For my birthday, which was yesterday, I gave myself the gift of no longer running for the subway. I wish I could say I came to this decision 1. based on ideals about either a) leaving early enough not to need to run for the subway or b) some sort of well-developed thoughts about whether saving two minutes is really important, or 2. because of some critical junction of age (no running for oldsters!) and technology (perhaps it isn’t actually… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Blog
The Joys of Dance Academy
I’ve made a goal to write 500 words a day and this may be a way of finding a loophole/avoiding the short story I’m working on – but if, as they say, writing is a muscle, consider this flexing. Even if I’m flexing one muscle while lying in bed watching TV with the rest of them. And in this scenario what I’m watching (unless there’s a gymnastics competition, preferably with either a competent or ludicrous commentator) is almost definitely the… Read more »
Books of 2019, Part 3
The Circle, by Dave Eggers: I think that in order to accurately gauge whether this is prescient dystopia or heavy-handed…I have to try to imagine reading it back when it came out in 2013. And I think in 2013 it would have seemed dark but clearly exaggerated, while now it seems…pretty close to the actual state of things. So I’ll say it was, indeed, unfortunately prescient, and also thoroughly enjoyable, even though there was one comparison (or three, really) at… Read more »
Disparate thoughtlets: a quartet for muses and ramblings
1. Things I’ve overheard recently in my house: “No…horribly, I’m still in the dating pool.” “This is my first time being a butt guy, I think. That makes me a team player.” I didn’t intentionally juxtapose those sentiments…they were just the only two interesting things I eavesdropped lately. I swear! 2. Thinking further about chores: Another way to slot chores into column A or column B is…well, I wanted this to be a legitimate methodology, but now that I’ve begun… Read more »
Casting Broadly
I know I said something in my last post to the effect of “and he doesn’t talk about men’s bodies in the way he comments on women’s…” Okay, I take it back. This guy has something to say about nearly every physical aspect of the men competing at the Stuttgart World Cup: Their acrobatics (which, obviously, fair game, but the phrasing itself was a little lacking): “And then he dropped back, and it was very ugly in the end.” “Ohp…what… Read more »
Broadly Cast
So there are two “rebroadcast” commentators for gymnastics on The Olympic Channel. One is Olly Hogben, who was just interviewed on Gymcastic and who makes a point to 1) not infantilize female gymnasts; 2) know the names of the skills, the scoring system, etc. He is overall delightful, and manages to say things like “and…there’s an accidental dismount” when a gymnast falls in a way that sounds empathetic rathr than mocking. Then there’s the other guy. He sounds like he’s… Read more »
Writing Methods: Sleuthery
I’ve talked before about spending years (not, you know, full time or anything) fruitlessly searching for something on the internet (the particular elusive title from an elusively named series of middle-grade fiction, the theme song from a vaguely remembered childhood TV favorite) and then, suddenly, finding it, without fully realizing what (if anything) I was doing differently in my search. Of course, as my boyfriend pointed out, the internet has been changing over those years, filling with new information and… Read more »
Books of 2019, part 2
Come With Me, by Helen Schulman: The description for this pushed a number of buttons for me – nuclear radiation! near-future technology! – but I was expected something that veered more speculative than this ended up. That in itself I didn’t mind, and I generally enjoyed reading this, but…it felt like a draft to me, one that, were I the editor, my comments would have been along the lines of: 1. Too many components that aren’t given their due because… Read more »
Books of 2019, part 1
I Contain Multitudes, by Ed Yong: Microbes! I started this before January 1st and thoroughly enjoyed reading it on the cold, quiet days following. Sick, by Porochista Khakpour: Super engrossing and beautiful in its structure. I’ve read a few books that investigate or narrate experiences with the long-term effects of Lyme disease (see, I’m even afraid to say chronic Lyme because it’s so controversial!) I’ve read intelligent, considered arguments on both sides and my only certainty is that it would… Read more »
Counting
When I taught English to Thai speakers, one of the more difficult concepts (not necessarily to teach, but rather to introduce the topic in a way that made it through my limited Thai and their limited English as something coherent), was that of countable and uncountable nouns. (Another was whether to use “more + ______” or “______er” for comparative adjectives – mainly because the rule relies on how many syllables the adjective has, and I had to a few semi-acrobatic… Read more »
