Ethnic Supremacist

New zine about the war in Ukraine. Follows the news after Russia invaded Ukraine in poetry fashion. I spent my Spring Break writing it. You can currently find this zine and others in my Etsy shop.

Contains the following 54 poems:

1. Ethnic Supremacist
2. A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
3. Air Zoned
4. Are You Out of Your Mind?
5. Big Demands
6. Bomb Shelter
7. Bridge Out
8. Disappearing People
9. Chernobyl Under Russian Control
10. Dissent Scrolling
11. Farmer Tank
12. False Flags Flying
13. Gas Masks
14. Genocide
15. Hack Attack
16. Hedgehogs Stop Tanks
17. Hungry Hungry Gas
18. International Foreign Legion
19. Internet Via Space Satellites
20. Into the Void
21. Invasion
22. Invasion Contagion
23. Island Boys
24. It Is an Invasion
25. Mire Mud
26. Mushroom Garage
27. Mystery Letter Z
28. No Suitcases
29. No to NATO
30. No to War
31. Pain
32. Pardon our Propaganda
33. Police Gear Gift to Ukraine
34. Protest the War
35. Russophobia
36. Sniper
37. Speeches Everyday
38. Street Sign Roulette
39. Suitcase Response
40. Tank Influencer
41. Tank Latrine
42. Tanks Crushing Cars
43. Tank Train
44. There is No War
45. The Ruble is in Rubble
46. This Sounds Like a Made-Up Story
47. Three Days of Rations
48. To the Trenches
49. Trigger
50. Turkey Drones Drop Bombs
51. War
52. War is a Banned Word
53. World War Three
54. We Deserve to Live

Here is me at the New Haven Zine Fest, February 26th, 2022

Here is what one side of the bike shop looks like.

I am working on many more quarter-sized zines. Will scan them soon and print them out for my store in ETSY.

As I said I have a store in Etsy, namely https://etsy.com/shop/connieboje.

Here are the zines. I have not come up with a description for them yet so I think I will try right now to save some time later. This is a stamped numbered series of same medium sized zines, which is true of all of the zines in the group. I aim for around sixty poems for each zine but that can vary. I write a big batch of poems in the beginning and then pick the most dominate poem (or my favorite) and add supporting poems. My first thought is to put them together after the dominant poem is picked. This time I switched out some poems that were obviously in the wrong zine so they are no longer alphabetical. Someday I want to publish all of my poems into one book. Not sure how I would organize the poems yet or if I should combine similar zines into one book each.

I am not yet at the physical copy stage of this group of zines. I want a second pair of eyes on my poems, My daughter, Olivia, has been most helpful and encouraging of me to print my poems in zine format. She gives zine talks and organizes zine fests. I also need her expertise on scanning. She has all along been my computer support person when Word took over my ODT files. She also eliminated the MS bloat wear, One Drive, from blocking all my progress to move my documents around. Thank you, Olivia! Now I can use my new computer again!

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Zine 26 A Field.

This zine is about land and earth and dirt. I think in some ways this really is my favorite because I come from Nebraska and was born in Iowa. Some could look at my writing as being commentary or criticism of the way things are handled like the decline of forests. But I think I really like to look at the bigger picture so I use the word bigger frequently in my poems.

1. A Field
2. Baseline
3. Battle Cry
4. Brook
5. Camping
6. Commando Babble
7. Corn
8. Defend
9. Defensive Position
10. Density Full
11. Depth of Field
12. Dirt
13. Divining Rod
14. Fiduciary
15. Fields
16. Firefly Field
17. Fossil
18. Frequent
19. Geothermal
20. Green Lawn
21. Humidity Fail
22. Imminent Domain
23. Imperfect Pension
24. Increment II
25. Inert
26. Land
27. Let Us Get Ornery
28. Light
29. Look Here
30. Manager of Man
31. Mine
32. Mystification
33. Plausible
34. Population Op
35. Rain
36. Regular
37. Rumor
38. Sand Land
39. Sandwich
40. Speck
41. Stake
42. Store
43. Substance
44. The First Cut
45. The Land of Lawn
46. Too Much Power
47. Tractor
48. Up Date
49. Upkeep
50. Unreal
51. Vacant
52. Vast
53. Vegetation
54. Vista
55. Vitriol
56. War
57. Weaponized
58. Wholesale II
59. Wild Fire
60. World
61. Worms
62. Wrapper
63. X Treme
64. Zero Waste

Zine 27 Almost Black Almost White.

This zine is my take on what recently happened with Black Lives Matter. I am not black but poets can write about what happens in society. I am white. I think we are all related in the ancient past. I also look for common ground. Instead of saying we are all of something I think we should realize we are all a little of something else.

1. Almost Black Almost White
2. Accurate Rant
3. All Business III
4. Attack of the President
5. Beautiful Smile
6. Bitch
7. Black as Night
8. Black Lives Matter
9. Blood Relative
10. Break a Window Burn a Building
11. Cell Mate
12. Challenge
13. Children II
14. Conflict
15. Connect
16. Conspiracy
17. Contact
18. Crap
19. Cultural Appropriation
20. Dismantle I
21. Distant Relations
22. Dumb Luck I
23. Dump Luck II
24. Dumb Luck III
25. Exception II
26. Extra
27. False Government
28. Florida Man
29. Garbage
30. Get Real
31. Government
32. Gymnasium
33. Hate This
34. In the Plaza
35. Insidious Random
36. Instruction
37. Interlocked
38. Kerplunk
39. Me Control
40. Men
41. Monster
42. Nice People
43. Nuclear
44. Pleased
45. Police Assault
46. Profile
47. Protest
48. Reconstituted
49. Red Alert
50. Right Nostril
51. Shelter in Place
52. Social Distancing
53. Speculative
54. Statues Down
55. Tall Order
56. Those People
57. White Cloud
58. White War
59. Words Hurt
60. You are Kidding
61. You are our Two Millionth Customer

Zine 28 Big Pill

This zine is about mental and physical health. It may err on the side of exposing part of my life because I have been there done that. I cannot tell you when I started writing poems as an older female person but it could certainly have been in the psych ward. It has been a journey and while this batch of zine poems reflects me on medication (the first batch was me refusing to take my psych meds) I think they go together and refer to each other.

1. Big Pill
2. Baby Hair
3. Bad Medicine
4. Big Towel
5. Blep
6. Bottle Return
7. Cal-endula
8. Calcium
9. Caught You
10. Cheap
11. Chocolate II
12. Cincture
13. Crazy Toes
14. Cut Out
15. Detox
16. Drugged
17. Emergency
18. Emergency III
19. Exercise
20. False Memories
21. Fortunate
22. Fundamental
23. Group Shot
24. Hero-In
25. Hit
26. Hope
27. Infertility
28. Infusion
29. Insecure
30. It is the Medicine
31. Jock Itch
32. Live We Must
33. May Day
34. Neuro
35. Not Telling
36. Oh Brother
37. Operational Technique
38. Pop
39. Post Treatment
40. Pre-taste of Great
41. Quick Fix
42. Racing Thoughts
43. Relocated
44. Rough
45. Ruin II
46. Safe
47. Senile
48. Seriously Kidding
49. Structure Play
50. Stubborn
51. Sugar-free
52. Terrible Bedside Manner
53. The Cure
54. There Must Be Something Wrong with Me
55. Thin-Shelled
56. Totally Okay
57. Trunk Of Trouble
58. Up Take
59. Worry Wart
60. Wrinkled Paper

Zine 28 Digit Tall

This zine is about technology that we all have to learn and to put up with in our daily lives. While some people chose to opt out of the whole computer introduction, others we inspired to embrace the change and see what they could learn to do. Of course there are always new training for whatever new tech device is on the horizon. For some people it is easier than for others.

1. Digit Tall
2. Bigger and Better
3. Billing Error
4. Bite
5. Block
6. Computer Computer
7. Computer
8. Conditional Texting
9. Confidential
10. Credentials
11. Deny
12. Disconnected Line
13. Donation
14. Fingers
15. Fired
16. Forbaiance
17. Get It
18. Hit Me
19. Hot Hot Hot
20. Hungry
21. Impulse Power
22. Into the Red
23. Interconnected Email
24. Laptop
25. Laymen’s Terms
26. Locked
27. Mapped II
28. Matrix
29. Money I
30. Must
31. Name Dropper
32. Offline
33. Option
34. Order at Your Doorstep
35. Order Incomplete
36. Pass Due
37. Pass Worded
38. Phone
39. Poor
40. Problematic
41. Record
42. Rectify
43. Register
44. Reload
45. Replication
46. Ruminate
47. Shit
48. Skin Flint
49. Stalked
50. Stare
51. Store Front
52. Terrible Being in Prime
53. Text Document
54. The Little Library that Could
55. The Man in the Yellow Shirt
56. Time Clock
57. Time Line
58. Time
59. Totally Insane
60. Tray of Logic
61. What
62. Why Follow

Zine 23 Driven.

I have wanted to write this zine for a long time since my oldest daughters were in high school. Now my youngest is in high school and finally it is here. I used to write bits of ideas on small bits of paper and keep them in a purse. I carried that purse around with me and one day went through all of those ideas and tried to sort them but they were not poems and I had no idea I would end up writing poems. So here they are. Although not directly related to those ideas they represent my idea of driving.

1. Driven
2. Anti Automatic
3. Back Off
4. Back Up
5. Boxed In
6. Bike Rack
7. Bike Random
8. Captcha
9. Car Function
10. Car Up
11. Car
12. Circling the Block
13. Connection
14. Crash Test
15. Crooked Path
16. Dented Fender
17. Destabilized
18. Drive By
19. Drive Hours
20. Drive-N
21. Drive Space
22. Driver X
23. Earbuds and Talking
24. Engine
25. Epic II
26. Flat Tire
27. Food Vendor
28. Get Away
29. Going Nuts
30. Gravitate
31. Hike It Up
32. Hitch Hiker
33. Junction
34. Law Breaker
35. Matching Cars
36. Missing Tire
37. New Batch of Cars
38. Perfect Trip
39. Pit Stop
40. Puncture
41. Race Car
42. Recycling
43. Road School
44. Rock Party
45. Shifted
46. Street Cred
47. Sunk
48. Symbolica
49. Traveling
50. Tail Gater
51. Tail Gater II
52. The Need for Speed
53. To Blame or Not to Blame
54. Train of Steel
55. Trending
56. Truck Talk
57. Trunk Stuff
58. Why Drive In the Middle of the Road
59. Without Wheels
60. Without Wheels II
61. Wonder Bug
62. Work Horse

Zine 33 Glitter.

Many people in my family are part of LBGTQIA. I am what is called cisgender. I try to be supportive and open to what my children want to do with their life while also trying to understand new to me concepts. Since this is happening to parents around the globe (and they are not always supportive) it is a necessary subject.

1. Glitter
2. Able
3. Anatomically Correct
4. Andro Genus
5. Artworks
6. Boyfriend of Friend
7. Clandestine
8. Confession
9. Cut and Paste
10. Dysphoria
11. Eye Sight
12. Eye Stallation
13. Eye Wrong
14. Frames
15. Gender Critical
16. Gender is Right
17. Gender
18. Going Shopping
19. Granted
20. Group Hug
21. Help II
22. Intersource
23. Kissing Table
24. Life Support
25. LGBTQIA
26. LGBTQIA II
27. Like and Like
28. Make Over
29. Map
30. Mini Zine
31. Neonatal Positioning
32. No Nonsense
33. Not Boy
34. Nothing Wrong
35. Okay
36. Olivia Gives a Speech
37. Our Life
38. Our Sex
39. Perplexion
40. Radical
41. Rainbow Sheep
42. Reflexion
43. Stuck
44. Street Sweeps
45. Tabling a Zine Fest
46. TERF
47. The Art of the Eye
48. Trans Man
49. Trans Woe
50. Trans Woman
51. Trans
52. Transparent
53. Vintage Rack
54. Vindicated
55. Wheelchair Friendly
56. Why Must I
57. World
58. Zine Library II
59. Zinester

Zine 21 Have Paper.

This zine is about writing. It is something I like to do. To write and to discuss the writing process. I went to a high school that prided itself on writing. I transferred from a private school to a public school and they made me take a remedial writing class even though my grades had been excellent. I had a doctor for a teacher in that class. He liked to put people down. I took a writing class in college and we got to see what everyone wrote anonymously. I did fine but never took another class because none of my teachers encouraged me and no one ever wanted poems. I hope you do!

1. Have Paper
2. Acceptance
3. Auto Pilot
4. Awake
5. Awkward
6. Baby Poem
7. Believe
8. Beloved Authors
9. Breaker of Rules
10. Burden
11. Chasing Poems
12. Clap
13. Consider
14. Copy
15. Cranium
16. Creating Drama
17. Crop
18. Damn Word
19. Disrupt
20. Don’t
21. Doctor Document
22. Document
23. Dream Team
24. Editing
25. Enough
26. Evolution
27. Exception
28. Fictional Analysis
29. Hiccup
30. Irregular
31. It is Not
32. Library Central
33. Lifeopolis II
34. Limited Offer
35. Miserable
36. Office
37. One Two Three
38. Out of Paper
39. Perplexed
40. Present
41. Printed
42. Printer
43. Printer Malfunction
44. Respect
45. Revised
46. Save I
47. Sharpened Pencils
48. Style Book
49. Thinking
50. Type
51. Valued or Not Valued
52. Voiced
53. Warm memories
54. When I was Poor
55. Work It II
56. Worked
57. Worsted or Bested
58. Writer’s Chair
59. Written II
60. Zine Issues
61. Zines are My Friends
62. Zines are Things

Zine 24 House Payments.

Many people in the past have been able to buy a house. Now all of a sudden it is much harder. Rent payments have gone through the roof and now housing prices are going up accordingly. Wall Street is also buying up single family homes so they can profit from this current dilemma. I live in a house we used to rent. I looked for a house to buy before that that was better than the house we were living in. We were lucky this house fell in our lap!

1. House Payments
2. A Hunch
3. Big Box Smaller
4. Bed of Choice
5. Cancellation
6. Children I
7. Coffee Cat
8. Coffee Digits
9. Coffee Drops
10. Coffee Pill
11. Coffee Pot
12. Coffee Ring
13. Coffee Table
14. Controlled Chaos
15. Crash Landing
16. Crud
17. Dental Issues
18. Dentist
19. Depreciated
20. Designer Dogs II
21. Dinosaur Dogs
22. Empty Your Pockets
23. Four Star
24. Hack Attack
25. Hand Me Down
26. House
27. How Not to Make Coffee
28. Impulse
29. Jest
30. Junket
31. Labor
32. Lethargy
33. Life Soup
34. Life Soup II
35. Locked Vault
36. Mail
37. Meal
38. Money II
39. No You Should Stay and Never Move
40. On Hold
41. Ordering
42. Outhouse
43. Parenting 101
44. Potato Chips
45. Prefame
46. Reverse Curse
47. Rug
48. Scratch
49. Scrutiny II
50. Searching for More
51. Stampede
52. Stuff II
53. Sugar Fiend
54. Sugared Up
55. Tag Sale
56. Teens
57. The Best Stuff
58. Total Grit
59. Tray Tables
60. Tween
61. Vase
62. Weird Neighbors
63. When Can a Neighbor Ruin Your Life
64. Whine on Time
65. Why Drive when You can Pilot
66. Will the House Break Before it is Paid Up
67. Woman Could
68. Work Work Work
69. Wrist Wearing Watch
70. Yawn
71. Yes You Want to Sell

Zine 31 Meat.

This zine is a little off beat. It has poems about cats and dogs and regular meat. I used to spend my time on Instagram before Facebook bought it and I saw things on there that you cannot un-see. a dog getting cooked. I am sorry it was terrible. It really was a learning experience. And also an opportunity to remember my love of dogs. I had a dog growing up, a wiener dog, who used to sleep with me and my parents gave her away. They had no collar for her nor a leash. She got out several times and almost got ran over. I was sad but buried my sadness in cats. Instagram has so many cat and dog photos. Totally recommend it. Just be careful.

1. Meat
2. Bad Dog
3. Bark Bark
4. Bodily II
5. Butchered
6. Canaan Dogs
7. Canine
8. Cat Crazy
9. Cat Group
10. Cat Nap
11. Cat Romance
12. Cat Stalking
13. Child Game
14. Coat Dote
15. Corrupt
16. Dog Bait
17. Dog Gone
18. Dog Meat
19. Dismantle
20. Drive There
21. Electrify
22. Fur Cure
23. Grits
24. Holy Cow
25. Hot Dog
26. House II
27. How Will I Survive II
28. Hunter
29. I Remember Her
30. Inhumane
31. Insane
32. Instigation
33. Lost Dog
34. Luna
35. Mean Dog
36. Mean People
37. Mill
38. Nice
39. Odin
40. Pendulum
41. Puppy Puppy
42. Rabbit
43. Satiate
44. Shower Bath
45. Sink Your Teeth
46. Smell Dog
47. Stolen
48. Sweetness
49. Tadpoles
50. Take Over
51. Tender
52. Tick Talk
53. Top Dog
54. Volume
55. Wallet II
56. We Need Them
57. Wisdom in Buckets
58. Zip Full

Zine 27 No Name.

This zine will not register with anyone unless I tell you it is about Covid-19 when it was just starting to spread and they did not have a name for it yet. I totally watched everything I could about this virus starting with its origins in China. Work did not think it was a problem but of course it became a big change in protocol when we came back from quarantine. For some reason a big segment of the population has been anti-vaxxer since vaccines have arrived to combat sudden death. I have had my two shots and did develop an awful rash on my hands and mid arm area. It went away after a month. No sweat!

1. No Name
2. Alycia
3. Angry Pop
4. Bat Tough
5. Broken Bad
6. Business as Usual
7. Chronic
8. Closed for Business
9. Conflict
10. Dead
11. Death by Numbers
12. Do Gooder
13. Dread
14. Famished
15. Farts
16. Food Supply II
17. Food Supply III
18. Fork in the Road
19. Heart Attack
20. Heart Attack II
21. Heart Attack III
22. Herd Immunity
23. In Person
24. Infected
25. Infected II
26. Intricate
27. Leg Shake
28. Life Support
29. Makeshift Morgue
30. Mask
31. Neutral General
32. New York City
33. Newspaper
34. Next Cough
35. Nose Blind
36. Now
37. Open for Business
38. Opening
39. Plague Thoughts
40. Price Gouge
41. Proven
42. Quantum
43. Ransack
44. Resuscitate
45. Ruin
46. Skin
47. Sickness
48. Star Mass
49. Super City
50. Surreal
51. Symptoms
52. Tech Breath
53. Teeth
54. Things to Do
55. Vaccine
56. Vaccine II
57. Vertigo
58. Virus I
59. Virus III
60. Waiting
61. Wasted

Zine 22 Send Heart.

This zine is an attempt at romantic. I realize most poems romanticize nature or complain really about how sad they are. I want to say that I am not sad. I am more angry. This is as romantic as I get. It just means every so often heart-like poems appear out of nowhere. I do like when they show up and obviously need more of them in my life. The poem Send Heart is an exercise in repetition.

1. Send Heart
2. Automatic Love
3. Beautiful People
4. Begin to Send
5. Belly II
6. Bigger
7. Big Thighs
8. Birthday Cake
9. Birthday Suit
10. Bodily II
11. Body in Bulk
12. Break Away
13. Cheeks
14. Chili Love
15. Chiliopolis
16. Clothing
17. Come Clean
18. Come Clean II
19. Cruise Ship
20. Dance Class
21. Death of a Relationship
22. Dream Date
23. Epic
24. Feelings
25. Flowers
26. Flab
27. Friend
28. Good
29. Great
30. Happy Gene
31. Hope
32. Hopeful
33. Hot Crotch
34. Hot II
35. Imperative
36. Impossible
37. Kick Ass
38. Knowledge
39. Kool
40. Lock and Key
41. Love
42. Man Candy
43. Modesty
44. Music
45. Naked
46. Nasty Girl
47. Nose
48. Opera
49. People
50. Romance
51. Roses II
52. Saturated
53. Screw You
54. Sculpture
55. Sofa Couch
56. Sit Tight
57. Stab at Sexy
58. Stand Still
59. That is Another Thing
60. The Season
61. Thinking Heart
62. Totally Fine
63. Want
64. We Care

Zine 32 Twenty-Two.

This zine has mainly Science Fiction poetry. It is speculating on the next century which is always fun to write about since no one really knows what is going to happen. It is open to criticism as well. I am sure I should have made this zine longer because some poems ended up in other zines but once you decide on how many sheets of paper this is going to be it is impossible to change later on if the poems have a set order.

1. Twenty-Two
2. Action II
3. All Business
4. Anyways
5. Baby Car
6. Balloon
7. Byte
8. Chagrined
9. Cleves
10. Consortium
11. Cost Overrun
12. Crisis
13. Data Stream
14. Default Alpha
15. Devotion of motion
16. Dissected Logic
17. Dream Train
18. Dropped Call
19. External Debt
20. Felt
21. Forced Entry
22. Forced Kinship
23. Gender Reckoning
24. Go Away I
25. Granulated Time
26. Incident
27. Incremental Damage
28. Internal Paradox
29. Interstellar
30. Invisible
31. Life Wreck
32. Light Day
33. Light Year
34. Lunar Landing
35. Memory Palace
36. Mind Theft
37. One Rollerblade
38. Picture Fork
39. Pod Pleasing
40. Pods
41. Politics are Not Allowed
42. Proto Retro
43. Protocol
44. Red Whit Blue
45. Recalled Travel
46. Reflexion
47. Revolution
48. Rocket Pocket
49. Satellite
50. Scrutiny
51. Shower
52. Sleep Sandwich
53. Standard logic
54. Stigma
55. Telephone
56. Tested Apathy
57. The Crime of Time
58. Ultra Magnet
59. Virus II
60. Voluntary
61. Weightless
62. Wet World
63. Wholesale I

Zine 29 Witched Brew.

Okay I am not really into witches as in Halloween. Nor am I a witch but it is not my place to say anything about people who are nature lovers. But this is a collection of poems that are about creepy stuff. The picture for the zine shows a fractal that looks like some type of chemical brew. There is also a picture inside of someone soaking in a bubble bath to carry on that theme of unnatural. But perhaps fractals are of nature? Good question.

1. Witched Brew
2. Baby Brewed
3. Barnacles
4. Bug
5. Bury
6. Candle Wax
7. Chili Red
8. Choices
9. Clock
10. Coin
11. Creature
12. Cruel
13. Damn
14. Decrepit
15. Devil Dogs
16. Disgruntled
17. Dislike
18. Do Not Disturb
19. Doubly
20. Dream Stealer
21. Eat
22. Entourage
23. Full of It
24. Go Away I
25. Gray
26. Harassment
27. Hat I
28. Hat II
29. Hat III
30. Hell
31. Hoax
32. Infighting
33. Jewelry will Kill You
34. Jinx
35. Joker
36. Killer Smile
37. Kitchen God
38. Leaves
39. Monstrosity
40. More Ghost Action
41. More Ghost in the Closet
42. Naughty Cat
43. Nightmare
44. Ocular Eye
45. Opening by Mistake
46. Parents
47. Pour
48. Pour II
49. Predigested
50. Red Eyes
51. Requiem
52. Scary Poem
53. Scary Poem II
54. Shroud
55. Spun Web
56. Tea Pot Hot
57. Unexpected
58. Villain
59. Weird
60. Wicked

Woman Always Always Pay

Working on a new large-sized zine the size of a standard sheet of paper. This photograph shows how it looks before it is scanned or copied on a printer. The final product will be in black and white like my other zines. I will now have four zines this large: this one, Calvin is a Girl, Oh Beast, and Self Be. They are all very female subject-wise. The three non-collage ones use photographs throughout.

Woman Always Always Pay, my new zine, is both collage and also handwritten notes. I first did abstract collage and came back at a later time and added collage words on several occasions. The subject matter was inserted after the collage was complete and a title page chosen out of all of the existing pages. Thus, I did not know what the title of the zine would be until it surfaced from what was complete.

I like to work in this abstract manner after having taken art classes in the eighties back in college. When working with poetry I pick the most unusual poem to be the title and then look for supporting poems from what I have written.

In the case of this zine, I wrote the words in the final third stage, trying to match my thoughts to what was already on the page. I talk about how collage helps bring to light subject matter that matters to you.

Because of the short amount of space in which to write I could not expand on each subject. I was able to talk about the workforce, the work state, women who do not like other women, the new crop of dads not afraid to be seen in public with their babies, women at the top, creepy men, “pizza” money, plastic islands of concern by Beth Terry, what women are hired for by Reshma Saujani, volunteer work as being important, hating perfection, the silver lining of being a man when waiting in line (they get better treatment), fear of drinking water, frotteurism and toucherism, stopping time, woman pay scale, people are not smarter necessarily, what collage does as I said, and women need to help each other as mentors.

gender and Staples

Ugh. Subject matter matters. Gender issues are in the news. It is the twenty-first century and people are learning about equality. I am along for the ride. Gender has been an issue for me my whole life and that is the primary reason I consider myself a feminist.

Gender bias occurs when men get service in a timely respectful yes sir manner and women do not. Women wait. Women leave. Women do not get equal service. This very recently happened to me at Staples. I was left waiting for thirty minutes while their copier was updating. A customer tried to help when he really should not have. He looked behind the machine and switched it off and on. The machine stopped updating but went through some mild acrobatics and then went to sleep.

The woman behind the counter told me the computer was out of service so I waited for the next available computer which was the one my daughter was using. Meantime a woman customer came and waited awhile, got overwhelmed by the situation and left.

Then along comes a man who was determined to wait no matter what. He did things on his phone while standing there. He waited what seemed like five minutes when along comes the manager asking if we needed help while carefully taking hold of the man’s documents.

To be fair he asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for thirty minutes to print zines. He looked inside my bag and directed the man to where they print out copies for you after I explained I was next. I was honestly afraid he was going to print that man’s copies for him on the machine I was waiting for. The manager seems insulted and taken back. Yes it is first come first served.

This reminded me of being back in the trenches doing laundry at the laundromat. It has been years but I still have mental battle scars of trying to get to the few dryers after the wash was done. The laundromat had more washers to dryers and it posed a live or die death wish with each visit. Hurry or wait forever. Now the laundromat is a restaurant and the new laundromat is a minuscule blip you could easily miss if you did not know it was back there behind another building. I have yet to be there but I am lazily considering doing a zine of funny laundromat names. I am confident there is a website already so maybe I would be wasting my time.

I told the manager I felt he had come to help the man and not me (since he had left me waiting for half an hour). The manager denied this but got very nervous and started rearranging my things on the counter for me so bingo I was right. He made me shake his hand and said if I ever needed ANYTHING just ask. I think he was worried about his manager job. I would have lost my place if I had gotten him to come help and Hell I did not even know he or his office existed! He even said he had seen me before which was creepy.

He did reach inside the front door to the copier and switch it on. It worked immediately. I missed a relaxing lunch and I was late to work because of road construction but I did get copies done thanks to BOTH those men. I sound bitter.

I will be back. Staples could solve their wait time issue (it happens at this particular unnamed location ALL the time) by having three stand alone copiers instead of just two like the other Staple I also will be watching how they treat me and others. As customers we should get EQUAL SERVICE.

Searching 2018 Nebraska Alumni Show

There is no photo to post for this entry. I thought I could find one online but apparently the art show I mailed 20 zines in a series to DOES NOT EXIST. This photo is of someone else’s show off of Pexels. I am an alumni of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. They asked me to be in a show. I asked if I could submit zines and they said yes but they could not find me listed as an alumni because I was using my maiden name (same as I did when enrolled there). I mailed my entries off hoping they would be exhibited “cotton gloves not necessary.” Unfortunately the gallery is not advertising the alumni show on their Eisentrager-Howard Gallery website so I do not know what is really going on. I will update this if I get those zines back. Zines are considered “low art” according to my sources. It seems the gallery is very careful not to call any of the work in their past alumni show ART.

Bonnie Avenue

This is my first perzine (personal zine) and it is about growing up in the sixties in the Midwest. I was introduced to the Vietnam War in Kindergarten where we would spend small amounts of money to buy war stamps. I wish I had those now or the dog tags I got in sixth grade of one soldier who was either MIA (missing in action) or POW (prisoner of war). The zine was an attempt to sell at a perzine fest in Boston that my daughter tabled in. Someone from MIT came by and bought zines (two of each). Apparently they are starting a zine library. This is the age of zines and zine libraries! They had their hands full of zines and may perhaps need some of mine!

I got in trouble with MIT or actually I should say I got MIT in trouble because when my daughter was going to Stanford they sent out an email to me that included my email address as well as my husband’s email address. I assumed correctly he had received an email with my private email address on it. I was livid. I complained to Stanford. I wanted to keep my email address private.

Stanford had no idea the email addresses were being compromised. They had contracted with MIT for the email program which matched up both spouses’ email addresses on the same email. It was wrong but they did not see it that way. Supposedly men wrote the program. They thought married couples should already have some sort of transparency with each other and that included their email addresses.

Once the woman contact from Stanford realized what was happening she too was livid! Woman need privacy. Sometimes especially from their husbands.