February 2010
18 posts
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Hornby ≠ Tolstoy. And yet ...
Having finished Anna Karenina recently, I’m vaccinated against throwing around hyperbole about books. So anything I write about Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked is going to be muted.
Maybe you should judge the novel by my actions. There are the actions you can see here on this blog: I’ve interrupted my life twice — today and Tuesday — to post quotes from the novel. There...
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“What was the big deal? Why had he spent half his life trying to hide from people...”
– from Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked
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“The artistic temperament is particularly unhelpful if it is just that, with no...”
– from Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked
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"Nick Hornby on TSOYA" aka "Why I used to love...
For a good stretch, I listened to almost nothing but podcasts. No audiobooks. Hardly any music, even. I’m not clear on why I stopped. But because I stopped, iTunes stopped downloading new podcasts. So last night, when I inexplicably went hunting for a podcast to listen to, I found that my most recent episode of “The Sound of Young America” was from 11/10/09. It turned out to be...
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My very first impression of Lydia Davis: efficient
Once you’ve read the first paragraph of a story called “The Sock,” you will have read as much Lydia Davis as I have. Here. It’s just 107 words. Go ahead and read it:
My husband is married to a different woman now, shorter than I am, about five feet tall, solidly built, and of course he looks taller than he used to and narrower, and his head looks smaller. Next to her I feel...
Bad disclosure and bad mustaches
Having just used the comments section of somebody else’s post to nitpick about lack of disclosure, I want to pause and acknowledge that my own blog — despite links to this short bio and this hodgepodge about privacy, ads, and links — falls far short of the meticulous disclosure readers get from someone like Jeff Jarvis. If you haven’t read Jarvis’ disclosure statement, you...
“So why not force the Republicans to show their hand - to appear on the floor of...”
– from “Filibuster might cut both ways” by Harry K. Schwartz (2/16/2010, Philadelphia Inquirer). Click HERE for full op-ed.
My uncle wrote this op-ed. It ran today. The bio at the end mentions my uncle’s time as a Senate aide and his service in the Carter Administration. What goes...
“To submit to Muumuu House find a person published by or associated with Muumuu...”
– Muumuu House, which I hadn’t heard of until 90 seconds ago, may have the greatest submission guidelines ever.
Strunk & White fistfight in heaven
Whatever else it may be, Leon Wieseltier’s New Republic attack on Andrew Sullivan is a chore to read. Only one thing caused me to slog through: the knowledge that Wieseltier would eventually get around to indicting my favorite blogger on charges of being either “a bigot” or “moronically insensitive” toward Jewish people.
I don’t know Wieseltier’s other...
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“We took his pickup and rode out of the city on razor-straight roads to the oil...”
– from Susan Orlean’s “A Place Called Midland” (2000)
Today, while driving, I listened to the audiobook version of a collection that includes this piece. The passage I’ve quoted here jumped out at me. The economy of it struck me as much as anything else. Here, in what turns...
“After my mother died, on Christmas of 2008, near-strangers urged me to learn...”
– Meghan O’Rourke in “Good Grief — Is there a better way to be bereaved?” from the Feb. 1 edition of The New Yorker.
I’m having trouble shaking this piece. Big mess of thoughts bumping around my brain.