Merry Crisis and Happy Blue Year
If the holidays make you want to blow your brains out, just hop on the phone. Some nice people in Arlington are waiting to talk to you.
Cover Story
3:34 p.m., Dec. 26, 2006
“Life is pointless?…Too much?” L. Adair Langley asks the woman on the end of the line. The caller’s husband lost his job and then left her. She’s already tried cutting herself. Now she has a pile of Xanax and is considering swallowing it. Instead, she picks up the phone. “Is there a name I can call you by? Christina?” says Langley. “And you say you don’t think anyone would miss you, but you say you have lots of good friends.…Mm-hmm.…That’s good.…Not that you cut yourself but that it kept you from taking the pills.”
“Well, do you need to go to the hospital?” Her left hand grips the phone; her right takes notes. “Mm-hmm.…How many rabbits do you have?”
“You have a strong attachment to them. What would happen to them if something happened to you?”
Langley is inside a room in a bland brick office building in Arlington, taking calls from women, men, and teens who’ve called Crisislink over the Christmas holidays because they’re contemplating suicide or are generally in a bad place. There’s no music, since it would be inappropriate for volunteer call-takers to play, say, “Jingle Bells” or “Stairway to Heaven” when they’re trying to talk people off the ledge. There are plenty of books, though, with an active sign-out sheet: What to Do When the Police Leave. Trauma and Recovery. Violence Against Wives. The Bell Jar. I Know This Much Is True. The Grieving Child. When Bad Things Happen to Good People.... Continued 
Issue of Jan. 4 - 10, 2008
News and Features
- Merry Crisis and Happy Blue Year
Cover Story - Tell It to the Judge
The City - Putting on Heirs
The City - Dirt Farm
Comics - Page Three Photo
Distractions - Found Art
Distractions
Columns
- Princess Panty Land
Savage Love - I.M. Picketing, M.D.
The Straight Dope - Lobby Entrance
Loose Lips - Playing Catch-Up
Cheap Seats
Eats
- Free Bird
Young & Hungry
Movies
- There Will Be Blood: California Schemin’
Film Review - The Parent Trap
Film Review - To Catch a Predalien
Film Review
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- One Track Mind
Music - Nash Bridges
Music Review
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- In & Out: Theater
Theater
Arts and Events
- To HIV and to Hold
Book Reviews - Harangue the DJ
Show & Tell
City Lights
This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.
- Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Arts & Events - "J.M.W. Turner and Film: Margate, Kent"
Arts & Events - Girl Loves Distortion
Arts & Events - Les Leopold
Arts & Events - Dennis Regan
Arts & Events - Thomas Norman DeWolf
Arts & Events - Dana Milbank
Arts & Events - "12th Annual Iranian Film Festival"
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- Angels Without Wings
Oct. 2 - 8, 1998 - Fare Elections
Oct. 3 - 9, 2003 - Kicking and Screaming
Oct. 3 - 9, 2003
