For our first issue of 2015, Ally Malinenko brings you “Terrible Scenes of Mutilation,” a tragic story of escapees from the Central Park Zoo set at the turn of the last century. This is followed by P.K. Read’s tale of growth and creation, “The Burp.”

Following Dr. Nick’s advice for dangerously underweight individuals such as Homer Simpson, we’ve sandwiched these stories between two pieces that mention Pop-Tarts: Brent DeLanoy’s “Date” and J.D. Hager’s “Brontosaurus.” Our cover art this month is Katerina Kamprani’s “Stone Umbrella,” and it is not a bumbershoot for wimps.

So grab your chewing bacon and your milkshake toothpaste and get reading. Crunch it online or scarf the PDF.

We wish you a merry Life Day.

Our sixty-first issue is characteristically odd, but in a reflective sort of way. Which feels about right for the month in which we’re forced to think back over our indiscretions in an effort to estimate our probable position on some bewhiskered chubster’s twice-checked list.

Visit Asbury Park with Kailey Tedesco; ponder the Festival of the Lamb with Geza Fuchs; explore the quiet meditations of Japanese short-forms with Abra Deering Norton and Al Ortolani; play the lottery with Dawn Corrigan, and inhabit Andrew Collard’s sci-fi recollections. And you won’t want to miss the cover art, DeAnne Hodum’s Dragasaurus Rex.

Whether you’re praying to Santa, gambling for chocolate, or filling a dishpan with raw caribou meat and wintergreen Tic-Tacs for the Abominable Snowman’s birthday, we hope this season finds you pine-scented and filled with cheer and cocoa.

Chew it online or inhale the PDF.