pumped gas I thought about the money I had saved. I was trying to buy this girl that I loved an engagement ring but she was incapable of just listening to me. I didn't need responses. All I ever really wanted was someone to just listen and make me feel like I was normal and I had normal problems with normal thoughts.

Earlier in the night she yelled at me while I was trying to talk to her.

"OKAY FINE. I UNDERSTAND. IT'S ALL MY FAULT THAT YOUR STUPID TOY WON'T WORK."

"You're not listening to me. You're not listening to me. You're not listening to me. It's not your fault that 5 people are on Facebook at the same time. I'm just trying to tell you that I get stressed out that things only work when I'm alone with no one else around."

"Whatever," she mumbled under her breath.

I looked down and saw my fist clenched as I sat beside her. Why was it in a fist? In that instance I saw the consequences of a clinched fist. I saw her crying with bruises on her face. I saw my head splattered on the floor as her father battered me with his college bat. I saw all the paths that a fist would lead me and rushed back to the noise of the present and watched my hands relax.

As I drove home I pondered these things in my heart. How could I confidently marry anyone at this point. Especially someone who was afraid of me. Afraid of what I'd do. Couldn't do. Never do. Could never do to her.

I saw the lights of a truck hurrying up behind me. It was late and must kids had curfews to meet. He sped up and passed. Either he didn't know about the stop sign or he didn't care that it was coming up. The truck continued at the same pace through the intersection. At the same moment a tractor trailer was passing through the intersection.

The sound was blood curdling as I saw the truck get ripped to shreds. The mass slid 60 yards before coming to a halt. The truck cab was caved to the floor. The driver was killed instantly. I could do nothing. I could only watch and see the consequences.

title: Tripolar

question: Summarize the tension build-up in this story.

answer: The narrator has had a fight with the woman he is going to ask to marry him. She's accused him of having "some kind of mental disorder" as she cried. She also revealed she is still afraid of him-though after he had asked. The narrator explains that earlier they had gotten into a verbal argument but that he had balled up his fist in the heat of the moment-it seems this is what led to her fearing him. As the narrator goes to get gas with a debit card gifted by his mother, he thinks about how he's leeching off her still, feels guilty and more upset, and pays with cash before driving away. On the road, he witnesses a physical manifestation of his inner turmoil as a truck and a tractor trailer collide in what could be a deadly accident.

question: Explain how the narrator might resolve their problems with their girlfriend.

question: Summarize how the main decision the narrator has to make.

answer: On a superficial level, the narrator has to decide if he feels ready to ask his girlfriend to marry him. More than that, he has to decide whether or not he feels like he can be a mature adult who can ensure he will not fall prey to a self-fulfilling prophecy of never physically hurting his girlfriend. Furthermore, he wants to be certain he will not use his mom's funds to take care of the things he could be paying for himself.


text:
MEL ODOM (born 1957 in California) is a writer primarily known for his science fiction and fantasy novels set in existing properties.

Education

Odom graduated from Byng High School in Byng, Oklahoma in May 1976,[1] and later graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.[2] He teaches undergraduate courses at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication in the Professional Writing program at the University of Oklahoma.[3]

Career

Odom sold his first book in January 1988[4] and wrote dozens more books over the next ten years.[5] He wrote two novels for the F.R.E.E.Lancers campaign setting for TSR's _Top Secret/S.I._ role-playing game, _F.R.E.E.Lancers_ and _F.R.E.E.Fall_.[6] He followed these with his first Forgotten Realms novel in 1998, _The Lost Library of Cormanthyr_, and then his _Threat from the Sea_ trilogy.[7]

Odom has written dozens of novels in several fields - action-adventure, computer strategy guides, fantasy, game-related fiction, horror, juvenile, movie novelizations, science fiction, and young adult - as well as comics.[8]

Odom wrote several novels in the Forgotten Realms series, including the trilogy _The Threat from the Sea_, and two short stories. He has gained renown with his _The Rover_ and _Left Behind Apocalypse_ series, and two novels for the _NCIS_ franchise.

He has published original novels for popular TV shows, including _Roswell_ and _Sabrina, the Teenage Witch_. The most popular show for which he has written original novels is _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. He has also written novelizations of movies, including: _Blade_ starring Wesley Snipes, and _xXx_ starring Vin Diesel.

One of his best known fantasy novels is _The Rover_ (2001), which in 2002 won the Alex Award, an American Library Association award given to novels written for adults that would also appeal to young readers (see the link below). Three sequels have appeared since then: _Destruction of the Books_ (2004), _Lord of the Libraries_ (2005), and _The Quest for the Trilogy_ (2007). These stories are high fantasy in the tradition of J. R. R. Tolkien and _The Lord of the Rings_.

In 2003, he published _Apocalypse Dawn_, a military spin-off of the enormously popular Left Behind Series; Odom's book made the Christian bestseller list.

Odom also writes DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray reviews for AVRev.com.

He is known to have written under several pen names, among others Jordan Gray.[9] Additionally, under the pseudonym of Don Pendleton, Odom has written several Mack Bolan novels, an action-adventure series.

On 7 February 2015 it was announced that Odom would be writing the new companion novel to the upcoming _Shadowrun: Hong Kong_ game. The novel was scheduled to be released in December 2015, coinciding with game. _Shadowrun: Hong Kong_ is the third crowdfunded game set in the _Shadowrun_ universe by game developer Harebrained Schemes.[10]

Personal life

He lives in Moore, Oklahoma, with his wife and five children.[11] By 1998, he had begun playing an _AD&D_ Forgotten Realms campaign with the two oldest.[12]

Bibliography

Mack Bolan novels

(under pen name Don Pendleton)

-   _War Born_ (1989)
-   Storm Trilogy
    -   _Storm Warning_ (1992)
    -   _Eye of the Storm_ (1992)
    -   _Storm Burst_ (1992)
-   _Crimson Tide_ (2002)
-   The Moon Shadow Trilogy
    -   _Nuclear Game_ (2003)
    -   _Deadly Pursuit_ (2003)
    -   _Final Play_ (2003)

Shadowrun novels

-   _Preying for Keeps_ (1996) –
-   _Headhunters_ (1997) –
-   _Run Hard, Die Fast_ (1999) –

F.R.E.E.Lancers novels from Top Secret (role-playing game)

-   F.R.E.E.Lancers (1995)
-   F.R.E.E.Fall (1996)

The Secret World of Alex Mack novel

-   _In Hot Pursuit_ (1998)

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch novels

-   _Harvest Moon_ (1998)
-   _Sabrina Goes to Rome_ (1998)
-   _I'll Zap Manhattan_ (1999)
-   _Mummy Dearest_ (2000)
-   _Pirate Pandemonium_ (2001)
-   _Dream Boat_ (2001)
-   _Tiger Tale_ (2002)

Buffyverse stories

-   Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels
    -   _Unnatural Selection_ (1999)
    -   _Revenant_ (2001)
    -   _Crossings_ (2002)
    -   _Cursed_ (2003)
-   Angel novels
    -   _Redemption_ (2000)
    -   _Bruja_ (2001)
    -   _Image_ (2002)
-   _Tales of the Slayer_ short stories
    -   “Silent Screams” (2001)
    -   “Ch'ing Shih” (2003)

Might and Magic novel

-   _The Sea of Mist_ (2001)

The Rover series

-   _The Rover_ (2001)
-   _Destruction of the Books_ (2004)
-   _Lord of the Libraries_ (2005)
-   _The Quest for the Trilogy_ (2007)

Diablo novel

-   _The Black Road_ (2002)

Left Behind: Military series

-   _Apocalypse Dawn_ (2003)
-   _Apocalypse Crucible_ (2004)
-   _Apocalypse Burning_ (2004)
-   _Apocalypse Unleashed_ (2008)

NCIS novels

-   _Paid in Blood_ (2006)
-   _Blood Evidence_ (2007)
-   _Blood Lines_ (2008)

Identity Trilogy

-   _Android: Golem_ (2011)
-   _Android: Mimic_ (2012)
-   _Android: Rebel_ (2014)

Hunter's League series

-   _A Conspiracy Revealed_ (2005)
-   _The Mystery Unravels_ (2005)
-   _The Secret Explodes_ (2005)
-   _His Legacy Avenged_ (2006)

Rogue Angel series

(under pen name Alex Archer)

-   _Destiny_ (2006)
-   _The Spider Stone_ (2006)
-   _Forbidden City_ (2006)
-   _God of Thunder_ (2007)
-   _Serpent's Kiss_ (2008)

Hellgate: London novel

-   _Exodus_ (2007)
-   _Goetia_ (2008)
-   _Covenant_ (2008)

Forgotten Realms novels and anthologies

-   _The Lost Library of Cormanthyr_ (1998)
-   _Rising Tide_ (1999)
-   _Under Fallen Stars_ (1999)
-   _Realms of the Deep_ (2000)
-   _The Sea Devil's Eye_ (2000)
-   _The Jewel of Turmish_ (2002)
-   _Realms of War_ (2008)

Gamma World novels

-   _Sooner Dead_ (2011)

A Blackpool Mystery series (based on bestselling game series Mystery Case Files)

(under pen name Jordan Gray)

-   _Stolen_ (2010)
-   _Vanished_ (2010)
-   _Submerged_ (2011)
-   _Unearthed_ (2011)

Makaum War series

-   _Master Sergeant: The Makaum War: Book One_ (2015)
-   _Guerilla: The Makaum War: Book Two_ (2015)

Other novels

-   _Stalker Analog_ (1993)
-   _Lethal Interface_ (1993)
-   _Hunters of the Dark Sea_ (2003)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10] Kickstarter announcement

[11]

[12]

title: Mel Odom (author)

question: What are common themes across Odom's many works?

answer: There are no common themes as he is an incredibly eclectic writer having written action-adventure, computer strategy guides, fantasy, game-related fiction, horror, juvenile, movie novelizations, science fiction, and young adult - as well as comics.


text:
ACT taxpayers will be slugged with a $280,000 legal bill on behalf of Liberal MLA and former opposition leader Jeremy Hanson, who will pay costs to former CFMEU boss Dean Hall, after settling a long-running defamation case.

Key points:

-   Liberal Jeremy Hanson settles defamation dispute with union boss
-   Taxpayers to foot bill for saga
-   CFMEU's Dean Hall says he has been "totally vindicated"

Mr Hanson has also officially apologised to Mr Hall over his comments during a 2016 radio interview, in an embarrassing backdown wrapping up more than two years of legal action.

The now-retracted comments falsely insinuated Mr Hall had a criminal past.

The case was due to end in a Supreme Court showdown in October.

The ABC understands taxpayers will foot Mr Hanson's legal costs after he was granted indemnity by the ACT Labor Government, which could leave the total bill hundreds of thousands of dollars higher.

Mr Hall said he had been "totally vindicated".

"It was only ever about an apology," he told the ABC.

"I apologise for that, but the reality is I needed my name to be cleared and this was the only process I could do it through."

The former CFMEU boss, who now works with the Tradies Group, was not awarded damages, but the payout compensates him for his legal costs.

[A letter addressed to Mr hall outlining Mr Hanson's apology.]

The official apology from Mr Hanson.(Supplied)
MLAs can apply for taxpayer-funded financial assistance to the Attorney-General of the day for incidents that occur during official duties.

Mr Hanson was granted assistance by former Labor attorney-general Simon Corbell before he retired from the Assembly.

Mr Hall said the case went on "far too long".

"I think when people are given an open cheque … and don't have to have any personal responsibility or financial responsibility for an outcome, I don't think it helps the process of people settling quickly," Mr Hall said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hanson said he would not be making any comment because the matter was still before the court.

'No convictions, no charges'

Mr Hall brought the defamation action against both Mr Hanson and Canberra talkback radio station 2CC, where the interview was aired.

The radio station settled with Mr Hall months later and apologised on air.

"I accepted the first apology straight away from 2CC and moved on from them. I would have done the same for Mr Hanson," Mr Hall said.

"It could have been fixed very easily, it was a clear-cut case, he said something wrong about me and he just needed to clear the record."

Mr Hanson's apology letter retracts the comments he made on air.

"I know that you do not have any criminal convictions nor that you are facing any criminal charges," the letter addressed to Mr Hall said.

"To the extent my words suggested that you had any criminal convictions or are facing any criminal charges, I retract any such words and I apologise for any hurt and distress this has caused you."

No admission of liability by Hanson

The deed of settlement and release, seen by the ABC, is dated August 14 and orders Mr Hanson to pay Mr Hall's reasonable legal costs to the sum of $280,000.

It states parties agreed to settle the dispute without any admission of liability and dismiss the proceedings.

It also includes directions to vacate the trial set down for October 15.

Mr Hall said his lawyers believed he had "one of the strongest defamation cases they had seen" but was advised a trial could cost more than $1 million.

"I made a decision that I wasn't prepared to run a very long and expensive court case which I was very confident I was going to win just so I could get money out of the process," he said.

He said MLAs making public statements should ensure they are true and stand by them.

"At some point you can't just [blatantly not] tell the truth about people because it does affect them, not only in their professional roles but through their families," he said.

"I guess the mistake was made that it was said in a public forum."

Applications for taxpayer-funded financial assistance are approved by the Attorney-General against assembly guidelines and are funded out of the territorial legal expense account.

question: Who is Jeremy Hanson?

answer: Jeremy Hanson is a Liberal MLA and former opposition leader who settled a long-running defamation case with Dean Hall, who he had falsely accused of having a criminal past.

question: What is the Tradies Group?

answer: Based off the document it's not clear, but Hall works with them.

question: Why did Mr Hall say he had been "totally vindicated"?

answer: Mr.Hall had a defamation case against Hanson, who had falsely accused Hall of having a criminal past on a radio interview, was settled. Hanson apologized publicly to Hall and recanted his statements.

question: What did Mr. Hanson need to apologize for?

answer: Mr.Hanson falsely insinuated Mr Hall had a criminal past on a 2016 radio interview.

question: What radio station settled with Mr. Hall and what for?

answer: 2CC and they settled in a defamation case against Mr.Hall and apologized to him on air.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This document discusses when it was announced that ACT taxpayers will have to foot Jeremy Hanson's legal bill after he settled a long-running defamation case with Dean Hall, who Hanson has to pay. The whole of the case and Mr.Hall's motives and vindication are discussed.


text:
The Celebration

Sarah slipped out onto the balcony of her loft.  From the twelfth floor, Chicago was a Lite-Brite cityscape, each building and monument pegged into the grid.  Metered and regular, from what appeared in the streets as a tangle of twisted metal and cement, a careful design emerged.  Sarah enjoyed this view of Chicago.  It didn't make her nervous.  From ground level, the chaos overwhelmed her.  Perhaps she just thought about it too much.

Leaving the building, into the street, Sarah set out down East 21st, headed toward Michigan Avenue.  Her bag held a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, a tube of lipstick, and five crumpled ones.  A napkin from Armadillo Red, tucked into her back right pocket, gave directions to park bench six blocks from her building.

On a bench in Grant Park, a man sat waiting.  He filled out the crossword puzzle from a three-day-old newspaper.  He had been troubled for the last two hours by number 27 across.  A kitchen gadget, 7 letters.  Blender didn't fit, microwave was too long, and he didn't have enough interest in culinary arts to know of any others.  Frustrated, he pulled out his watch, noting that the person he was waiting for had three minutes to arrive.

Sarah, realizing the time, began to walk more briskly.  She turned down Hendricks and kept toward the curb, avoiding those staking out various doorways and dark inlets.  She kept her eyes on the sidewalk, except to occasionally glance ahead at those approaching.  A man, older, dressed for an evening out, turned the corner half a block ahead.  Sarah, startled, pulled the corkscrew from her bag.  She glanced up more frequently as they approached.  Twenty paces. Now fifteen. Now ten.  She gripped the makeshift weapon tightly in her left hand.  As they passed each other on the sidewalk, she shifted her body toward the man.  Swinging forward, she pushed and twisted in one fluid motion, sinking the metal deeply into his chest. Sarah stepped back and watched him crumple.  The man lifted his head.  He saw Sarah, but his expression did not change.  He pulled the stainless steel from between his ribs, and the blood began to rush from his body.  Sarah waited until his eyes were empty, then snapped away from the scene.  She was going to be late.  Picking up the corkscrew, she stepped around the body and down the sidewalk.

As she approached the man on the bench, he suddenly realized that "toaster" was the word he required.  Scribbling it in and wedging the paper between the bench slats, he silently congratulated himself, then focused on the matter at hand.  Sarah was seething.  "Why? Why like that? Why didn't you tell me, bastard!"  He replied, "I thought it would be interesting.  Besides, it's like ripping off a band-aid.  Sometimes it's better when you have to do it quick.  Either way, I see that it's been done."  Sarah was silent for a moment, and then extended her hand.  "Give me the envelope".

He handed her a manila folder.  Sarah sat down on the grass beside the bench, and spread the contents under a streetlight's glow.  Photographs of the man she had just buried her corkscrew in fanned out like a silent film.  He was shown leaving various cafes, trailed by a different escort each time.  There were snapshots of the man entering Porsches and exiting hired cars.   A copy of his passport listed his name as "Victor Bartoshevich", a Belarusian national.  A birth certificate, for one Sarah Yurevich, bore his signature.  A copy of a wire transfer, made twenty-seven years ago, indicated that $50,000 had been drawn from he and his first late wife's joint checking. The recipient was a hitman who helped facilitate "alternatives to divorce" for those in positions of power and influence.  Victor Bartoshevich, a notoriously private man, would have been shocked to see his own paper trail.

Victor left the cafe on Hendricks at precisely 2:30am, as had become his routine over the past few months.  Rochelle always worked on Tuesdays, and she had better tits than money could ever buy.  Victor paid for them by the hour.  After a night of indulgence, Victor would stumble the block back home.  Aging and "out of the business", he had reconciled with the most hostile of his enemies long ago, and had been enjoying retirement his own way.   Namely, walking alone through the streets of Chicago after dark, and ignoring his estranged daughter's attempts at contact.

Sarah placed the envelope into her purse, and pulled out the bottle of Merlot.  Wiping the corkscrew on the newspaper, she then maneuvered it into the cork, using the same push-twist familiar from thirty minutes prior.  Taking a swig from the bottle, she passed it up to the man on the bench.  They drank the wine and finished the crossword together.  Through the trees they could see the flashing blue lights like fireworks, and imagine the sirens as their parade.

title: Flash Fiction: The Celebration

question: Who is the main character?

answer: Sarah Yurevich

question: Why does Sarah kill the man she passes?

answer: He was her father, but he'd ignored her attempts at contact and had her mother killed

question: Who is Sarah meeting in the park?

answer: An unnamed man with information on her father

question: How long does it take the emergency services to find the body?

answer: About a half hour

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Sarah leaves her apartment to meet a man at a park bench late at night. Along the way, a man passes her, and she kills him with a corkscrew. When she gets to the park bench, the man gives her a folder, which reveals that the man she killed was her father, who had ignored her attempts at contact and had had her mother killed. Sarah and the man drink wine and watch the lights of the emergency services in the distance.


text:
My father (Walter) married Darcy in 1992 after six months of acquaintance, at the terrifying prospect of dying alone. In 2007 Walter O’Driscoll bought a dog and formed a stronger companionship with it than that of the one with his wife. The dog had anxiety problems and would incessantly vomit regardless of location or time. It was this trait coupled with the purchase of a new entryway rug that drove Mrs. O’Driscoll to get rid of the dog, and it was this that drove Walter to burn down the house with her inside. This story is true.

Walter was 61 years old come September. He worked at a company that sold cleaning products which, yes, is as boring as it sounds. But Walter didn’t mind boring. You see, a belief he’d held onto since he was a teen was that doing boring things is like meditating. And so he did so for nine hours a day. And then he would continue being bored well after he got home until he went to bed (in a separate room from his wife’s), and he would read a boring book, and then dream boring dreams (sometimes of reading boring books), and then wake up and eat (boring) breakfast.

Life was predictable for Walter. One day while reading the paper, he realized he had been living his life in the future; when he was driving to work, he imagined himself already at work, packaging cleaning product, and when he got to work it was exactly what he expected. While he was packaging cleaning product, he was thinking about watching television with his dog. In fact, for an old man with so little future ahead of him, he spent an unusually large amount of time thinking about it.

The only time that Walter wasn’t hyper-aware of his boredom and thinking about the future was when he was sitting in his chair watching TV, his dog in his lap. After a couple episodes of whatever was on television, it ran off to some other part of the house. Walter wasn’t alone in his chair for long when Darcy’s shrill, French voice preceded her entry into the living room.

“That damn dog puked on the cahpet!” she said, each angry word bleeding into the next. She said more things but he turned on the subtitles for the TV and feigned deafness until she stomped off ranting about the poor little dog.

A week later he arrived home from work to Darcy walking briskly out of the house yelling. Her attempts to make herself heard were futile as Walter had the windows up so that all that penetrated the glass were muffled bass notes. He stepped out of the car.

“- Rug again. Get rid of that dog! Get rid of it-” he tuned her out again.

That night he sat in his chair with his dog in his lap, watching whatever on TV. Dinner was boring, just as he expected. In bed, he dreamed of working in the factory.

The next day, he went to work, just as previously described, and worked all day, just as he’d imagined the night before. When he got home, things began to veer off from their normal path. Darcy didn’t come out to meet him in the driveway to complain today. In fact, the house was eerily quiet, although he couldn’t quite place what it was that was so different. When he got to the door, he realized what it was- the dog wasn’t barking. He stepped inside. Darcy was standing in the kitchen with her hands on her hips.

“You were taking too long to get rid of the dog so I did.”

He didn’t listen anymore, rather walked to his chair and watched TV.

She complained about other things, but the complaints fell on falsely deaf ears.

That night, instead of going to bed, he stayed up awhile. The orange glow from the lamps throughout the house reflected off the windows making it impossible to see outside. The TV had been off for some time. When Darcy’s cruel snoring came through the walls, he made his way downstairs and dug through little odds and ends until he found a can of mogas. He took it upstairs with him and poured it all through the house, making extra sure to douse the entryway rug, and the area outside her Darcy’s bedroom door, then lit a match and dropped it on the trail.

As he made his way back to his room he reflected on all of his life spent in boredom. He did not regret it, but he was tired now. He could hear the crackling of the flames growing louder and louder, and eventually, the shrill calls of the woman to whom he was married. He entered his bedroom, which was, again, not shared with his wife. Walter pulled his slippers off his feet and lay down in his small bed. The house was getting hotter, and with every second he lay there he became more tired, then he fell asleep.

title: Untitled

question: Summarize the main conflict of the story.

answer: The protagonist, Walter, is married to a woman he doesn't love (Darcy). 15 years after marrying her, Walter gets a dog. The dog routinely vomits somewhere in the house, but Walter loves the dog like he doesn't love his wife. Darcy eventually buys a rug, and the dog vomits on it. Since Walter doesn't listen to Darcy at all, she takes matters into her hands and sends the dog away. After this, Walter lights the house on fire at night when both of them are inside.

question: What does the story say about Walter's wife?

answer: She's in a loveless marriage where her husband loves his misbehaving dog more than her. She's pissed off at her husband, but he doesn't listen or act. The dog continues to vomit anywhere in the house, and presumably, she's the one cleaning it. Eventually, she can't take it anymore and sends away the dog.

question: What does the story say about how to achieve a happy marriage?


text:
The TURKISH ALPHABET () is a Latin-script alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which (Ç, Ş, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy and specificity. Mandated in 1928 as part of Atatürk's Reforms, it is the current official alphabet and the latest in a series of distinct alphabets used in different eras.

History

Early reform proposals and alternate scripts

The earliest known Turkic alphabet is the Orkhon script, also known as the Old Turkish alphabet, the first surviving evidence of which dates from the 7th century. In general, Turkic languages have been written in a number of different alphabets including Uyghur, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and some other Asiatic writing systems.

Turkish was written using a Turkish form of the Arabic script for over 1,000 years. It was well suited to write Ottoman Turkish which incorporated a great deal of Arabic and Persian vocabulary. However, it was poorly suited to the Turkish part of the vocabulary. Whereas Arabic is rich in consonants but poor in vowels, Turkish is exactly the opposite. The script was thus inadequate at representing Turkish phonemes. Some could be expressed using four different Arabic signs; others could not be expressed at all. The introduction of the telegraph and printing press in the 19th century exposed further weaknesses in the Arabic script.[1]

The Turkic Kipchak Cuman language was written in the Latin alphabet, for example in the Codex Cumanicus.

Some Turkish reformists promoted the adoption of the Latin script well before Atatürk's reforms. In 1862, during an earlier period of reform, the statesman Münuf Pasha advocated a reform of the alphabet. At the start of the 20th century similar proposals were made by several writers associated with the Young Turks movement, including Hüseyin Cahit, Abdullah Cevdet, and Celâl Nuri.[2] The issue was raised again in 1923 during the first Economic Congress of the newly founded Turkish Republic, sparking a public debate that was to continue for several years. A move away from the Arabic script was strongly opposed by conservative and religious elements. It was argued that Romanisation of the script would detach Turkey from the wider Islamic world, substituting a “foreign” (i.e. European) concept of national identity for the traditional sacred community. Others opposed Romanisation on practical grounds; at that time there was no suitable adaptation of the Latin script that could be used for Turkish phonemes. Some suggested that a better alternative might be to modify the Arabic script to introduce extra characters to better represent Turkish vowels.[3] In 1926, however, the Turkic republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in Turkey.[4]

Turkish-speaking Armenians used the Mesrobian script to write Holy Bibles and other books in Turkish for centuries and the linguistic team which invented the modern Turkish alphabet included several Armenian linguists, such as Agop Dilâçar.[5] Karamanli Turkish was, similarly, written with a form of the Greek alphabet.

Introduction of the modern Turkish alphabet

[Ottoman Turkish alphabet and 1930s modern Turkish alphabet guide, from the Republic Museum, Ankara] The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet was established as a personal initiative of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It was a key step in the cultural part of Atatürk's Reforms,[6] introduced following his consolidation of power. Having established a one-party state ruled by his Republican People's Party, Atatürk was able to sweep aside the previous opposition to implementing radical reform of the alphabet. He announced his plans in July 1928[7] and established a Language Commission () consisting of the following members:[8]

-   Ragıp Hulusi Özden
-   İbrahim Grantay
-   Ahmet Cevat Emre
-   Emin Erişirgil
-   İhsan Sungu
-   Avni Başman
-   Falih Rıfkı Atay
-   Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın
-   Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu

The commission was responsible for adapting the Latin script to meet the phonetic requirements of the Turkish language. The resulting Latin alphabet was designed to reflect the actual sounds of spoken Turkish, rather than simply transcribing the old Ottoman script into a new form.[9]

[Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Kayseri. September 20, 1928] Atatürk himself was personally involved with the commission and proclaimed an “alphabet mobilisation” to publicise the changes. He toured the country explaining the new system of writing and encouraging the rapid adoption of the new alphabet.[10] The Language Commission proposed a five-year transition period; Atatürk saw this as far too long and reduced it to three months.[11] The change was formalised by the Turkish Republic's law number 1353, the _Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet_,[12] passed on 1 November 1928. Starting 1 December 1928, newspapers, magazines, subtitles in movies, advertisement and signs had to be written with the letters of the new alphabet. From 1 January 1929, the use of the new alphabet was compulsory in all public communications as well the internal communications of banks and political or social organisations. Books had to be printed with the new alphabet as of 1 January 1929 as well. The civil population was allowed to use the old alphabet in their transactions with the institutions until 1 June 1929.[13]

In the Sanjak of Alexandretta (today's province of Hatay), which was at that time under French control and would later join Turkey, the local Turkish-language newspapers adopted the Latin alphabet only in 1934.[14]

The reforms were also backed up by the _Law on Copyrights_, issued in 1934, encouraging and strengthening the private publishing sector.[15] In 1939, the _First Turkish Publications Congress_ was organised in Ankara for discussing issues such as copyright, printing, progress on improving the literacy rate and scientific publications, with the attendance of 186 deputies.

Political and cultural aspects

As cited by the reformers, the old Arabic script was much more difficult to learn than the new Latin alphabet.[16] The literacy rate did indeed increase greatly after the alphabet reform, from around 10% to over 90%, but many other factors also contributed to this increase, such as the foundation of the Turkish Language Association in 1932, campaigns by the Ministry of Education, the opening of Public Education Centres throughout the country, and Atatürk's personal participation in literacy campaigns.[17]

Atatürk also commented on one occasion that the symbolic meaning of the reform was for the Turkish nation to “show with its script and mentality that it is on the side of world civilisation”.[18] The second president of Turkey, İsmet İnönü further elaborated the reason behind adopting a Latin alphabet:

  The alphabet reform cannot be attributed to ease of reading and writing. That was the motive of Enver Pasha. For us, the big impact and the benefit of alphabet reform was that it eased the way to cultural reform. We inevitably lost our connection with Arabic culture.[19]

The Turkish writer Şerif Mardin has noted that “Atatürk imposed the mandatory Latin alphabet in order to promote the national awareness of the Turks against a wider Muslim identity. It is also imperative to add that he hoped to relate Turkish nationalism to the modern civilisation of Western Europe, which embraced the Latin alphabet.”[20] The explicitly nationalistic and ideological character of the alphabet reform showed in the booklets issued by the government to teach the population the new script. They included sample phrases aimed at discrediting the Ottoman government and instilling updated Turkish values, such as: “Atatürk allied himself with the nation and drove the sultans out of the homeland”; “Taxes are spent for the common properties of the nation. Tax is a debt we need to pay”; “It is the duty of every Turk to defend the homeland against the enemies.” The alphabet reform was promoted as redeeming the Turkish people from the neglect of the Ottoman rulers: “Sultans did not think of the public, Ghazi commander [Atatürk] saved the nation from enemies and slavery. And now, he declared a campaign against ignorance [illiteracy]. He armed the nation with the new Turkish alphabet.”[21]

The historian Bernard Lewis has described the introduction of the new alphabet as “not so much practical as pedagogical, as social and cultural – and Mustafa Kemal, in forcing his people to accept it, was slamming a door on the past as well as opening a door to the future”. It was accompanied by a systematic effort to rid the Turkish language of Arabic and Persian loanwords, often replacing them with revived early Turkic words. However, the same reform also rid the language of many Western loanwords, especially French, in favor of Turkic words, albeit to a lesser degree. Atatürk told his friend Falih Rıfkı Atay, who was on the government's Language Commission, that by carrying out the reform, “we were going to cleanse the Turkish mind from its Arabic roots.”[22]

Yaşar Nabi, a leading journalist, argued in the 1960s that the alphabet reform had been vital in creating a new Western-oriented identity for Turkey. He noted that younger Turks, who had only been taught the Latin script, were at ease in understanding Western culture but were quite unable to engage with Middle Eastern culture.[23] The new script was adopted very rapidly and soon gained widespread acceptance. Even so, older people continued to use the Turkish Arabic script in private correspondence, notes and diaries until well into the 1960s.[24]

Letters

The following table presents the Turkish letters, the sounds they correspond to in International Phonetic Alphabet and how these can be approximated more or less by an English speaker.

:{| class=“wikitable” !Uppercase !Lowercase !Name !Name (IPA) !Value !English approximation |- | align=center| A || align=center| A || a || || || As _a_ in _fAther_ |- | align=center| B || align=center| B || be || || || As _b_ in _Boy_''' |- | align=center| C || align=center| C || ce || || || As _j_ in _Joy_ |- | align=center| Ç || align=center| Ç || çe || || || As _ch_ in _CHair_ |- | align=center| D || align=center| D || de || || || As _d_ in _Dog_ |- | align=center| E || align=center| E || e || || || As _e_ in _rEd_ |- | align=center| F || align=center| D || fe || || || As _f_ in _Far_ |- | align=center| G || align=center| G || ge || || , || As _g_ in _Got_ |- | align=center| Ğ || align=center| Ğ || yumuşak ge || || (, , ) || — |- | align=center| H || align=center| H || he, ha || , || || As _h_ in _Hot_ |- | align=center| I || align=center| I || ı || || || As _e_ in _rosEs_ |- | align=center| İ || align=center| I || i || || || As _ee_ in _fEEt_ |- | align=center| J || align=center| J || je || || || As _s_ in _meaSure_ |- | align=center| K || align=center| K || ke, ka || , || , || As _k_ in _Kit_ |- | align=center| L || align=center| L || le || || , || As _l_ in _Love_ |- | align=center| M || align=center| M || me || || || As _m_ in _Man_ |- | align=center| N || align=center| N || ne || || || As _n_ in _Nice_ |- | align=center| O || align=center| O || o || || || As _o_ in _mOre_ |- | align=center| Ö || align=center| Ö || ö || || || As _ur_ in _nURse_, with lips rounded |- | align=center| P || align=center| P || pe || || || As _p_ in _Pin_ |- | align=center| R || align=center| R || re || || || As _tt_ in American English _beTTer_ |- | align=center| S || align=center| S || se || || || As _s_ in _Song_ |- | align=center| Ş || align=center| Ş || şe || || || As _sh_ in _SHow_ |- | align=center| T || align=center| T || te || || || As _t_ in _Tick_ |- | align=center| U || align=center| U || u || || || As _oo_ in ''zOO |- | align=center| Ü || align=center| Ü || ü || || || As _ee_ in _fEEt_ with lips rounded, or close to _ue_ in _cUE_ |- | align=center| V || align=center| V || ve || || || As _v_ in _Vat_ |- | align=center| Y || align=center| Y || ye || || || As _y_ in _Yes_ |- | align=center| Z || align=center| Z || ze || || || As _z_ in _ZigZag_ |- | align=center| Q || align=center| q || kû || || — || — |- | align=center| W || align=center| w || — || — || — || — |- | align=center| X || align=center| x || iks || || — || — |}

Of the 29 letters, eight are vowels (A, E, I, İ, O, Ö, U, Ü); the other 21 are consonants.

Dotted and dotless I are distinct letters in Turkish such that ⟨i⟩ becomes ⟨İ⟩ when capitalised, ⟨I⟩ being the capital form of ⟨ı⟩.

Turkish also adds a circumflex over the back vowels ⟨â⟩ and ⟨û⟩ following ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩, or ⟨l⟩ when these consonants represent , , and (instead of , , and ):

-   â for and/or to indicate that the consonant before â is palatalised; e.g. means “profit”, while means “snow”.
-   î for (no palatalisation implied, however lengthens the pronunciation of the vowel).
-   û for and/or to indicate palatalisation.

In the case of length distinction, these letters are used for old Arabic and Persian borrowings from the Ottoman Turkish period, most of which have been eliminated from the language. Native Turkish words have no vowel length distinction, and for them the circumflex is used solely to indicate palatalisation.

Turkish orthography is highly regular and a word's pronunciation is usually identified by its spelling.

Distinctive features

Dotted and dotless I are separate letters, each with its own uppercase and lowercase forms. The lowercase form of _I_ is _ı_, and the lowercase form of _İ_ is _i_. (In the original law establishing the alphabet, the dotted _İ_ came before the undotted _I_; now their places are reversed.)[25] The letter _J_, however, uses a tittle in the same way English does, with a dotted lowercase version, and a dotless uppercase version.

Optional circumflex accents can be used with “â”, “î” and “û” to disambiguate words with different meanings but otherwise the same spelling, or to indicate palatalisation of a preceding consonant (for example, while means “snow”, means “profit”), or long vowels in loanwords, particularly from Arabic. These are seen as variants of “a”, “i”, and “u” and are becoming quite rare in modern usage.

Software localisation

In software development, the Turkish alphabet is known for requiring special logic, particularly due to the varieties of i and their lowercase and uppercase versions.[26] This has been called the Turkish-I problem.[27]

[1] Zürcher, Erik Jan. _Turkey: a modern history_, p. 188. I.B.Tauris, 2004.

[2]

[3] Gürçağlar, Şehnaz Tahir. _The politics and poetics of translation in Turkey, 1923–1960_, pp. 53–54. Rodopi, 2008.

[4]

[5] İrfan Özfatura: “Dilimizi dilim dilim... Agop Dilâçar” (Turkish), Türkiye Gazetesi, April 3, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012

[6]  2002 (the writing guide of the Turkish language)

[7] Nationalist Notes, _TIME Magazine_, July 23, 1928

[8]

[9] Zürcher, p. 189

[10]

[11] , p. 55

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15] Press and Publications in Turkey, article on Newspot, June 2006, published by the Office of the Prime Minister, Directorate General of Press and Information.

[16] Toprak, Binnaz. _Islam and political development in Turkey_, p. 41. BRILL, 1981.

[17] Harf İnkılâbı Text of the speech by Prof. Dr. Zeynep Korkmaz on the website of Turkish Language Association, for the 70th anniversary of the Alphabet Reform, delivered at the Dolmabahçe Palace, on September 26, 1998

[18] Karpat, Kemal H. “A Language in Search of a Nation: Turkish in the Nation-State”, in _Studies on Turkish politics and society: selected articles and essays_, p. 457. BRILL, 2004.

[19]

[20] Cited by Güven, İsmail in “Education and Islam in Turkey”. _Education in Turkey_, p. 177. Eds. Nohl, Arnd-Michael; Akkoyunlu-Wigley, Arzu; Wigley, Simon. Waxmann Verlag, 2008.

[21] Güven, pp. 180–81

[22] Toprak, p. 145, fn. 20

[23] Toprak, p. 145, fn. 21

[24]

[25]

[26]  Java IoT|date=2017-07-26|access-date=2018-03-17|url-status=bot: unknown|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170726160048/http://java.sys-con.com/node/46241%7Carchivedate=2017-07-26}}

[27]

title: Turkish alphabet

question: How has the Turkish alphabet changed over time?

answer: Seven of its 29 letters have been modified and the alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation.


text:
I didn’t feel very much like masturbating. This seemed like the obvious choice of sleep aid at this point. Whiskey had worked only half of its magic—keeping me interested enough in late-night television to stay awake until an hour when any normal person would’ve simply crawled into bed and passed out. But still, I couldn’t sleep.

Not feeling like masturbating when you want to masturbate, as any male will tell you, is a rare and quite unsettling feeling. Clearly there was something bothering me.  Even if I was too self-reflectively dumb to know it, this lack of primal urge cued me in on the presence of something distasteful and foreign growing inside me. I was somewhere between crying and vomiting when I realized that I was scared. For the first time in my life I was truly terrified. After all, what would an affluent, white male who just graduated from a top tier college have to worry about? What could I ever conceivably be scared of? Like always: the dark.

Ever since I was very young I was uneasy about going into an unlit room; not uncommon, I suppose. I was brave, however—always brave enough to venture forward.  Not without hesitation, but always with enough fortitude to carry out whatever task brought me to this dark unknown, and it was exactly that which scared me now—the unknown. I was venturing into the unknown for the first time in my life with no clear purpose other than to move forward, be happy, and make enough money to support my only-child-bred need for independence. How difficult could that be?

I knew I could get a job. I had no doubt about that. So it wasn’t entirely the economy that was getting me down, though that didn’t help. It was the same old problem—I was scared of the dark. Why had no one told me what to do? Who would judge my forthcoming achievements other than myself? There were no grades to be earned, no classmates to be bested. Sixteen years of closely regulated activity, then nothing. Go forth and prosper.

These are the whinings of an entitled Millenial. I hadn’t any high school friends gunned down in an alley. Hell, I didn’t even pay for my college education. Those $250,000 came directly from my parents, who were glad to pay it. Not to say I didn’t work. I worked my ass off every summer, but promptly spent my cash on weed and beer. But to say I was entitled was a bit of a stretch. I didn’t want anything but an opportunity to work hard. I didn’t expect anything to be handed to me. Or maybe I did? In a way I felt cheated, yeah. I did all the things I was told I needed to succeed then thrust into the worst job market in recent history. What, then, was I doing for the past sixteen years? Preparing myself for a world that had vanished five years ago?

Now I’m tired. I guess I’ve achieved what I wanted to in these short thirty minutes. Fuck it, I am entitled. Not to a job, and definitely not to a fat paycheck; but to an explanation, some instructions. The best I can get is, “You should’ve been born thirty years earlier”? I feel entitled to an explanation of why I want to put a gun in my mouth. I want to live. I want to go forth and prosper. I’m not depressed—I’m pissed. When I look at what waits for me I don’t see the world at my feet. I see dogs pulling the intestines out of a dying man’s anus because there isn’t any other fresh meat to eat. Where does that leave me? I must be entitled to a bone, at least. Throw me a fucking bone; I don’t care what kinds of scraps are attached to it. If I can’t get a boner, even with a firm tug, at least let me eat because I don’t want the trigger of a gun to be the only thing I control. I know how that story ends, and the clean up is messy.

title: I didn't feel very much like masturbating.

question: What is the mood of the narrator?

answer: They appear to be sad or depressed.

question: Why can't the narrator sleep?

answer: More information is needed to answer the question.

question: Why does the narrator talk about their fear of the dark?

answer: It represents their fear of the unknown. It's compared to the job market.

question: Why didn't the narrator go to college.

answer: They did go to college. It was paid for by their parents.

question: What is the implied sex of the narrator?

answer: Male

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator ruminates on their failure to find a job and their inability to sleep. They feel like they have extremely little control over their life.


text:
God was I optimistic to see him. How long it had been. How long I had missed him and how much I loved him even though I'd never tell him that. I thought about the times when he would teach me about girls and I'd laugh when he would tell me stories about his friends. He was so cool back then through those rose colored glasses.

The drive was long. I remember the cold air as I inhaled, the snow on my windshield that I had lazily barely scraped off, the sputter of a failing engine and radio that was on way to loud to keep me awake while I downed energy drink after energy drink. I couldn't wait to see him. It had been a few months since I left town and we had lost contact. We were never the type to talk all that often. It was hard to ever get close to him because of his attitude for life and the problems he had coping with the fact dad wasn't with us anymore.

When I finally pulled into the driveway I noticed the house looked more run down then usual, never mattered to me much though. None of the lights were on and the door was locked which was unusual but I remembered the key we hid in the garage. It was nice to be back in a familiar place, however broken it was.

As soon as I walked in I saw him passed out on the couch. One arm was hanging off, the ash tray was full, he still had his boots on, everything was dirty and the place smelled like hell. Must've been a long day for him. I didn't bother waking him up. I saw the wrappings on his arm. It ran the length of his forearm until it stopped just below his elbow. Just thought was he had gotten that sleeve he had always talked about, the one to commemorate dad. Then I noticed the wristband from the hospital. I sighed then looked around the house and I noticed a pile of mail on the table, the broken mirror shards leaving the bathroom, the half bottle of Jack Daniels in the kitchen next to the microwave with the door still open and cold Ramen still in there, the bottle of painkillers on its side, the contents scattered across the counter.

I layed back on the recliner. I tried to relax. I figured I'd let him sleep and have a little bit of it myself. When I opened my eyes I realized it was morning and thats when I got a better look at him. I couldn't describe how numb I had felt coupled with how much guilt I felt and that incredible sinking feeling I had in my chest when I noticed that this wasn't just him going down hill like last time. This was the last time.

"Happy birthday big bro." I said as I kissed him on the forehead and sat next to him in silence in that horrid place. Figured I'd spend a little time with him before anybody found out.

title: The last day home.

question: What is the relationship like between the narrator and his brother?

answer: They don't talk often, and it appears their relationship became strained after the death of their father.

question: Why was the narrator so excited to see his big brother?

answer: Because it had been a while, and he missed him.

question: Was his brother already dead when the narrator arrived home?

answer: It appears he was, but the narrator didn't know until the following morning.

question: Where was the narrator driving from, and why was the journey far?

answer: It is not stated.

question: Why did the narrator find his brother hard to get close to?

answer: Because of his attitude for life and the difficulties he had dealing with the loss of their father.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer:
The narrator was very close to his brother when they were younger. Unfortunately, their relationship became strained because of his brother's attitude and difficulties coping with their father's death. His brother became very unrelatable, and they didn't talk very often. Despite this, the narrator still missed being around his brother very much and decided to see him on the eve of his birthday.
When he arrived, the narrator met a messy scene at the house and saw his brother passed out on the couch.
By the following morning, when he awoke from sleep, he realized in horror that he was dead.


text:
Unfamiliar street signs cite flower names, and I’d like to stop and appreciate the irony of the street consisting of tenements and uneven concrete slathers forming the dilapidated earth below my feet, but I can’t. The pavement is slipping under my feet fast as I desperately search for something. Anything. As much as I love flowers, I have no idea where I am. Rose, Lilac, Daisy: all useless to me. Third time tonight I’ve had to laugh at the irony of it all. Third time I’ve circled around here.

Second time I’ve gotten lost out here. Incomprehensible maps, my own poor sense of direction, every person who I run into either wanting money or not knowing where anything is because they refer to the city as “Frisco”; the night is stacked against me. And I have to be home. I have to be at the station at the stroke of tomorrow. When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella won’t just lose everything: she’ll be stranded in the city.

I don’t know where I’m going, and it shows. I’ve run past that same homeless person three times. He’s laughing at me now, like he’s the one who has everything figured out. Like his place below the graphitized overhang of a restaurant closed up with a heavy, rusted gate is so much better than the home I have to go back to. But he’s right. It is. He knows that his place on the uneven pavement is his. I only know that every step I take marks one more stretch of land that isn’t mine. I’m lost; he has already found everything that he needs, even if he doesn’t know where his next meal will come from. I want to spit at him, but I can’t. I respect him too much.

Streetlights stare down at me condescendingly, the area of blackness between their diffuse spheres of influence giving me a feeling of insecurity as I cut corners with an indeterminate path in mind. It’s as if they’re mocking me, guiding me along through the abyss of lost-ness only to say “Ha! I’ve got you!” when I realize that I’m back at the same market that I passed five minutes ago. I’m misguided, listening to light and watching the scenes change as if I’m helpless, lost in my own body as much as the body of the city.

I run past a middle aged black man twirling a cane awkwardly and mumbling to himself. He extends a hand out to me just as I am about to pass. I stop to shake it. What’s going anywhere when you’re lost? I can feel the calluses of a life either well lived or wasted away, and the decrepit man smiles back at me. “Hi, I’m James.” He’s complaining about a pinched nerve in his leg and something about getting home. I can half understand him. The topic turns to money. $2.27. I laugh. Tell him to walk with me. I’ll break a twenty at the corner store.

It’s cold outside. Glad I brought a jacket, but the sweat staining my jean legs makes the night breeze chill me to the bone. James won’t stop complaining about being cold. And his pinched nerve. “Been there, done that” I tell him. And all I want to ask him is if he knows Ginsberg. America, two dollars twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956. America, stop pushing, I know what I’m doing. America, I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

I envy Ginsberg sometimes. I envy homeless people sometimes. Old story of Ginsberg and his shrink, Phillip Hicks: “What would you like to do?” “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I really would like to stop working forever—never work again, never do anything like the work I’m doing now—and do nothing but write poetry and have leisure and to spend the day outdoors and go to museums and see friends.” “If that is what you really feel would please you, what in the world is stopping you from doing it?”

I ask James. James says that he knows Ginsberg. James doesn’t know Ginsberg. James knows Ginsberg. Ginsberg is where he’s going after he gets a few bucks off of the sucker taking him to the corner store.

James doesn’t exist anymore, and I don’t have a twenty. I have a ten and a five. But I don’t have two dollars and twenty-seven cents. I don’t want to have two dollars and twenty-seven cents right now. A month ago, I read about Romeo talking about money being poison. And for this guy, my money might very well to prove to be his poison of choice. It might not. At least he knows what he wants. At least he knows where he’s going.

The streets are nearly empty, rare for the city at this hour, yet every streetlight is still lit up. False beacons of direction leading me everywhere and nowhere. And yet, as I walk out of that corner store, I see brighter lights, the road to the BART station and then home. For now, it’s salvation from the unknown. But I don’t know if it’s my path. The one I want to take. But tonight, it’s the one I have to take. Probably going to be the same path tomorrow. But one of these days, I’ll make my own path. I’ll be the Ginsberg of my generation. I’ll be the James with the calluses in my hands. I’ll be who I want to be. But tonight, I’m taking the yellow line back home. Good night San Francisco.

Constructive criticism and general feedback are greatly appreciated.

title: Direction (Meditation on being lost, the wonder years, Ginsberg, homelessness and the future)

question: Where is the narrator lost?

answer: The narrator is lost in San Francisco.

question: How is the narrator feeling?

answer: The narrator is anxious to get to the station before midnight.

question: Are there other significant characters in the story?

answer: Ginsberg, although not physically with the narrator, seems to be an important part of the story.

question: How does the narrator solve the problem of being lost?

answer: The narrator gets lucky. He walks out of the corner store and sees the road to the BART station to get him home.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is lost in San Francisco; he's anxious to get to the station before midnight. He encounters a man twirling a can and talks with him. The man asks for $2.27; the narrator tells him to walk to the store with him and he'll make change and give him the $2.27. Upon leaving the store, the narrator spots the BART station that will get him home.


text:
…and as he lay there against the wall, resting on a bed of pillows on the cold floor of a tiny bathroom, he knew it was time.
The rain beat steadily against the thin roof, like four thousand tiny hooves of a thousand tiny horses.  Or at least that’s how it sounded from the bed in the room below.  He’d always liked the rain; there was a sort of natural, chaotic peace that resonated in him. It was the sound of home.
	It was 1.37am on Wednesday and just like the week before and the week before that he couldn’t sleep.  The dog across the road was barking again, always at this time, always on a Wednesday.  He rose from the bed and approached the window.  Unsurprisingly there he was, the drunk. The same drunk that stopped to throw rocks at the dog every Wednesday. What a wonderful display of millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of culture.  He returned to his bed because he didn’t want to watch it again, there are only so many times you can watch a man get mauled by a dog.
	Thursdays had been hard recently, it’s difficult to concentrate on uninteresting things when you haven’t slept properly and don’t care to begin with. He rose from his cubicle chair and headed towards the break room. On his left was the coward, who watched her son get beaten on a daily basis. On his right was the boring man who was slowly siphoning company funds into his own private bank account and just ahead was the new one. He didn’t know her secret yet.
	The break room was a dull affair, bland coffee, cheap tea and chipped mugs.  The mistress was there, her whip wasn’t. She was one of the few people he liked, at least her secret didn’t hurt anyone…
	Friday, that day most people look forward to because the weekends near, but he didn’t. The weekend was no different, he just worked on personal things; shelves that needed repaired, chairs that needed sat in. You know the stuff.  The new girl was there today, she seemed like the hard working type. He wondered what she was hiding.
	Monday, he awoke again to the sound of rain and looking out the window he saw the new girl. It was her dog apparently. They smiled at each other at work. The drove home just behind each other but they both just got on with it, like everyone always does.
	And then it was Wednesday again, it was 12.23am when the barking started. The drunk was early tonight, maybe one less drink, maybe a new more heavy handed bouncer. Either way maybe this meant he’d get a decent night’s sleep.  The dog went quiet, and then the screaming started. Maybe this time the dog would finish him off.
	Thursday was unusual this week. He’d slept well.  He even had time to get a paper, he noticed new girl wasn’t there but the rest of them were. He sipped the shit coffee and began to flick through the paper. There she was, he wouldn’t be finding out her secret. Not from her. Strangled by a drunk, no witnesses but a confession and all for a good night’s sleep.
 	The rain beat steadily against the thin roof, like four thousand tiny hooves of a thousand tiny horses and as he lay there against the wall, resting on a bed of pillows on the cold floor of a tiny bathroom, he knew it was time. The paper was calling.

title: Subtract

question: Who does the dog belong to?

answer: The dog belongs to the new girl.

question: What is the man on the right's secret?

answer: The man on the right is embezzling company funds.

question: When does the drunk come?

answer: The drunk comes on Wednesday nights.

question: What does the drunk do?

answer: The drunk throws rocks at the dog and fights it.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: On Wednesday the narrator is woken by a dog barking and fighting with a drunk. At work he sees the new girl and learns that it is her dog. Next Wednesday he hears the fighting again, and learns that the drunk killed the new girl.