Homage to Catatonia

Here’s an idea I came up with circa 1997-1998 that never went anywhere . . .

A short story about a couple who break up but continue to live together for two or three weeks because the lease is nearly up and neither of them can afford to break it or pay the other person’s half of the rent.
First sentence: “Love had ended early.”
Possible titles: “Apartment,” “Together,” or “Alone Together”

Movie about a detective working a homicide investigation who becomes increasingly distracted by a series of fascinating conversations with a hot dog vendor in front of the police station. Gradually the investigation becomes peripheral, squeezed into the margins by the detective’s sprawling chats with the vendor. Think Se7en or the first half of a Law & Order episode meets My Dinner With Andre.

The future. It has been decades since the human race solved its waste problem by transporting sewage, garbage, etc to a parallel universe (or another dimension). The authorities always claimed that this universe/dimension was far larger than our own and completely empty. In fact, this other universe/dimension is densely populated by beings we can only dimly understand — beings who have finally figured out how to strike back.

Set in a future where private education lenders are able to “repossess” a person’s education if they default on paying their student loans. If a long-form piece the A-plot would center on a scientist or a doctor who, through no fault of her own, has fallen behind on her loan payments and must try to continue performing her job while her technical knowledge is slowly erased. B-plot could be a comical spin on same premise: protagonist’s spouse or sibling, a former English major, defaults on loans and feels no ill effects when his education is repossessed since he has already forgotten much of what he learned and never uses the rest.