Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, Mohammed El-Kurd
A few runner-up perfect sentences from this:
“Against”, Rashid Hussein, as translated by Mohammed El-Kurd in Perfect Victims
For those who know Arabic, the original poem can be read alongside this alternate translation in Adi Magazine.
Submitted by Paresh.
“Book ban boomerang: VP Vance’s book is caught up in military school “ideology” checks”, James Folta for LitHub
“Jailed Kurdish leader calls for PKK to disarm – in shift that could shake up Turkey and Middle East”, Ruth Michaelson for The Guardian
Submitted by Justin.
“Thank You Bezos: Finally a Legacy Media Publication That Will Defend Capitalism and American Exceptionalism”, Nick Pinto for Hell Gate
“Joseph Roth at the CVS”, Marco Roth’s newsletter The Feckless Bellelettrist
Submitted by Sarah.
“Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich”, Corey Pein for The Baffler
“Can You Bet It All On Your Novel?”, Catherine Lacey’s newsletter Untitled Thought Project
Submitted by Robin.
@bobbylewis.bsky.social on Bluesky
"The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)", Elizabeth Sandifer for Eruditorum Press
Submitted by Mykael.
“Bad Shapes”, Kelly Pendergrast for the San Francisco Review of Whatever
A text message conversation
Submitted by DB, with the following context:
The context behind this is extremely specific but very linguistic. I'm from New Mexico and my wife is from El Salvador. I learned that Salvadoreño children don't have a local variation of "cooties", which I had unconsciously assumed was universal across cultures and times; it's not, Wikipedia informs me it's largely a post-World War 2 phenomenon involving lice brought home from the Philippines by soldiers. Okay then.
So I was telling my sister about how astonished I was that cooties is not universal, and she said she had the same experience when she learned kids don't say "umbers" when another kid gets in trouble, goofs, or just generally gets called out for making a fool of themselves. Turns out this is a very, very local New Mexican dialect word. Umbers basically barely exists outside the Albuquerque metro area.
However, my wife has a similar term to umbers: "jein," pronounced "hayne." Just like umbers, jein is always delivered long, drawn out, and rising: "UmmmmmBErrrRRRSSS!!" "JeeeEEEIINNN" The primarily difference is that umbers is more often used when someone gets in trouble, whereas jein is primarily used when they make an uneducated mistake.
Thus, "Salvi kids have umbers, but not cooties." They have a their own variant of a very specific local vocalization but not a common type of child lore that seems widespread and universal.