January 2008
32 posts
Hey, I got Gawked! →
This was probably quite a cool thing to happen in, like, 2005, but I’m going to run with it.
Math class
At the moment, I’m having a rather stressful time - things just are not quite falling into place in the way that would be most peaceful and ideal. It’s keeping me up at night, a little. ‘Wasn’t it easier,’ said one of my friends, ‘When we were young, and we just had math class to worry about?’ Thought-provoking. Math class made me an anxious wreck from...
I am sure you will agree it is not unreasonable...
The only good thing about the water shortage is the opportunity it is giving me to hone my angry writing skills. In general, I have that nice-girl tendency to temper any statements which I suspect might be inflammatory with the usual arsenal of words which diffuse the impact: perhaps, admittedly, of course, slightly. But being dehydrated makes me tired and even more caustic than usual, and thus...
Observed
Tonight, Lauren and I went to see The Witnesses at the National Film Theatre. It was a moving, thoughtful and very carefully directed film…until the last fifteen minutes, when they introduced an American character, a guy from New York called Steve. “I speak French,” Steve said in French, “but prefer English or Italian.” “Well, we can speak English,” said...
“It’s not as easy as that Tim! I can’t just pluck another winter...”
– Daisy in Spaced feels my freelancing pain
1 tag
Coffee: the good, the cheap and the fattening |... →
I can’t believe that it is considered news that lattes are fattening. I worked at my hometown branch of the Melville-inspired caff in my callow youth (circa 2000) for about three months; we had a laminated sheet behind the counter with all of the appalling calorie counts but we were, ah, encouraged not to tell the customers what they were unless they really wanted to know, begged and...
“I honestly think that [men] spent all their colonial years dominating women in...”
– my Calgary correspondent, Veronique
“I’m going to take a SHOWER when I go home to New Zealand!”
– Bex, very excited
H. Two. No.
We’ve cracked: tonight, Bex and I are attending a legal aid clinic to find out how on earth we can compel our landlord to provide us with water. The flat (on the fifth floor of a converted nineteenth-century church, obviously not designed with running water in mind) has often had spotty plumbing - no pressure for an hour or so every morning when everyone is showering before work; similar...
“Look at any newspaper story with the verb “blasted” or “lashed...”
– Garrison Keillor in Salon (sent to me by my Geneva correspondent)
1 tag
Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - art: In the... →
Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Do you... →
1 tag
JHE Umbrella Project
The other day I remarked that while I admire the Feltron Annual Report, I don’t have a similar urge to catalogue things. But I do now! I hereby announce the JHE Umbrella Project: I am going to carefully catalogue the number of umbrellas I go through this year. Prompted by the fact that I am already on my third one of 2008, I hope that keeping a careful record will help me to get to the...
CBC News: Analysis & Viewpoint: Richard Handler →
“…hating America is Canada’s cuddly teddy bear.” Aw, shucks.
“I have every confidence in your abilities on and off the Tube!”
– ST
Feltron Eight →
This is interesting and elegant and for me underlines just how utterly not interested in categorising or making lists of things I am.
Teen Prom : Grotesque Gowns & Girl-On-Girl Action... →
Ah, the prom: most important night in the life of any red-blooded young American girl.
Mwah
Of the many cultural practices that life as an expat in the UK (not the most challenging expat life, I must note) has challenged me to adopt, it is the signature kiss that I really find to be rather troubling. I can cross the road without getting hit by a car; I know how to avoid buying rounds in the pub; I am quite good at complaining and generalising (about how English people always complain)....
One of two things
It’s 11 o’clock, but travel is necessary, so I order a minicab. I stand outside the gates of my block of flats (well, church of flats) and wait. A car pulls up. The driver rolls down the window. “Who are you looking for?” I say, more cautious than ever about minicabs. “Who am I looking for?” he says, with a disgusted curl of the lip. He sighs heavily, picks...
Women Are Never Front-Runners - New York Times /... →
An articulate (of course) feminist perspective on the race for the Democratic nomination which has clarified my own thoughts…
Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: How to... →
Paperback of the week: Jan 6 | Review | The... →
Edith Wharton: an astonishing life, much to my surprise. Am pleased to be revisiting Ethan Frome with the book club I’m joining this month.
December 2007
33 posts
Online portfolio
Born in the early eighties in New York to an American father and Scottish mother, Jean Hannah Edelstein is a London-based journalist with a signature style that combines New York sass and British wit. Since mid-2007 she has been writing in print and online for the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Independent on Sunday, the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, on topics ranging from sex...