Dear Reader,
\nThe last few months have taken roughly ten thousand years, a time dilation so bad\nit's got me shouting Murph! and reading Dylan Thomas poetry. The thing I hated\nabout Interstellar was that they named the bad guy Dr. Mann and told us \"he was\nthe best of us\" over and over. All Matt Damon was missing to broadcast his evil\nwas a mirror-Spockian goatee because as metaphors go, Dr. Mann is as subtle as\na frying pan to the head, a real this-is-your-brain-on-drugs level of metaphor,\nand please, are there any questions? But time dilation is real, and dry land is not\na myth, I've seen it, along with all the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks\nthat flesh is heir to. And so I missed the May issue entirely.
\nI tell my students each semester that there were years of my life when I was younger\nthat I basically only spoke in Simpsons quotes, and it's an exaggeration but not by\nmuch. Sometimes it's easier to find the right feelings to express in quotes (because\nyou can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel\nangry, which, okay, is a Futurama quote, but still).
\nSo, here goes: In April, my dad fell and hit his head (Steve Urkel saying, \"I've fallen\nand I can't get up!\" because the 90s medical alert version is too real). He went into\nthe hospital and didn't come out again (something from Scrubs, but all that comes\nto mind is Ted saying, \"Too much ha ha, pretty soon boo hoo,\" which still feels\napt). I spent much of May and June in New Orleans organizing things (Cowboy\nMouth's Fred LeBlanc wailing, \"Take me back to New Orleans and drop me at my\ndoor!\"). And then he died (I reach for a quote but nothing comes to mind).
\nWhen I sat down to write this, I told myself to stay positive and not get too\nmelancholy (always look on the bright side of life?), but there's a surprising amount\nof work that goes into organizing the end of someone's life. Death is big—so big\nit bends the bonds of time and space. And so, the last few months have somehow\nfelt like an age has passed, but also like I looked down for a moment in April and\nwhen I looked back up it was mid-June and there was so much stuff to do. Like\nI'm Théoden of Rohan and Wormtongue's spell has been lifted and I'm shouting\n\"Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Ride for Ruin and the world's ending!\" but only\nif Théoden had a tiny voice in the back of his head that's Milhouse Van Houten\nsaying, \"So this is what it feels like when doves cry.\"
\nTake care of yourself, dear reader, and as always, thank you for reading,
\nLeon
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\nLeon Perniciaro, Editor
\nHaven Spec Magazine
© 2025 Leon Perniciaro
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