Fiction: My story "Napoleon on the 'N' Page" is published in "ragazine" + N.Y.C. voting scandal



couch courtesy of ragazine.cc;
for all I know it belongs to editor and entrepreneur,
mike foldes (no flaneur he)

 The good news:  My story Napoleon on the 'N' Page

It's a good news/bad news posting.  The good news is that "Napoleon on the 'N' Page," a short story of mine, was just published by ragazine.cc. 

It's set in L.A.  I remember going to Taix on occasions and ordering "poulet in a wine sauce and a basket of sourdough rolls served with sweet butter squares so cold, they alone could have defeated Napoleon’s army on its famous retreat from a numbing Russian winter."

Vina is trying for the impossible--to create of list of her friends' flaws that will make it possible for her to understand romance.  The first paragraph:

Sprawled on a Salvation Army Thrift Store couch dusty enough to hide advancing troops, Vina turned to the ‘A’ page of her address book, Anne Adams, a late-in-life dyke with a cleavage like heavy gears rolling, four children and conservative relatives frowning down both aisles of forsaken vows. Her ex-husband avoided his children who reminded him he’d been left for a woman — although every so often he complained about his children being raised by a lesbian.

Click here to get to the story in ragazine.cc.
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The bad news:  New York City Board of Elections Voting Debacle

Chaos

The bad news is excruciating. New York's Board of Elections has managed to confuse and degrade the voting process.  It really could take a while to recover. This is New York City. Hello? Kind of wealthy and powerful and supposedly full of talent?  I don't mean to make this about my feelings, but I just voted and feel defeated.

I could barely read the ballot--and I haven't yet had to use large-size print books.  It's now a paper ballot we carry into a silly fake booth, then squint over. Yes, magnifying glasses were provided.

If there hadn't been so much hubbub about the problem I'd have missed the two ballot issues on the reverse side of the ballot. Not only hard-to-read, the ballot is unclear.

I almost didn't vote for governor (Cuomo) because I missed that box first-time out. Fortunately I double-checked my work. 

I then hand-carried my ballot to the next stage.  As people have been complaining was the case, my vote was exposed to crafty eyes. My destination was an expensive set of giant printer-like machines into which I fed the paper ballot. Anyone work in an office? Anyone known a printer to jam?

The process used to be one-step, at least for the fully abled.  The ballots were large, readable, and voting was completely private.  No more.  It's no easier now for voters who aren't fully abled, either.

As I cast my vote I chatted with another voter.  That didn't use to be possible and shouldn't be. We spoke of what people of color and women have had to go through, still go through, to vote--and now this.  Tomorrow I'm contacting the League of Women Voters.