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ABOUTBlack Lamb was created to offer the discerning reader a stimulating selection of excellent original writing. Published monthly. (more) FREE SAMPLE COPYClick here to receive a free sample issue via U.S. mail. There is absolutely no obligation. SUBSCRIBESupport this independently published journal of fine essays. Annual subscriptions are $15 in the USA, $25 in Canada, $30 in the UK, or $35 elsewhere (all prices in US $). Click here to subscribe online via paypal or send a check to Black Lamb, 1759 View Drive, San Leandro CA 94577. QUESTIONSIf you have questions or comments regarding Black Lamb, please email us. |
Sick & tiredMay 1st, 2011 BY LANE BROWNING Emily Dickinson was lucky. Not because she had writing chops, but because she had a cool kind of sick. I’d like to have a cool kind of sick.
Posted by: The Editors April 2011 in Black LambVolume 9, Number 4 — April 2011April 1st, 2011 The All-Women Issue In our cover story, Terry Ross explains why spring and summer are the sexy seasons. In our page 2 feature, Dean Suess tells women that it’s time to Move on beyond hating men or defining themselves in comparison with men. In My uncle’s women, John M. Daniel looks back on the peculiar, and peculiarly generous relationships of his uncle Neil. Greg Roberts writes about the opportunities for females in America and Europe in Free women. In No wiser, Ed Goldberg holds forth on the role of women in American society. Toby Tompkins delineates a curious breed of woman who must always be The star of the room.
Posted by: The Editors The sexiness of spring & summer explainedApril 1st, 2011 BY TERRY ROSS Women think men don’t talk to one another — or that they talk only about sports — but it’s not true! We talk. Talk all the time. Talk about this, talk about that. Even talk about panty hose.
Panty hose! Why, back when I was a boy, this loathsome article of clothing didn’t exist. Show me a man who isn’t nostalgic for those days of regular, old-fashioned stockings — the ones that stopped, deliciously, somewhere along the thigh, the ones that were held up by garter belts and those little rubber and metal contraptions — I say, show me a man who doesn’t wish those wonderful sheer leggings had never been replaced by the despicable one-piece nylon chastity belt, and I’ll show you a court eunuch.
Posted by: The Editors March 2011 in Black LambVolume 9, Number 3 — March 2011March 1st, 2011 In this month’s issue, Terry Ross argues that the military is on the wrong track in America and that the universal draft should be reinstated and made permanent. In our page 2 feature, Greg Roberts nominates himself Culture Czar. John M. Daniel recalls a memorable friend in The Artie Shaw business. In Stand up and be counted Elizabeth Fournier brings us up to date on vertical burial. Toby Tompkins goes riding in Horse nonsense. Ed Goldberg remembers two performers in Out on the edge: Leonard Cohen and Captain Beefheart.
Posted by: The Editors Final examMarch 1st, 2011 BY BLACK LAMB Could you have passed the eighth grade in 1895? This is the final exam from Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina and reprinted by the Salina Journal. Grammar (Time, one hour)
Posted by: The Editors February 2011 in Black LambVolume 9, Number 2 — February 2011February 1st, 2011 The All-Men Issue In this issue devoted to the subject of Men, Terry Ross lists some of the things that were expected of a boy and man when he was growing up. In our page 2 feature, It’s the language barrier, boys, Beren deMotier, a lesbian wife and mother, admits that she started liking men much better when she stopped dating them. John M. Daniel remembers a botched trip he took On the road to manhood.
Posted by: The Editors The All-Men IssueFour lessons for boys who want to become menFebruary 1st, 2011 BY TERRY ROSS Today I am a For this All-Men Issue of Black Lamb, I received a typically various bunch of essays from our columnists. In our page 2 feature, Beren deMotier admits — no, affirms — how much more she began liking men once she had stopped dating them. On page 3 John M. Daniel narrates a young man’s rite of passage, a failed attempt to savor the masculine world of a would-be Jack Kerouac out On the Road. Dean Suess (p. 4) remembers his penitentiary days and the bizarre attempt of one fellow inmate to get in touch with his true manhood. On the same page, Benjamin Feliciano paints a partial yet affecting portrait of contemporary young men. Ed Goldberg (p. 5) reflects on the differences, real and imagined, between men and women, as does Toby Tompkins in his essay entitled What is a man? (p. 7). Elizabeth Fournier (p. 6) takes a page or two from her book on blind dating to describe some of the sorry slobs she encountered in her quest for true love. Greg Roberts urges men to get out and be hunters — literally or figuratively — if they hope to win fair maidens. A passage from Lorentz Lossius’s Turkey diaries (p. 6) shows us men of a culture different from ours in the West, and Dan Peterson recalls an Italian man among men. All of these essays, with the exception of John’s and Ben’s, are, in a way, almost as much about women as about men. (We’ll have an All-Women Issue in April.) They consider men, and men’s abilities and responsibilities, in relation to women. Which makes perfect sense. But in my own essay below, speaking as man, I’ve chosen to focus on a few things that in the past fifty or sixty years, at least in America, have pertained chiefly to males, young and old. Lesson No. 1: You’ve Gotta Be Tough. Physically tough. Tough enough to take a jab in the nose or a whack on the ear and not cry. Tough enough to mix it up, lick the blood off your lip, and punch someone in the face. Tough enough to endure pain in order to administer pain. To make that crunching tackle on the football field, to use your elbows on the basketball court. To hold your place in line when people try to cut in. To hang onto your stuff when others want to take it. Skinny and underweight? Tough titty. Suck it up, kid. I remember being a skinny and underweight boy and being in more or less perpetual low-level fear of bullies. In my fantasy world, I was a tough boxer; I used to lie on my bed manipulating toy soldiers and cowboys in extended punch-outs. But on the street and in school, it was a different story. And it didn’t change very much once I got into high school, either. There, the sadistic physical education teachers seemed to get a kick out of trying to toughen up the boys, like me, who didn’t like sports where you’re always bumping into people: football and wrestling, especially. It wasn’t until I was out of high school that the daily anxiety disappeared, but even then there was always the background hum of violence: tough guys looking for trouble, angry people spoiling for a fight. As a male, you were expected to be able to hold your own, to want to hold your own.
Posted by: The Editors January 2011 in Black LambVolume 9, Number 1 — January 2011January 1st, 2011 Eighth Anniversary Issue In the cover article for this Eighth Anniversary Issue, Greg Roberts looks at the last eight years and wonders if we are devolving as a species and allowing civilization to gradually fade away. In End Times, Dean Suess looks at the ends of millennia and makes some observations about the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. In Betrayed, Benjamin Feliciano tells how his best friend left him high and dry.
Posted by: The Editors Eighth Anniversary IssueWe are the Franklin Party of 1847.January 1st, 2011 BY GREG ROBERTS These past eight years have seen an enormous effort from the human work force. Billions of people toiled like termites in a million strange tasks from tapping rubber to launching satellites and designing dildoes.
Posted by: The Editors December 2010 in Black LambVolume 8, Number 12 — December 2010December 1st, 2010 In the cover article of our December issue, 999 Clowns, Ed Goldberg extols the virtues of staying clear of jobs. In Every song its season, John M. Daniel wishes that Xmas music would confine itself to its own time of year. New Black Lamb writer Patsy Tompkins remembers The blizzard of ’69.
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