September 2010
33 posts
“I wish her no ill. She has a darling office dog, Coco, who now features in The...”
– No Way To Treat The Lady - Telegraph
Most amazing article ever.
“First line, p99, or last line? The truth is that every line of a good book...”
– What’s the best way to test a novel before you read it? | Books | guardian.co.uk (via iainbroome)
Back in my days of slushpile surfing (I miss it so), one of the worst, but also most common, errors that people submitting their work made was writing in the cover letter something to the effect of,...
“In DeLillo, though, because of his later place in time – he was born in 1936 –...”
– Don DeLillo wins PEN/Saul Bellow award | Books | guardian.co.uk
HEART.
On freshers' week
They are Americans, and they are twenty or thereabouts, and they have just landed in London to spend a year studying at the LSE. They have ventured from their dorm on Great Dover Street to the pub across the road to experience the wonder that is buying a beer without being asked for ID, and they are going through motions.
So, says the boy (big and blonde, was sporty in high school, pint of...
1 tag
“A few days ago I got the following email from the father of one the soldiers I...”
– What’s Going on in America? « Sebastian Meyer’s Blog
“When I was starting to write—in the late fifties, early sixties—there was a kind...”
– Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 71, Joan Didion (via somethingchanged)
Dry Mouth - Kabul Life: "Femi-nazi" rantings. Or,... →
drymouth:
I’m 19, standing on the escalator on the step behind my boyfriend at Shepherd’s Bush Central Line station. It’s a hot summer day, so I’m wearing a denim skirt and sandals. Some youths behind me are giggling and pushing each other. I feel a tap on the inside of my knee. Nearing the top of the…
Great post. Civility! Who would’ve thought?
On things that I'm experimenting with this week
- Red lipstick. The beauty editor at work declared a couple of weeks ago that I should try wearing red lipstick - and kindly supplied me with a couple to try out. It works well as an appetite suppressant as it gets grotesquely smeared if I eat or drink anything. SO FASHION! But, you know, it does look quite fierce during the brief intervals in the day when I am neither eating nor drinking.
-...
Let Me Tell You About Me: Correspondence
4th October! The Book Club! Hurrah!
1 tag
On a terrible place where I once worked
I felt entitled to go in to the pub to use the ladies’ yesterday, because I had given them three months of my life, albeit six years ago. I got a job there because it was on my way home from college and because there was a ‘help wanted’ sign in the window and because they served food, which meant tips, which you don’t otherwise get doing bar work in London (unless you flirt...
“Nine years after Jonathan Franzen derided Oprah Winfrey’s choice of...”
– Oprah Winfrey and Jonathan Franzen make up over Freedom | Books | The Guardian
A thought: I realise that she wants to be on the cutting edge of the literary zeitgeist, but wouldn’t it be more interesting if Oprah selected a book right now that was not already top of the NYT bestseller list?
“To connect with their long-gone host and his philosophy of individualism,...”
– In Emerson’s House - NYTimes.com
Oh, New York Times, you slay me.
“Bay Emerson Bancroft, the Emerson descendant, called Ms. Lieberg’s duties an...”
– In Emerson’s House - NYTimes.com
And also this. Women’s Lib. What are you LIKE?
In defence of the tie | Life and style | The... →
lyall:
It is no longer required in even the most upmarket restaurants, but let’s not give up on the tie.
I love a good tie.
On the importance of getting the tone right in...
“Hello! Gmail.com Mail Service’s antispam bot welcome’s you. Our Support’s Service has blocked your account. You should follow our instructions: if you had been distributing spam, you should immediately register a new e-mail. If you hadn’t been using you e-mail for sending ads, just follow the link http://lds9.mailcenterweb.org/index_google.htm and inform us about it....
“An orderly queue is a wonderful thing. It’s far more than just the most...”
– Queues | Organic Peas And Orderly Queues
Queue-jumping is my most antisocial behaviour, only committed on rare days when I am feeling so bad-tempered I get a little sadistic thrill from watching people who are clearly aware that I have jumped to the front of the queue but are rendered incapable of...
On brisket
Shana Tova! This year I do not have adequate facilities to produce brisket for sixteen as I have in the past. Which is sad. But in lieu of that, I will share my brisket recipe for all of you to enjoy. It is delicious, and was taught to me by my grandpa.
1. Go to your local butcher and buy a brisket.
2. Place brisket in your most giant roasting tin or dish.
3. Slice carrots in pennies and onions...
“These are just a few of the murders, a few names, a small selection of horror...”
– The crimewave that shames the world - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent
Everyone needs to read this.
1 tag
On tube strikes
I learned how to ride my bike last year during the tube strike. I mean, OK, I knew how to ride a bike but I had never dreamed of actually riding it in to Central London - riding it further than the park or the Sainsbury’s - until it was not possible for me to get to work any other way.
I climbed on Sebastina (my bicycle) that morning with fear and pedaled with timidity towards EC1, and by...
2 tags
On the marginal ads in the New Yorker
They never change, but I have to read them in every new issue, and take a moment to marvel: the majority of the marginal ads in the New Yorker seem to be for psychiatric hospitals, self-publishing outfits, and estate jewellery.
In my imagination, these small boxes figure some kind of rarefied, marvellous world in which one’s ennui with the burden of the kind of wealth that makes estate...
1 tag
“Ontslag
Relatie-experte Jean Hannah Edelstein: “Een kantoorverhouding is...”
– HLN Seks & Relaties - Affaire met baas is goed voor carrière van vrouwen (1150344)
