For once, a prose passage for the commonplace book. This is the beginning of Stuart Dybek’s wonderful short story "Pet Milk," in The Coast of Chicago (New York: Vintage, 1991): Today I’ve been drinking instant coffee and Pet milk, and watching it snow. It’s not that I enjoy the taste especially, but I like the […]
This post from Bitch. Ph.D. is making me rethink my decision not to have children: Saturday, we were running an errand and I was flipping around the radio and came upon a broadcast of the Met’s production of La Boheme. Pseudonymous kid: Wait! Stop. That music is beautiful.Me: Do you like it?Pseudonymous kid: Yes, let’s […]
I have an abiding fondness for the how-to format. (When I taught writing, my favorite assignment was always the "how to" essay; my students seemed to enjoy it as well.) Here are a few recent favorite links from others who appreciate a good process analysis: Lifehacker, a new blog about "the downloads, web sites, and […]
Tuesday was Elizabeth Bishop‘s birthday. Here are some thoughts, inspired by the list-meditation thing that LiL has been doing: 1. Chinese New Year also fell this week. It’s the Year of the Rooster, so I can’t resist mentioning Bishop’s poem "Roosters," which it took me multiple readings to realize is a war poem. (Then I […]
I’m back, at least for the time being. Things are still very far from all right, but the outlook is a little less dire than I initially feared. I’d still rather not talk about the situation; it’s in the category of "things that are too personal to share with the entire internet." I don’t want […]
I’m going to have to go on hiatus for a while. I’ve just gotten some very bad news (the ‘serious illness in the family’ kind of bad news), and I haven’t the heart to write much of anything right now. I’m not planning on leaving the blogosphere, and if the news in question is followed […]