Absolution by F. Scott Fitzgerald Did you now the Great Gatsby once had a prologue? Many people don’t know that The Great Gatsby once had a prologue. It was ditched by Fitzgerald when he realized that it didn’t fit with the ’general neatness’ of the book’s design. Instead, he offered to H. L. Mencken’s new…
There was quite a commotion down on the street this morning, here on Wall Street where I work. Of course, I get to the office before the sun comes up, so whatever it was it came along after I was already at my desk, comfortable, with a nice hot cup of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Coffee was…
by Murderously Philly… “Hi, my name is Ted” I say to everybody, “and I’m a serial killer.” “Hi, Ted,” says everybody. Everybody always says Hi. Welcome to Serial Killers Anonymous, a twelve-step program for rippers, rapers, stabbers, stranglers, axe murderers, chainsaw enthusiasts, and just about every type person who ever murdered over and over again,…
The Mangler is a Stephen King short story about a demonic, sentient laundry press machine that causes a series of gruesome deaths at a laundromat, which a police detective investigates, eventually discovering the machine is possessed and attempting to exorcise it. First published in Cavalier magazine in 1972, it was later collected in King’s 1978…
Bartleby, the Scrivener is a famous short story by Herman Melville, first published in 1853, about a Wall Street lawyer who hires a quiet, efficient copyist named Bartleby, who gradually begins to refuse all work with the phrase, “I would prefer not to,” leading to his tragic isolation and demise. The story explores themes of…
Ted Bundy was a rock star. He’s the only serial killer ever to escape prison; and he did it not just once, but twice. He’s also the only serial killer brave enough to wear a bowtie in public. Imagine, Ted Bundy free after all these years… They let Ted Bundy out of jail the other…
An Alpine Idyll by Ernest Hemingway was first published in 1927 in Hemingway’s collection, Men Without Women An Alpine Idyll is a 1927 short story by Ernest Hemingway featured in the Men Without Women collection. Based on his real-life skiing trip in Austria, the narrative juxtaposes a beautiful alpine landscape with grim, macabre details of…
#forbes #williamduer by Philip Loyd… That’s right, your beloved founder Philip Loyd is now doing his crazy Flashbytes thing on, of all places, Forbes. Philip on Forbes. And about whom? What? Hamilton? Franklin? Not hardly. How about William Duer? Huh? Exactly. William Duer and the great Wall Street crash of 1792. Come check out The…
by Philip Loyd… They say if you stack the current national debt in one-dollar bills, it will go all the way to the moon and back, twice. Me, I’m not so sure. Besides, who’s got $30 trillion in cash to test the theory out anyway? Not the United States, that’s for sure. Ever see the…
#RealFlashbytes by #PhiliipLoyd #realwritersmarket My friend TJ Max isn’t just a sexist and a swamp rat, he’s an author as well. In fact, he’s recently penned a treatise he calls Trademark USA, and plausible or not, it’s quite revolutionary. The whole thing is more than two-hundred pages long and he wrote it all in one…