Would Everybody Please Stop?

Humorous essays about Jenny Allen's attempt to make sense of the baffling and annoying world around her

In Can I Borrow That?, a collection of first-person essays and humor pieces, Jenny Allen asks the tough questions: Why do people say "It is what it is"? What's the point of fat-free half-and-half? Why don't the women detectives on TV carry purses, and where are we supposed to think they keep all their stuff? And haven't we heard enough about memes?

Reporting from the potholes midway through life's journey, Allen addresses these and other more serious matters, like the rude awakenings of being single after twenty-five years, of mothering a teenager, and of living with a serious illness. She also discusses life's everyday trials, like the horrors of attempting a crafts project, the anxieties of being a houseguest, and the ever-changing rules of recycling.

Allen is a performer at heart—her one-woman show I Got Sick Then I Got Better...