My Job Is Scaring You

Tag: Alabama

  • Visiting Old Friends, Making New

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    Victor Cypert
    in

    Someone recalled the time I was “The Neural Alchemist.” I was flattered.

  • Adulting in Alabama in the Time of COVID

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    Victor Cypert
    in ,

    Listen, I’m vaccinated. I’ve had both my shots and both were the Moderna vaccine. I got them as soon as I discovered I was eligible to receive them. I got them at Walmart; they were free of charge. Yesterday, Governor Kay Ivey, a woman with whom I disagree with politically on a number of issues,…

  • On Burial Customs, South and Other

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    Victor Cypert
    in

    I am told that in some parts of the world, the inscriptions on tombstones, urns, and ossuaries list the noble deeds or last words of the decedent. Here in Alabama we leave a bit of verse from the Bible for, were we to commemorate our loved ones with their final utterances, it would be to…

  • Know Your Place

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    Victor Cypert
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    Once, when I was standing on the platform of the AmTrak station in Tupelo, I saw a starving family. A few years later, when I was at the Varsity in Atlanta, I saw a woman take a bite from a chili slaw cheese dog, frown, and pitch the bulk of it into the trash. It…

  • Whence the Cryptids

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    Victor Cypert
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    When I was about 24 or so, after spending five years pursuing the hogwash degrees of the Ordo Templi Orientis up to the Royal Arch and its subdegree of Perfect Initiate, I elected to go back to college and pursue a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. I began my studies in the summer in order to…

  • Shades of Home

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    Victor Cypert
    in

    This piece won second place in the 2017 Parsec Ink short story contest. I offer it here for your consideration. Shades of Home By Victor T. Cypert              The porch sighs below me as the brass key provided by Mom’s lawyer slides into the lock. It sticks, refuses to turn. A copy of a copy. Doubtless…