April 2008
53 posts
Another thing that should have existed in the 80s
One of my Glitterditch colleagues has discovered chess-boxing, which is coming to a North London boxing gym. If only this sport had existed when my brother (far right, top row, handsome) and I were young, he would have been much happier - he tended to punch me when we were playing chess, anyway (mostly because I was rubbish at it and he thought I wasn’t trying hard enough) but this led to...
The next leg
When my mother heard my travel plans, she remarked, “you’re going to be grumpy!” Ah, Mum. She knows me so well. I am now in London until tomorrow morning, when I leave for Chicago to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday/see most possible permutations of the Edelfam/catch up with old dear friend Ross. Although I am currently grumpy, I have high hopes I’ll get over...
Returning
En route back to London, I am currently chillaxing (as Seb would say) in the Qantas/BA lounge of fanciness. It is nicely designed with windows so that you can gaze over your aristocratic schnozz at the economy class passengers down below and think, ‘Hm. I shall have another glass of champagne now, I think.’ Of course, on Wednesday, en route to Chicago, I will once again assume my...
Non-fiction: Apr 27 | By genre | guardian.co.uk... →
Hard to bear | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books →
Let there be light and sound →
This concert looks like it is going to be amazing. Am truly irritated to be missing it so I hope that you (dear reader) will go instead.
Singapore
I’m going to Singapore today! It is quite exciting, as this trip will represent my debut in Asia. Unfortunately, I am only going for four days and thus anticipate an unprecedented fug of jetlag, which will only be enhanced by my trip to Chicago immediately afterwards. Ew. Anyway, dear readers, you can look forward to constant updates on my adventures as I linger in the hotel bar at 3 am,...
Galloway suffers campaign trail bashing from ball... →
OK, this is not very nice, but…well, I am sure there are a lot of people who’d like to fling rubber stress balls at George, and I can’t blame them…
Google analytics: so interesting!
Every day I am getting several hits from someone googling ‘Jean Hannah Edelstein” and “math class”. Who is this mysterious fan of my math class anecdotes, I wonder? Would he or she (or they, are there several?) enjoy reading about, say, how much I used to enjoy making pretty graphs of trigonometric functions? Or the time that I was teaching a math class and I got a problem...
“What I want is a Sky+ system for all human interactions, so I can store...”
– Charlie Brooker on getting up early | Comment is free | The Guardian I don’t really feel moved to comment on this, because Charlie is such a hero of hilarity (and lie-ins). But perhaps I should quote my always insightful Geneva correspondent’s response to the article: Mornings are the...
“Men explain things to me, still. And no man has ever apologized for explaining,...”
– Men who explain things - Los Angeles Times Tee hee. I am a big fan of men, in general (I mean, as much as I am a fan of women, of course) but oh my, how I can relate to this article about Men Who Explain Things (and that special sub-category of fellows, Men Who Are Experts On The Obvious). Although...
Sunday night
I had a really lovely weekend - I am sorry it is over - but I actually don’t really have anything in particular to blog about: I made lasagne, had my eyebrows threaded, ate some delicious kedgeree at a nice gastropub, enjoyed a rocking Passover seder, caught up with friends over tea, admired another friend’s Irish musical stylings at a pub in Bloomsbury. But while it was all...
On air: Are women taken seriously in politics? «... →
I was on World Have Your Say today, briefly. Quite good discussion…
That awful math class feeling
OK: so I recall oh-so-painfully the time I had my second-to-last big exam in pre-calculus and I didn’t study at all for it until the night before because I think I was hoping if I didn’t open my book then it would just go away. But then I peeked inside the covers and, BANG, trigonometry. I didn’t even know where to begin. I probably wept. This is much how I feel about the work...
My Geneva correspondent dug out this Moxy Früvous...
Sebastian and Jean plan a Pass-stravaganza
Sebastian: How are we looking now?
Jean: OK, I think, provided the vegetarians aren't sad.
Sebastian: They can have more herbs if they're hungry...and feel bitter about it.
“En route to the Blood on Paper: The Art of the Book exhibition at London’s...”
– Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - art: Books are not just for looking
“Hard-hearted as I am after my slush pile years, I didn’t have high hopes...”
– Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Want to get published? Good luck…
Singular
We had a piquant conversation about being ‘freemale’ last at dinner last night, following Lauren’s spotting of the article in the Observer. Apparently, ‘freemale’ is the new way to describe hip things such as ourselves who are in our twenties and not just not married, but not in a state of constant grief over our failure to find boyfriends! Accoridng to this thesis,...
“A challenging, unsettling book, Black Mass doesn’t exactly make the reader...”
– Last orders | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books
WatchInterview - Jeff Gore | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central Famous! My brother’s friend and former flatmate Jeff on the Colbert Report.
“I think I am over Ian McEwan. I am replete. I really couldn’t care less if...”
– Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - books: Today’s novelists need love
Reblogging...
jessicalouise: jeanhannahedelstein: This morning when I opened the refrigerator I discovered that the coffee was finished, and my heart really sank… The week or so i tried to give up caffeine was one of the worst weeks in my life. I think i would have rather given up heroin. The withdrawal symptoms arent pretty and caffeine aint all that bad for you anyway. I think the pros outweigh the...
Double dactyl
Another rediscovered poem from my youth (1998). This is the last one, though, I promise. Crime and Punishment Fyodor, Fyodor Rodya Raskolnikov Killing Alonya and sis Was a sin. Though he felt justified PhilosoPHIcally, Conscience remorseful he Turned himself in.
My name is Jean, and...
This morning when I opened the refrigerator I discovered that the coffee was finished, and my heart really sank. I made a cup of Yorkshire tea and gulped that down, but on the way to work, I had to stop at the coffee cart by the tube station and buy a shot of espresso because the prospect of walking for twenty minutes was too much to bear, and I was afraid that if I didn’t get a jolt I would...
“I don’t think it’s that he’s not nice, it’s that...”
– Bex, sage-like
“Rarely do I attend any social gathering in the UK where the query “do you...”
– Schadenfreude, I own it | Comment is free
“On May 20th we’ve got an evening of debate and amusement in the company of...”
– Open a Bookshop, what could possibly go wrong?: Normal Service will Resume Soon Hey, fun - I’m appearing at this live blogger-banter event at a nice independent London bookshop on 20th May…
“Where are the witches of yesteryear, the strange old women with their dogged...”
– MFK Fisher, “The Secret Ingredient” (In my new favourite book, Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink)
Thank you, wormwood
It happened in the middle of Saturday afternoon, after I had unwisely consumed a few sips of wormwood-flavoured vodka: I blew my nose and then there was crunching and cracking and then something moved in my right ear and, oh my, I could hear again. Grasshoppers chewing leaves! The movement of neutrinos! It was incredible. Then the glue crept back in, and I am deafened again. But at least I have...
BBC NEWS | Scotland | US president hopefuls back... →
Being half-Scottish, it is deeply important to me to know that all three Presidential contenders have endorsed Tartan Day. As I’m sure you can imagine.
“Erica did things with Jell-O that took people’s breath away.”
– Don DeLillo, “Sputnik” (My thesis stands firm)
Sophomoric Poet Laureate
“You know,” said Dadelstein on the phone last night, “There is a new poetry editor at the New Yorker. You should send them your grass poem.” I wrote this poem in my tenth-grade English class - note cunning use of particular, peculiar vocabulary words such as ‘arborescent’. Impressed, Dadelstein submitted it to the previous poetry editor of the New Yorker, who...
Ah, bless
Have been waiting at home for a package all morning, only to have now received the dreaded phone call: it seems the courier was confused, and has been and gone. Having lived here for nearly three years, I often forget that I live in a church. Until people try to deliver me packages, and they ring me up, saying, ‘I can’t find your apartment building. There’s a church here!’...
“At one low point in college I was actually banned from our all-important...”
– Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - TV & radio: Television: it’s a great listener