Still a bargain, I suppose, free Facebook in exchange for incessant ads in your feed, but they can be frightening; or just difficult, Saturday Times crossword difficult, especially when your North Pole suddenly shifts to the west. Like last week when my feed burgeoned with ads for women’s apparel, including “shapers,” some in bondage neoprene, and panties, transparent as the mica chips on the bottom of Sarah’s Creek—which led me to worry the app had morphed into some deranged and malevolent artificial intelligence, like the impolite and persistently villainous robot in RoboCop. Because sheer panties haven’t ever been in my playbook. And it took me until the next Tuesday to recall the grrl-creed meme I had posted proclaiming, “If I cut the cord, you probably handed me the scissors”—which, frankly, was an okay assessment, more accurate than most FB data-mining memes—and after I’d posted my puzzlement, two old friends replied, “We prefer targeted ads”; and I thought, What the hell, I guess you never really do know anyone else.

Gary Grossman,

Professor Emeritus of Ecology at University of Georgia, has poetry published in 38 literary reviews, creative nonfiction in Tamarind Literary Magazine, and flash fiction and poetry in MacQueen’s Quinterly, which nominated his microfiction “Mindfulness” for the Best Small Fictions 2023 anthology.

For 10 years Gary wrote the “Ask Dr. Trout” column for American Angler. His first poetry book, Lyrical Years, is available from Kelsay Press, and his second, What I Meant to Say Was..., will be released by Impspired Press (~December 2023). His graphic novel My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey is available from: http://www.garygrossman.net/my-life-in-fish-one-scientists-journey/

Author’s website: www.garygrossman.net

And his writing blog: https://garydavidgrossman.medium.com/