February 2011
Lower Costs and Better Care for Neediest Patients... →
January 2011
Logged twenty hours of Ally McBeal watching from Friday night until now. That’s half a work week. That’s awesome. It’ll probably amount to two pages of writing. That’s less awesome. (But still awesome.)
Things that are true: a) I worked really hard this weekend; b) I have watched over twelve hours of Ally McBeal; c) a was entirely the result of b; and d) c means that my life rules.
So much judgment in my cat’s eyes as I danced around my apartment to the Ally McBeal theme song. Whatever.
“[I’m telling you stories.] Trust me.”
– The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (via the-final-sentence)
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Things I miss
An unknown someone at an unknown time went through the books in Longwood’s library and, on the title pages, in pencil, corrected the authors’ names so that they reflected proper etiquette. I was about to say that it seemed to always be in books by female writers, but that’s flawed because I mostly read books by female writers, so my sample is skewed. Looking for these marks was...
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I'm listed in Tumblweeds under writing,...
I’m listed in Tumblweeds, a user-generated community directory that rates Tumblr bloggers by their number of followers. Find me listed in #writing, #television, #books
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http://splitsider.com/2011/01/the-groundbreaking-wo... →
Those involved in the 80s/90s era of the show frequently cite Phil Hartman, another great straight man, as ‘the glue’ that held the cast together, but nobody ever gives Jane Curtin credit for being ‘the glue’ holding the original group together. It was always fascinating to watch Curtin keep even the most absurd sketches believable.
Truth.
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“I went on this sort of spiritual odyssey, guided by Nick at Nite.”
– Roseanne
Summation of the last two years of my life.
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“‘Hello, dog,’ Sarah said, borrowing some words from the veejays on...”
– Elizabeth #6, I Need You (2001)
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“I’m going to be the boss at ukulele.”
– Kara
The Story Problem: 10 Thoughts on Academia’s Novel... →
Cathy Day is amazing. This is important. Go, read, discuss.
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Cathy Day and the Big Thing
(sounds like a Dr. Seuss book)
Last spring, I took Cathy Day’s fiction workshop. Have we talked about how much I love Cathy Day? (And that she’s totally a two-name person at all times?) I had taken a short forms fiction readings class with her the semester before and sweet talked her into being my thesis chair.
To which she asked, “Are you writing a thesis or a book?”
Oh.
Well.
I don’t...
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“Water authority, Iron City Brewing have deal”
– Headline, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Why don’t you let me shimmy out of my reading glasses and put on my...”
– Kathleen Madigan
“Have you guys made a vision board?…I didn’t believe in it, I still...”
– Maria Bamford
Birthday Best Sellers →
The week I was born has little to offer that I care about. The one exception being Russell Baker’s Growing Up, which I rather love.
katiecoyle replied to your post: You know what I really like about that Gopnik…
I would like to quibble with this, Whipple. I disagree entirely that short stories don’t allow for happiness. I think that, rather, most writers believe that DOOM=serious whereas JOY=unserious. These writers are stupid.
I am with you, dearest Katie Coyle. It just seems more socially acceptable (academically...
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You know what I really like about that Gopnik piece? (Besides the fact that it was just damn good.) It made me smile. Not just in the funny moments, but in these tender moments, too. In various creative writing classes over the years, a constant thread of question and consideration is about DOOM in LITERARY writing. In one fiction readings class, there was a bit of a hunt for a happy literary...
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“Though, as we walked through the White House, it did occur to me that, from the...”
– Adam Gopnik
“I’m walking down the street in Vancouver, and in one hand I have a lit...”
– Kathleen Madigan
She is actually the funniest comic out there; and this is her best show yet.
(via yourestandingonymneck)
Everything feels better when Kathleen Madigan is in your life.
The Nervous Breakdown →
The Real Housewives of Depression →
What happens when you put Lorrie Moore, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and Dorothy Parker in a room together?
Sylvia to Virginia: Are you a genius or a retard? There is such a thing as ‘chronological order’ and ‘reliable narrator.’ There is such a thing as things making sense.
“Joe Bob, as you know, has become a local legend for his innovative staging...”
– A Tuna Christmas
Kenneth: [about coffee] I love how it makes me feel. It's like my heart is trying to hug my brain!
Tracy: So, how you doing over there, Theo Huxtable.
Toofer: I'm doing good.
Tracy: Nah-uh. Superman does good; you're doing well. You need to study your grammar, son.
"Natural," by Julie Draper →
katiecoyle:
In workshops with Julie Draper, I tend to underline most of her sentences and surround them with exclamation points and comments like “YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE, DRAPER.” This is Julie Draper’s first published story and I guarantee you that one day as a nation we’ll all be reading her novels and sighing and crying and writing “YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE, DRAPER” in the margins.
As...
“Can we get on with this? I have somewhere to go. What, television is a place.”
– Jane Lane
I may have found what I want on my gravestone.
(via yourestandingonymneck)
Daria is so full of truth.
Wild Geese →
establishedin1979:
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies...
“Sad realization of the day: I was going through my purchases on iTunes and...”
– Me (via establishedin1979)
Once, Amanda and I were in my car and “Sometimes When We Touch Came On.” She made fun of me for singing along and then paused. “Wait. This is your iPod. You have this on purpose!”
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WatchThis is exactly how I’m feeling about my future.
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Things noted while reading one of the last Sweet...
Overuse of the word girlfriend. As in, “Chill out, girlfriend.” On average? Once a page.
Ditto girl.
As well as a slew of Clueless catch phrases.
The token school band, The Droids, started their junior year playing such rousing anthems as “Different Drum” (it’s not that I knock it, it’s just that I am not convinced of high schoolers in the market for a...
Censoring Mark Twain's 'n-words' is... →
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“p.s. dont you think a good slogan for creative nonfictioners would be...”
– Beth S.
Let's stop pretending the Constitution is... →
“Do you think any of us know how to love?! Do you think anybody would ever do...”
– Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 