Muse on Monday – August 3, 2026

There is a store I like to go to that uses old-style cash registers. They don’t have any barcode scanners in the store; they just enter everything manually. It’s not because they’re a small store: they’re always busy from the moments the doors open and have multiple locations, so why don’t they upgrade? In this…

Bringing a Knife to a Laser Fight

This story is written as a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt for July 7, 2025: Write a story about an anachronism. Bringing a Knife to a Laser Fight They told us we could pick any weapon we wanted for the semi-annual battle royale. It was all in virtual reality, so no one…

Muse on Monday – July 7, 2025

Recently, I visited an island with no cars or motorized vehicles at all. Everything was done with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It was like stepping back into the 19th century (except, luckily, for the air conditioning). Still, it was charmingly anachronistic. An anachronism is anything that doesn’t fit in the current time period, either because…

Death Mill

Death Mill “It roars through, same time every afternoon, on these metal rails. No one knows from where or to where.” “They’ve got to lead somewhere. You could follow them.” “I tried! Walked for, like, an hour. Still going. What’s important, though, it’s great for milling wheat. You put the wheat all along the rails…