How many ways can you say hot cocoa? — I never had an accent until I arrived in the U.S. I got on a plane, and several flights later, BAM! I had an accent. I grew up in another country and spoke much like everyone else around me. We sounded similar to each other. …

Kitty Jump Ball — Birds like our house. Not pet birds, but wild birds. Though it’s a mystery to me as to why — don’t they know danger lurks indoors? And yet birds have gotten into our house three times in the past several weeks. Three different birds, three different times. …

Pandemic-style — I recently had a sleep study, and everyone I talked to about it had an unhappy story to tell. It was usually along the lines of: they put a bunch of wires on your head and you don’t get any sleep. The stories were dramatic and sometimes traumatic. But my…

Memories of a friendly, good-natured cat — The first I saw of Mr. Winks was his picture on a dating site. No, it was not his profile! He was in a picture posted on his human’s profile. I noticed him because he looked like my eldest cat, a gray and white Tuxedo with white paws. I had…

Leftovers are like presents — Here’s the great thing about leftovers: they are like presents. After all the hard work of preparing and sharing a Thanksgiving or other Holiday dinner, you get a pleasant surprise when you open the fridge door and remember you don’t have to cook for another day or two. Or three…

Get by with a little help from your friends — or even strangers! — It’s that time of year in the United States: Thanksgiving Day, also known as Turkey Day! This edition of our newsletter continues last week’s theme and features stories of gratitude and thankfulness. After dining on turkey and pie, or whatever you’re dining on today, feast on these stories as you…

Even in the darkest of storms, we find our blessings in community — This past Sunday we held a MuddyUm Thank You Zoomathon — well, sort of. It started off well enough, but only a few minutes in, we were zoom-bombed in the worst way. It left us all shaken and traumatized. And then something amazing and wonderful happened. We banded together and…

On Work and Reentry — With this newsletter, we complete our collection of MuddyUm stories entered in this past summer’s Medium Writing Challenge. We think our MuddyUm writers are winners, regardless of their zip codes, time zones, or hemispheres. Part 1 — the previous newsletter — contained the stories on Death and on Space. …

On Death and Space — This summer Medium ran a writing contest and announced the results earlier this month. The topics were: Death Space Work Reentry Some of the stories entered in this contest were published in MuddyUm. Although the judges did not select them, we think our writers are winners. …