General
An embarrassing truth
Sometimes I check Carthage for new entries, even when I haven’t written any. As if my alter ego were hard at work blogging while I am goofing off? As if someone else blogged here? I don’t know the rationale, I just do it. The embarrassing part is that I do it two or three times … Continue reading
American pudding
Just phone-interviewed a woman for the dog paper. Her voice is Wimbledon-born. I am taking diligent notes but covered in secret goosebumps, helpless against the warm puddled pudding of an English accent.
Adult fun
Kids at Disneyland are very constrained. They can’t get more than a few steps from their parents without being lost in the crowd, so they’re not allowed to run loose. Even on Tom Sawyer’s Island, the many cameras ensure that a cast member arrives speedily to chastise any kids who leave the trails to climb … Continue reading
Dickens or disease?
Some plants that sound like diseases or Dickensian characters: Farkleberry (Dickens) Pussytoes (disease) Bloodroot (Dickens) Toothwort (disease) Dodder (Dickens) Dutchman’s-breeches (disease) Nipplewort (Dickens) Sneezeweed (disease) Seabious (Dickens) Sulphur tuft (disease) Bearberry (Dickens) Black meddick (disease) Rosy Pussytoes.
Equation
Champagne + fairy tales + fitting into a princess dress I thought I had outgrown = gleeful spinning. More Finer Things Club.
Traveler returns
When I first saw Truly Madly Deeply, I thought Anthony Minghella (one of my favorite directors, now dead, along with my favorite singer and one of my favorite authors, you have to wonder why I bother having favorites at all anymore) was trying to say that the dead return to life all the time. It’s … Continue reading
Valentine: A Retrospective
We all agree: boys have a hard time figuring out what to get their girlfriends for Valentine’s Day. And girlfriends everywhere are baffled by this. Guys, it’s so easy. If it’s pretty, soft, fragrant, tasty, expensive, sexy or shiny, it’s good. If it’s something you would get your dad, it’s bad. Girls, it’s so easy. … Continue reading
Like a simile
The champagne experiment was a success. Get your inner critic a little drunk and he rolls over like a big dumb dog. I’ve recently realized that “like a big dumb dog” is my favorite simile. I use it all the time. When abroad: “You can tell Californians from other Americans. A Californian is like a … Continue reading
Why not me
You spend seven days working on your paying jobs and when you return to the book your inner critic has used seven days to rejuvenate and is up and running like a Yamaha. How to shut him up? Might a mimosa help? Many great authors were drunks why not me. Sorry Gene I drank the … Continue reading
13
It is Friday the 13th. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I foresee a lot of last-minute plans having unlucky results.