I submitted one work for the August 2025 Moss Piglet issue - That Don't Make It Junk:
17 Downunda Ave
Hootenanny, QLD Australia
31 June 2025
The Editor
Moss Piglet
Kenosha, WI, USA
Subject: Request to Refrain From a Hurtful Term
Dear Editor
G’day. I’m known far and wide as the Household Item Wrangler - Advocate for the items residing in homes, Educator of the human masses about the lives of these resident objects, and Defender of their rights. I’ve documented the migratory patterns of paperclips, the breeding habits of coins inside sofa cushions, and the proper methods to rummage inside an attic (i.e carefully - it’s a sensitive area!)
It’s come to my attention that within an issue of this illustrious publication, there will be references to a most objectifying term - Junk (hereafter referred to as the “J-Word”). This word is a hurtful, stigmatizing reference to some of the most helpless household items within a residence. Unused, unappreciated, unloved - the sorry state of many of these items is absolutely heartbreaking. Unceremoniously dumped into boxes, bags, and other storage systems (including the place every home has that is one small step above the trash bin, the J-word Drawer) that crams them into close, confined quarters with no hope of ever escaping their plight. At the very least, we can use a term that eliminates the stereotyping of these items that live on the fringes of civilization. That term is “Usefully-Disadvantaged”.
I hope you receive this letter in time to correct your terminology oversight before anything goes to press.
Improving the quality of life, one item at a time,
Household Item Wrangler
PS To add a bit of nuance to this issue, while my preference is for the J-Word to be eliminated from use of items that may, through no fault of their own, reside in trunks, an alternate term should be created to refer to bodily J-word in the Trunk.
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