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  "description": "by Jodi Sh. Doff  |  Women's work.",
  "path": "/cheap-cuts/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-10-15T11:15:21.000Z",
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    "“Mount Joy, Pennsylvania”",
    "“Twenty-Something”",
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  "textContent": "In the kitchen, preparing dinner, my mother trims handfuls of fat from the cheap cuts of beef we can afford. Then, seasoning and marinating, she turns a last-choice, unloved piece of meat into something mouthwatering and delicious.\n\nAfter dinner, alone in my room, I sit on the edge of my twin bed and draw lines on the insides of my thighs with a marker. I’m six, or maybe I’m seven. I hold a butter knife tight in my fist, waiting for the courage to start cutting away my own useless fat, my unwanted parts, hoping for just a little of my mother’s magic.\n\n* * *\n\n**Jodi Sh. Doff** is a NYC-based, sixty-something, single, sober writer whose work includes autobiographical elements of drug use, alcoholism, Times Square, and sex work. As the primary caregiver for an elderly mother with dementia, her recent work focuses on caregiving, aging, and family relationships. Her writing can be found in multiple anthologies, literary journals, and magazines, including _Bust_ , _O_ , _The Oprah Magazine_ , _Litro UK_ , _Oldster_ , and _Hippocampus Magazine_. Learn more at onlythejodi.com and follow her on Substack.\n\nThis essay is a _Short Reads_ original.\n\n* * *\n\n### **From the archive**\n\n\nOct 16, 2024\n“Mount Joy, Pennsylvania”\nby Irene Fick | Conjuring a different life.\n\nOct 18, 2023\n“Twenty-Something”\nby grace (ge) gilbert | This, again.\n\nShare this on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Bluesky\n\nThis issue of __Short Reads__ was 🔪 edited by Hattie Fletcher; 🥩 fact-checked and proofread by Chad Vogler; 🛏️ designed by Anna Hall; and 🪄 delivered to our 2,327 subscribers by Stephen Knezovich.\n\n****PS/**** We’re looking for new flash essays. See the submission call →\n\n****Miss an issue?**** Every  __Short Reads__ essay is available on short-reads.org.\n****Want more like this?**** Subscribe to __Short Reads__ and get one fresh flash essay—for free—in your inbox every Wednesday. Or become a supporting subscriber and help us pay writers.\n\nWANTED: New Flash Essays →",
  "title": "Cheap Cuts",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-02T17:46:27.728Z"
}