Brian Has a Problem

Coronation

A Good Dog

Tree of Life, 1.7
He left his house apartment early that morning because needed to leave work before 5 p.m. that day. He decided to go in early to make up the time. He arrived at the train station at about 6 a.m. While he was standing on the platform, an older man, dressed shabbily, approached him and asked him whether he knew what time the next train was leaving for the suburbs. He told the older man he didn't know. Then the older man began talking about how he had been traveling all night from the state capital, where he had been working, and that he had come into the city's central train station, then hopped on the subway, and now had to take another train to finally get to his hometown. He'd have to walk

Lighting Strikes Once
We were sitting in a dorm room at NYU when we heard the news. The World Trade Center had been bombed. We turned on the television and all the channels had news airing. Apparently a truck bomb had gone off underneath the North Tower. We watched as people with black faces were escorted out of both towers by firemen and rescue workers. We could see the Twin Towers from the dorm window, but the fire was so small that we couldn't even see it. Apparently by the time we had turned on the televisions, it had been completely contained. By the end of the day, there was a lot of speculation on whom had carried out the bombing, but no one was in custody. Over a thousand people had been injured, but onl

Prelude to Lisbon
The Czech prime minister watched the news in horror. All twelve nations had ratified the Treaty of Maastricht. A "European Union" had been created and would come into force the following November. He couldn't believe it. They were trading away their national identities! His own country was splitting in half, Slovaks demanding a separate state of their own. And the prime minister was glad to let them go! Let them have their own state! The more diverse a Europe the better! This is one case in which I'm glad we were under the Russian yoke, he thought to himself. I would never ratify such a treaty.Contact the author at marco.kaufman@gmail.com

Tree of Life, 1.6
Generations of his family had lived in the small town where he was born. He was the first one to break out and head to the city. He got himself a small apartment in a less than entirely safe neighborhood and took a job in the financial district. At first, he liked living in the city, until one day, he saw something that disturbed him. He was walking home from work toward his apartment, and he saw a man playing Three-Card Monte. He wasn't naïve; he knew the game was fixed and that there was no way for anyone to win. The dealer always palmed the queen -- it was standard short con. The thing that really bothered him, however, was that one of the men who was trying to "find the lady" was blind

Super Bowl XXV
In the end, it was a close game. Whitney Houston sang the national anthem before kick-off, and then both teams kicked field goals in the first quarter. By halftime, the Bills had pulled ahead with a touchdown and then Smith sacked Hostetler for a two-point safety. Even though the Giants had answered with a touchdown with less than twenty-five seconds left in the half, the Bills were still ahead when the New Kids on the Block took the stage for the halftime show. But then the Giants took the lead with a touchdown in the third quarter, taking the ball seventy-five yards in fourteen plays. The score was 17-12 — Buffalo was still within a touchdown of winning. Thomas delivered that touchdown