There are too many things that I hope happen in the world in 2018 that are depressing enough and obvious enough not to list. That said, I really need 2018 to bring me 1) a better approximation for “is not equal to” than =! (because really, that should be interpreted as a joyful shout of “EQUALS!” or “is excitement!”) 2) a past tense version of that sign. I need this both for a keyboard and also just for any written… Read more »
Posts By: Claire
Graphic design
I intended to write this…I think before Halloween. With reading, I’m something of a completionist (I think the number of books I’ve started and not finished is five or fewer, and most in the past couple of years). With writing, clearly, a procrastin…ist. Anyway, as I was doing live-DJ yoga and thinking about mashup titles, I was also thinking about graphic design and visual puns. Their analogue re: sound is obvious–mixes–carrying on the declaration of “This thing looks like this… Read more »
The News
I do listen to (aka read) the news, as grotesque as it is these days, but I will say I prefer listening to people talk on the subway, like the pair of older women I sat next to the other night. They must have just come from a reading; one said “I’ve never understood singing–I mean, I understand why YOU would want to hear yourself sing, but why would *I* want to hear you sing?” The other shook her head… Read more »
I love airports
Okay, it’s a lie. But I do love overhearing conversations like this: Woman 1: They should make a movie out of his life story. Woman 2: Would Troy be in it too? With all of his womanizing? Woman 1: He is a SOCIOPATH. Pause Woman 2: Man, I’m going to go back to work and my fish is going to be dead. Woman 1: You have a fish? Woman 2: Just the one beta. You know, the kind that looks… Read more »
The Grand March of Time
Looking back through my (very…extensive) computer diary, which I started at age 16, I found an entry from my freshman year of college that begins, “What, March already? I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be thirty.” OKAY THEN
2017 Reading List, Part 4
The Idiot, by Elif Batuman: Someone recommended this to me after reading my book-in-progress, though it would have been a delightful recommendation regardless. It’s my pick for my office holiday party book exchange. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman: Very…treacly. Too twee for me, though I understand the appeal, I guess. Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead: Brutal and brilliant. I LOVE the conceit of a literal railroad. Prosperous Friends, by Christine Schutt: This was quick, captivating, and totally depressing…. Read more »
November
I’ve never done very well with Novembers. It’s the darkness, the cold, and the lack of sparkly markers of time (I know–Thanksgiving–somehow it doesn’t have the same effect as Christmas lights). I tried walking around my room just muttering “hygge, hygge, hygge” as if I could summon it, but that didn’t do anything (YET). So I’ve been playing scrabble online, reading, and whenever the temperature shifts back to the 60s, pretending that a) it’s still late summer b) climate change… Read more »
Did you ever notice that “hear” has “ear” in it?
the irony of doing an “overheard” post when my right ear has been stuffed up for two weeks. Overheard… on the street: -No reason to cry, baby. There will be more fluffy stuff up ahead. -You know what they say–when one door closes, another–another door’s gonna close. -It’s a PHILODENDRON. That’s the name of that plant, bro. PHIL-O-DEN-DRON. with my students: -Solving for x is almost as good as eating a cookie…should I make that my motto? -(while reading an… Read more »
DJs and Graphic Designers
A few weeks ago I went to a yoga class with a live DJ (it was very hard to vinyasa rather than dance). I had a hard time paying attention to the poses because I was trying to remember all of the mash-ups the DJ created, and also thinking about what mash-up name I could give each creation. Such as (*denotes the ones I was fond of musically): *”Don’t You Want a Bad Romance?” (Human League + Lady Gaga) *”How… Read more »
Words With “Friends”
Immediate sidenote: I laugh every time at “May the best friend win.” What is that? It’s like a game we used to play in Latin class in high school that we (and our teacher) called “Who’s the better person?” That didn’t have anything to do with the rules or the concept, that was just the title… I play Words With Friends with some actual friends, but mostly strangers–and I enjoy that, because it means I have more games going. Occasionally… Read more »
