Rising Order of Operations, Part I: first, an explication of Universal Paperclips
During a year of semi-quarantine, as death worked its way up the throats of half a million Americans, I paid more attention to my fingernails. It was strange - they seemed to be growing faster, thicker. I didn't know why, and it bothered me. I've never had long fingernails. I've always kept them short, by biting them. It's a nasty habit, the kind of thing one doesn't admit, but you know, I have done it and do it, and have always done it, since I was a kid. I didn't like the feeling of using nail clippers on my fingers, as holding the tool and pressing down immediately recalls the vision of a nail being cut too short, blood rising in a ring along the cuticle. I don't know if this happened to me, or if it was some image I saw, but I can feel it: the tension along the finger's tip, then the irking pain - not a great one, a grand agony, but a simple, everyday pain. A common experience. And here I was, couch-bound and screen-tied, month after month, watching...