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POPSBeware of Toxic Friendships When you see one who is unworthy... examine your own character. ~Confucius This is profound. Does it mean that when you identify someone who is "unworthy" of your Friendship, you "know" who he is because of some same flaw or quality you recognize within yourself? Either way, you have to be good to yourself first, then share that goodness with others. You first, best and nearest "friends" are the people in your own home. Beware of toxic friendships. Know the warning signs of "users" and "abusers".
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POPSMe And My Girls "But was it really all thus? When memory is called to answer, it often answers back with deception. How is it that almost every warm bar stool contains a hero, a star of his own epic, who is the sum of his amazing stories? If I said I was a fat thug who beat up women and sold bad coke, would you like my story? What if instead I wrote that I was a recovered addict who obtained sole custody of my twin girls, got us off welfare and raised them by myself, even though I had a little touch of cancer? Now we’re talking. Both are equally true, but as a member of a self-interpreting species, one that fights to keep disharmony at a remove, I’m inclined to mention my tenderhearted attentions as a single parent before I get around to the fact that I hit their mother when we were together. We tell ourselves that we lie to protect others, but the self usually comes out looking damn good in the process. "
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POPSAs Gas Prices Rise “You can increase and decrease the number of police riding around in cars, and the public can’t tell the difference. You can increase the number of police out interacting with the community, and people can tell the difference very quickly.”
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POPSI'd thank you if I could find you... If you grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, during the 1970s, maybe you can help this person belatedly thank an important person from his past. Vocabulary gap: there's no platonic equivalent of "oh, that's so romantic!" Saying "that's so sweet" doesn't quite cover it. If such a term existed, I'd use it for this story.
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