issue 55

Blistering in the wrath of 110-degree sunshine? Flummoxed by monsoon rains in Missouri, the buzz of Zika mosquitos on your Brooklyn stoop, canoes bobbing in your DC streets? Oppressed by the yammer of Talking Heads, congressional loggerheads, relatives who bite off your head when you replay the Women's World Cup just. one. more. time.?

Take a breath. Crawl out of the oven. Shake off the squall.Douse yourself with AfterBite, and stack the paddles against your easy chair. Forgodssake, turn off the TV; stop streaming; lock Uncle Charlie in the kitchen witha ham sandwich and a beer.

Vestal Review has the cure for The Summertime Blues:

Open Issue 55.

Whoa. Eleven stories. Eleven-count'em-stories.

And what stories.

Righteous, satirical, contemplative; poetic, mysterious,tragic, hilarious. This particular viewer declares: I cried; I laughed out loud(not just an LOL). I gasped; I nodded; I scratched my head. I gnawed my gnails.Raw-brained at 3 a.m., I took a flashlight to my bedroom closet.

I keened to the heavens: Why can't I write stuff like this?!?

Take a breath...

Ommmmmm...

Seriously, you really should read Issue 55.

Immediately.

—Susan O'Neill