January 2010
77 posts
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What do these words have in common? First one to...
Croquet
Lunette
Renoir
Turnstile
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“I was so avid a Student in those days — so ardently devoted to the intellectualization of my world, so confident about my fledgling powers of analysis, so scholastic in my aspirations, so serious and chaste and idealistic — such a twatty little Simone Weil wannabe in fact — that I had somehow managed mostly to avoid acknowledging the real world and its inhabitants....
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"It's up to you."
I could have been possessed by some succubus of maternal instinct this week: I’ve been ogling babies and little kids wherever I go, and not-so-surreptitiously following their mothers around on the second floor of Barnes and Noble, or the library, eavesdropping on their conversations. I can’t help myself. Their little midget comes trundling along and stops at my chair and looks up at...
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“Not for nothing does the industry term “Shelter magazine” play subliminally on “bomb shelter.” Self-fortification is one of the goals here; likewise the psychic eradication of other people.”
-Terry Castle on her obsession with shelter-lit
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J.D. Salinger died.
Changing my name to Zooey Caulfield. For posterity.
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Can you spell Maaa?
I was comically one of three ladies sitting at the bar at Cafe Frida last night, waiting for a date to arrive. We all had books and phone devices out; we all kept rotating between reading half a page, looking at our phone, going back to the book, then responding to a text message, then finding our place in the book again, etc., and doing all of it very impatiently.
I forced myself not to order a...
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the more economic independence and education a...
Working women say their marriage is richer for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/fashion/24marriage.html
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Wife in Reverse by Stephen Dixon
Wife In Reverse
His wife dies, mouth slightly parted and one eye open. He knocks on his younger daughter’s bedroom door and says “You better come. Mom seems to be expiring.” His wife slips into a coma three days after she comes home and stays in it for eleven days. They have a little party second day she’s home: Nova Scotia salmon, chocolates, a risotto he made, brie...
salsa with mashed potatoes.
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Reason For Not Eating Out #39: Because the Hair In...
As long as I’m hungry, on my second cup of coffee, and thinking about food…I’ll talk about my favorite food blog.
She doesn’t have a Tumblr, so I can’t just go ahead and reblog the entry from whose title I nabbed this witty heading, but Cathy Erway does have a great idea about food. Her book “The Art of Eating In” is telling one basic truth: you can save...
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best food flicks of the past decade
This is a really difficult list to compile. There weren’t that many movies featuring food between the years 2000 and 2010. There were more books. The flicks I can think of are kind of de rigeur.
Chocolat
Waitress
Julie and Julia
et al.
I have to come back to this one.
books that are too painful to re-read for various...
I would only disagree with Hunger, Sophie’s Choice and Sylvia Plath’s journals because I have re-read each of these books countless times just to get a taste, again, of the delicate virtuosity with which each writer designed their tale and expressed it so heartbreakingly. Styron and Hamsun are like Nabakov, I would put them in that category of mastermind. Wending and winding and...
WatchThese nice people we know are selling this boss vehicle they made for Burning Man 2008.
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New Non-Fic
After a thorough reflection (whilst skimming the book), I think it is OK to consider reading this new hardback. It will not be just like reading The 7 Habits of Highly Awesome Dweebs or another self-helpish thing Elizabeth Gilbert wrote.
A homeless woman is free to dream when everyone...
I made a journal entry in 2007 the day I took myself on an extensive walking tour of the East End of London. It was about a lady I watched through her first-floor apartment window on Fournier Street. She was making dinner and then eating it alone —pasta with olive oil, and a glass of wine —all the while unaware of the intrigued onlooker from America, lost and cold on her way to...
It's 2 am and I just finished the last episode of...
It’s my impression that only people over 40 struggle with chronic insomnia either 1) related to health issues that geezers are known to get or 2) related to drinking caffeine after 4 pm. Alas. I am 23 and awake with insomnia for one or two of those reasons, and not sleeping soon. Especially not with the M12 bus heeing and hawing right under my window.
What are you supposed to do when...
A NYMagazine article of note
“With apologies to Jay-Z, the current Empire State of Mind might not be something to brag about—at least according to the recent study ranking New York as the least-happy state in the nation. In the nation! Which seems, to us, rather unbelievable. Yes, nearly half of the state’s residents live in a city that’s inordinately stressful (expensive, noisy, crowded, pushy). Yes, it’s hard to find...
being and time
1. I like Ditmas Park. It reminds me of Zone 3 in London somewhere. The train arrives above ground and there are good hole-in-the-wall restaurants that serve Tibetan and Middle Eastern food. I think Brooklyn is fine. And in due time, I’ll move there.
2. The conversations we have about Heidegger in this Manhattan apartment don’t really seem out of place, but they ought to happen,...
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Struck by the lack of pubic hair
Everything is different in Brooklyn Heights.
Compared to Bushwick, it’s like Dreams from an American Trust Fund.
And the actors tucked away there have a startling dearth of pubic hair.
We made the journey last night to St. Ann’s Day School on Joralemon street to see the Heights Players Rendition of “Take Me Out.”
Ever since my Dad signed me up to be on the boys...
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What cannot be achieved with tea
In her vignette “Adele,” Gertrude Stein wrote, “it’s worthwhile making a fuss when there is a possibility of obtaining perfection. Otherwise any old tea is good enough.”
As I see it, there is a problem with the tea aisle in any American grocery store. The varieties are endless, and preclude the possibility of a wholly satisfying cup. With so many to choose from,...
“Traditionally, Americans have sought to realise the American dream of success,...”
– “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” by Matthew Warshauer
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confidence, no shame
I don’t want to write a soupy blog about ways to find confidence, ladies! But I keep thinking about Tina Fey, and I can’t help myself from searching Redbook online for articles about the 10 habits of confident women.
I would say, according to my research, Fey belongs to a rare breed of female. She made her career out of making fun of herself; literally writing wicked jokes about her...
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Maybe this could be fun
Every morning I turn on NPR and know that thousands of people will die from starvation in Haiti while we New Yorkers enjoy our rice and beans which we can just get right around the corner.
Yesterday while the internet was on the blink at home and I was at Whole Foods using their wifi I saw a sign for an event fundraiser that will be held at the WF wine store tonight on 97th street and...
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humanitarian things I now know better about.
One of the reasons I live where I live is because it’s near my friend Michal’s apartment. Michal is a very tiny, animal-loving, wide-eyed Jewish pixie I met in my Creative Writing course in college. She asked me to have dinner with her one night after class and we’ve been friends ever since.
Once a week we get together for beer or lunch, and today she came to my place with her...
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after considering applying for the Paris Review...
When I was in college, I thought it was a very good idea to pursue an unpaid internship at a magazine. I thought, ”if I am serious at all about becoming a writer, I must work in a magazine or a book publishing office because that is what writers do.” I thought it was a very prestigious idea, especially to work at Hearst.
Now that I am an adult, I realize there are no prestigious...
some relationship progress
1. As an unemployed graduate student I can’t really buy stuff. Everything that comes into this apartment is either edible or borrowed from the library. I can’t remember the last time I bought a new something to wear. My favorite sweaters all have holes in them.
2. Those craigslist ads for egg donors are looking pretty attractive to me. What could be bad about donating some ova?
3....
Up at 2 a.m.: Thinking about the state of being...
mhight:
suesse:
Back in more carefree days, Charles and me at a friend’s wedding
I had some previous posts of this sort on the other blog — times when I awoke in the middle of the night and got out the computer to write. At around 12:30 a.m., I woke up to the baby crying. I nursed her, put her back to sleep, but am now wide awake and have been for the past hour or more. I’m trying to get...
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Shock Doctrine
An interesting perspective on Haiti by a very good writer.
bourgeoiseldorado:
I’ve been hearing faint ideological echoes over the Internet and elsewhere, that in Haiti there exists the risk of the disaster facilitating a new era of American imperialism on the island. Now like everyone else who is in any way like me, I condemn imperialism in all its forms and permutations insofar that I believe...
WatchObamas out of touch with average America.
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Rationalizing
According to this possibly unreliable source of a website, the best places to live in NYC are all in Manhattan. My impression is, if you’re going to move to Brooklyn, you’re going to do most of the things you normally need to do in your day to day life in Brooklyn. You’re going to work there (probably), grocery shop there (not at Whole Foods), you’re going to eat out...
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Frizzante Opening
Frizzante Restaurant. Frederick Douglass Blvd. and W 117th Street
When a restaurant opens up right under your apartment building, it’s your duty to eat there. And to give it a good rating, since you plan to go back and back and back.
SoHar is interesting. At the crown of Central Park, parallel to Morningside Heights, it’s slowly becoming known as Harlem’s restaurant...
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