Poetry! We all want to have read it, but we don’t want to read it! Amiright? How about this: The Rattle Bag edited by poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes Here is a great anthology to leave lying around. It’s designed to surprise you. It isn’t organized chronologically or by theme — it’s in alphabetical order of the poets’ names, so you can open it up and find ANYTHING (and there is a glossary and index in the back, too). ... Read more
Hey, I know the world ended on Tuesday and everything, but they can have my seven quick takes when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. By which I mean we never really planned to put the computer in this area, so there is no heat in my workspace. My hands hurt. Stupid winter. I blame Obama. And Ron Paul, Mark Shea, Jane Fonda, Ashton Kutcher, Burt Bacharach and effing overrated Joan Miro. I’m sorry, what is that? Is... Read more
I spent several hours writing about the election. Then, because I love you, I deleted that post and wrote this one, instead. My only regret is that I missed the chance to talk about this and this Heh. Read more
Like a tree, in which there are three blackbirds, but one of them is actually just a regular blackbird. On the one hand, yesterday’s election results want me to take everyone by the shoulders and remind them: Hey, it’s okay! We still belong to one family, the family of man. Life goes on. Obama is just a guy, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Donna Summer, it’s that there is no guy who can make life not... Read more
For today’s book, I was torn between choosing something that would be appropriate for the election, and something that would take your mind off the election. So I decided to go with both. I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but seriously, you need to have this book in your house: It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folktale written and illustrated by Margo Zemach This is the book that my five-year-old says is her favorite. She reviews it this... Read more
One final election post – phew. Read more
My son pointed out to me that it was 50 days until Christmas. Being a cynical and mistrustful person, I didn’t believe him; but being an incredibly lazy person, I didn’t feel like turning my head forty degrees to the right to check the wall calendar. I was also too lazy to open up the calculator on the desktop of the computer I’m sitting in front of. I did, however, manage to Google “how many days until christmas 2012” and... Read more
It’s a start. Also: don’t forget, it’s a holy day of obligation, so get thee to Mass! And now I’m off to get my least favorite tooth pulled. I can’t quite bring myself to ask for prayers about that, because it really wasn’t that bad the last time — more gross than painful. Oh, I know, I’ll offer it up for your intentions! There you go. Read more
And the winner is . . . . SARAH RITZ Congratulations, and wear it in good health! I have emailed you so you can let us know which apron you would like. Thanks so much to everyone who entered! Read more
1. Good news, everybody! The internet is really just a bunch of tubes. Each time you Google something, a little bell rings, and one of a team of alert, uniformed attendants runs over, finds what you need in a large, olive green file cabinet, and, quick as a wink, stuffs it into one of these pneumatic tubes and sends it over to your computer with a puff of air. Comforting. Shut up shut up shut up with the further... Read more
I Have to Sit Down
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