COLUMNS
Things My Bitches Taught Me
Jayne OConnor
12.22.11
As we hurtle into the shortest, darkest day of the mercenary holiday season, author Jayne O'Connor recounts her tale of accidental redemption. How fostering dogs can transform you into one bad bitch.
ANNUAL THOMPSON FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2011
Peter Thompson
12.10.11
It's that time again for reflection, when magazines make best of lists way ahead of New Years to assist you in developing a cheat sheet for buying yourself a bunch of records, books or whatever for the holidays when you know in your gut you really you should be buying Uggs or fleece blanket-robes for everyone in your family, toys for homeless kids or sending $30 to Reno's Occupy Wall Street Movement to keep it afloat. Or you could be like Peter Thompson, puzzling over Kardashian tweets and kicking dope. Merry, merry…
Sponsored in Part V: You Can't Have Your Sobriety Cake and Eat It Too
Malina Saval
12.03.11
In the fifth installment of Malina Saval's Sponsored in Part, metaphors fail. The author examines the difference between her own relationship with Al-Anon and that of her husband, that of other Al-Anon couples, and that of the (hypothetical, mythical) sponsor. And the warm, wet-cement feeling of satisfaction (or was that the carbs?) begins to harden in the gut. The cake is a lie. Illustrated by Danny Jock.
FANZINE FANMAIL 1
Peter Thompson
09.28.11
Peter Thompson didn't get shot today so he is writing a letter to Fanzine expressing his intention to write. Current events, two generations of hookers, and a riff on gambling culture intervene. Not even the Greyhound will get you out of Reno for long.
Sponsored in Part IV: Unpredictable Addicts: Fun!
Malina Saval
08.29.11
"If the Sopranos were Jewish, steeped in massive credit card debt, and lived in a dreary middle class Boston suburb where flabby white trash girls with high, hair-sprayed bangs walked around with their pants sliding down the crack of their tramp-stamped asses, that would give you a pretty decent idea of the kind of environment in which I was raised." In Malina Saval's fourth installment of Sponsored in Part, the Saval family, in all of its extremities and generations, runs amok in a restaurant, practices avoidance, redefines what it means to be alright, seeks sponsorship in all the wrong places, bets the farm on eternity (death on the installment plan), and cashes in big time.