Standard Operating Proceedure

SOP

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Somewhere in the region of seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand medical files are stored in a remote warehouse leased to a well-regarded medical insurance company. The project is as follows; to manually re-organise each file into three distinct sections, digitally scan each section, and upload to the company’s state-of-the-art archive and retrieval system. The end result of this endeavour is to ensure that at the push of a button some drone in the Stockholm office or in the Buenos Aires office or in the Dundalk office may easily access a detailed description of Mrs So-and-So’s stool samples. Despite the considerable time and resources invested thus far in the project, acceptable progress has not been achieved by the company. read more

Revenge

The email was welcomed, when it arrived visibly but silently on the screen of Gilbert Fitzwilliams’ computer, like the first crocus of spring; small, insignificant considered by itself, a minor blessing but one to be cherished nonetheless: read more

Bird Brain – Editor’s Pick

Birds were nesting inside the two ‘O’s of COOPER’S HARDWARE. I could see the mother bird fly in and out, she fluttered from one ‘O’ to the other—sticks and feathers and leaves occasionally spilling out with her back-and-forth movements. I couldn’t see details from the ground, but I envisioned her spitting worms and slugs—and whatever else birds eat—into the squeaking, pink beaks of her young.

Yesterday in Istanbul

Normally, getting out of bed in the morning feels like oppression. Sleep beckons, I go and earn wages, and the news is filled with political lies and reports of casualties from bombings. Men make me feel objectified and my clothes don’t fit right, but yesterday, something strange happened. read more