Just One Thing with Kristina Ten

Kristina Ten’s August issue story “When It’s Over (No-Tears Shampoo)” is a Bounty® of words that will fill you with Joy® and Cheer®. Here she shares just one thing about the piece:

"Around the time I wrote this, I was studying thing theory and revisiting one of my favorite bodies of artwork, Noah Purifoy’s outdoor museum of assemblage sculpture in Joshua Tree. So I wanted to write something that was very object-forward, and I became fixated on this idea of a person who spoke the language of objects. How would someone like that say ‘I love you,’ or ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘Please don’t cry’? That last one, I was pretty sure, would be ‘No-tears shampoo.’ I remembered that sweet-smelling L’Oréal tear-free shampoo from when I was a kid, the kind that was supposed to be gentle on the eyes. In looking it up again, I found it had been in the news recently: apparently people were debating the meaning of ‘tears.’ Because if you pronounce it one way, it means gentle on the eyes (won’t sting), but if you pronounce it the other way, it means gentle on the hair (won’t cause tangles). It was this very ‘Whoa, now hold on just a minute’ moment until, thankfully, this article reassured me that my childhood understanding of it was the right one—or at least a right one!”