virtual unreality

Disorientation when all normal human activity had been re-routed through computers.

Working from home, shopping from home, seeing other people only through skype and facetime, they felt a virtual unreality no one had predicted.

by Monkey's Dad March 18, 2020

being very careful

The delusion many experience while taking enormous risks with their health and their lives, during the Covid pandemic.

"You're going where??"

"Out to dinner. With friends. We're so done with being locked up."

"Don't you realize it's not safe to do that?"

"Oh, I'm being very careful."

by Monkey's Dad July 21, 2020

glass coffee table

A metaphor for the larger thing being destroyed in an attempt to eliminate a much smaller thing.

The conservative justices might have noted that 'voting fraud', which several states claim they are trying to prevent, is essentially nonexistent. As one federal judge put it, such laws are akin to using “a sledgehammer to hit an imaginary fly on a glass coffee table.”

by Monkey's Dad July 02, 2021

criminally negligent humor

Slipped into conversation like a stiletto between the ribs, an unintended yet nearly lethal joke.

She looked innocent, her blue eyes wide, and he never saw it coming, another taste of her criminally negligent humor. Sliding from the bed and falling to the floor, he begged, "Don't make me laugh! Please!" It was too late.

by Monkey's Dad March 26, 2023

Isolationship

Long- or short-distance relationship between two people kept apart due to shelter-in-place constraints.

Their hot and heavy isolationship was getting weird, the limits of cyber romance coming clear. She lived three blocks away from him, they hadn't been able to see the other for two weeks, each of them trapped in their apartments.

by Monkey's Dad April 09, 2020

Vanishing point

In conversational perspective - the mortifying moment when, having begun to speak, you cannot remember what you wanted so desperately to convey.

He pounded the conference table for emphasis, and stopped... suddenly realizing he was lost, searching wildly but unable to come up with what, an instant ago, seemed so clear... but, uh... was now his vanishing point.

by Monkey's Dad February 27, 2020

error message

From the minor to the global, a warning that something is not right.

She began to interpret the pandemic as a massive error message, a sign to humanity that it had lost its way, and would now be forced to re-order and reconsider.

by Monkey's Dad April 16, 2020