Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

The In Crowd

Although in my eighties, I still consider myself one of the last of the cool dudes. I was taking my morning walk along a busy road, wearing my snappiest Hawaiian shirt, figuring I was looking quite with it, maybe even “In with the In Crowd,” when I paused, trying to get the Voice Memo working on my phone—not a flip phone, a new Apple. A car pulled over. The driver made his way across busy traffic to ask me, “Are you all right, sir? I saw you trying to work your cellphone. My father-in-law has dementia, so I was concerned.”

Jim DeFilippi is a prolific, eccentric author. Catch Jim's Podcast Blue Smoke and Black Ink on YouTube. His website is jimdefilippi.com.

The Accident