August 2010
26 posts
“The year was 1999. DVD’s were fast-replacing VHS tapes on video store...”
– A Spoonful O’ ISMS: Video Store Clerk Confidential
My friend Katie’s brilliant account of working in our local video store. I will never forget the day - shortly after my 18th birthday - that my friend Ian revealed the secret porn wing to me.
“To become a writer is kind of flashy.”
– Haruki Murakami (via niven)
Truth.
On the Man v Food Contest
A booming voice comes over the deli intercom. We pause lunching.
EXCUSE ME, it says. EXCUSE ME. DO WE HAVE A MR STEPHEN JONES SITTING UPSTAIRS?
He’s in the bathroom, a regular-volume voice says.
OH, says the booming voice. HE IS DOING THE MAN V FOOD CONTEST.
We turn back to our sandwiches. Mine is small, a little grey, somewhat disappointing, but on good rye bread. It’s that kind...
On falling in love with Baltimore
This week I’ve fallen in love with Baltimore. Why, precisely, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because I’ve had a week of doing little but sleeping for ten hours a night, eating delicious sandwiches on rye bread, having long talks with my parents, writing a bit, and watching The Wire.
Or maybe it’s because last night I had drinks on the roof deck of the beautiful new home of...
On orienteering
Amy: We need to go to the West Terrace. Which way is west? Oh, there: towards the Hudson.
Jean: Wow, you have an amazing sense of direction.
Amy: I'm basically Magellan.
“I am afraid to ask you any more questions. Your passport photo is too...”
– Passport control officer at Newark International on my arrival yesterday.
“I had to take a typing test when I started in book publishing. I believe I typed...”
– debbiestier: Finding Your Passion
(via meaghano)
Sounds about right.
On my upcoming trip to Baltimore
A: Are you ready for your trip?
JHE: Pretty much. I mean, my clothes are packed. But I need to get four tins of baked beans*, and figure out my phone situation. I don't actually have a phone that works in the US.
A: Can't you get one of those mobiles that the drug dealers use on The Wire?
*for Flatmate Ben, who is now living in Brooklyn.
“Several residents, including 10 youngsters who had signed a petition, addressed...”
– Niskayuna lifts its freeze on ice cream trucks - Times Union
I love my hometown. I mean, I LOVE IT.
Broomeshtick: In order to write plainly... →
I’m a copywriter with a thing for plain English. There are plenty of copywriters (and writers in general) who don’t have a thing for plain English. They think it stifles creativity and brings about uneccesary limitations. But that’s nonsense.
Plain English is about writing for real people. It’s…
I’m probably not a writer with a thing for plain English. But Mr Broome is a master of...
“Oh, I was totally chilled out about not being the one in the white tulle pouf,...”
– UK Food Network Blog – Locally Sourced
a post by me!
“America’s largest chain of high-street bookshops, Barnes & Noble, last...”
– Barnes and Noble bookstore chain put up for sale | Books | The Guardian
I think it was my 11th birthday, when my fondest desire was to receive a Barnes and Noble t-shirt with a picture of Shakespeare on the front. When I heard that a book superstore was going to be opened on the cultural-less...
“BIRTHDAY CAKE
Why wait for your birthday to try it? Celebrate any time!...”
– Our Products - Ice Cream - Flavor List - Stewarts Shops
Talk last night of Richard Russo’s essay in Granta on Gloversville (Dadelstein’s hometown) led me to google up the local ice cream shop-cum-gas station that dominates the landscape of upstate New York. It’s important to take...
1 tag
“Jokes aside, there’s something we need to talk about that I reckon will have a...”
– Pages of Hackney, via looceefir - an v interesting question posed here about whether ‘if we lose the very idea of big name, big reputation authors will people stop reading ambitious and literary work?’
History of the rolled-up trouser →
niven:
Monocle reports on London’s summer trend.
Re-blogged for the benefit of those who sit at the intersect in the Venn diagram of readers of my blog and sporters of cuffed trousers.
On why The Bachelorette doesn't work in the UK
Catching up on my favourite American blogs tonight, I’ve noticed that few of them are not a little bit excited about The Bachelorette.
Seeing this, I thought to myself, ‘why hasn’t this programme been made in Britain, the home of reality television?’ and then I thought, ‘probably because the format doesn’t make sense in a culture where courtship most often...
“She only liked him because they read at the exact same pace and turned pages at...”
– Modern Love - A Free Spirit Who Couldn’t Be Tethered - NYTimes.com
Marriages have happened for worse reasons.
(Read the whole essay; it’s pretty crazy but also wonderful and will no doubt be familiar to everyone in one way or another.)
July 2010
43 posts
On knowing exactly the right thing to say
I suspected he’d be at this gig, this man who one time broke my heart, because he introduced me to the band that was playing; because it was in the neighbourhood where he lived.
It wasn’t a significant relationship - a mere two months, slightly less even - but it was a significant breakup: I was besotted with him; he apparently changed his mind in the course of a day, so I...