May 2013
14 posts
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“Uncle Tom was to walk at the head of the procession blowing his squealing horn,...”
– In the 1940s, my great-great-uncle Bob Lee Maddux wrote a series of letters to The Hunter’s Horn magazine about fox hunting and hunting dogs in and around Cookeville, Tenn., where he lived and where my dad’s whole family is from; in 1951 the magazine printed a collection of his columns...
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“I’ve had really smart agents and unnervingly good editors, but I...”
– The Awl | Ask Polly: Jesus, My Struggling Writer Friends Never Shut Up!
The above, by Heather Havrilesky, contains some of the best writing advice (or, maybe more specifically, living/working advice for people who write) that I’ve read in a very long time. Lately I’ve found that the...
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“You don’t really think about it, but our brains are really just above our...”
– MyFoxPhoenix.com | Man’s chronic runny nose was actually brain fluid leaking (via @sarahspy)
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“A couple of chips and salsa at the beginning of my shift for quality control...”
– Strawberry Fields Whatever: The Strawberry Fields Whatever Diet: Everything We Ate For An Entire Week (Spring Edition!)
My new favorite thing on the internet/in the world, thank you Lindsey.
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Listen
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“This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
...”
– New York Times | How I Became a Hipster
OK!
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WatchBasia Bulat covers Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” for The AV Club, makes me cry a little at my desk, reminds me how much I loved Oh My Darling when it came out. In 2007! God! I think I put “The Pilgriming Vine” on every mix I made that year and it’s still great.
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On MARTA this morning, in rapid succession
— A young man offered a young woman his seat (she declined).
— An older man thanked the young man for offering his seat to the young woman.
— Another young man complimented another young woman on her shoes.
— I braced myself for some shitty counterbalance, but nothing came.
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So, so into it. Also: “Weed Instead of...
April 2013
28 posts
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“During the worst dark nights of the soul, my smaller failings rise up one by one...”
– Kate Christensen’s Blue Plate Special is out in July, and this is from the very first page, so you know you’ll want to devour it as soon as possible. (via maudnewton)
I understand that it is a healthy and worthwhile thing to read books that challenge your thinking, that “make you see the...
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I love this album but I know I would have loved it...
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Laura Stevenson’s The Wheel is out today and...
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Listen
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“There’s a really good chance that this whole enterprise, if you got it off...”
– The Village Voice | Fan Landers, “Bands Abusing Kickstarter Are Exploiting Fans” (via marathonpacks)
In the absence of Dear Sugar, Jessica Hopper is the best bullshit-caller on creative types we have. This is just about some “Write Like A Motherfucker”-level stuff here. Lets get some...
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“We’re still taken aback that we’ve found that a drug used primarily...”
– ScienceDaily.com | Experiencing existential dread? Tylenol may do the trick
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“He was running—so was everyone.”
– The New Yorker | Amy Davidson, “The Saudi Marathon Man”
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So you want to be a writer / FANTASTIC IDEA
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“At the end of the hallway are the double doors leading to the rest of my life. I...”
– Jo Ann Beard, “The Fourth State of Matter”
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“The experience on the page is not for you, the writer. This is a mistake people...”
– Mary Karr on Nieman Storyboard (via michelledean)
If you’re looking for a shorter quote from Karr on the same general subject (say, something to write on a Post-It note and stick on the bottom edge of your day-job computer monitor, in hopes that its continual presence in your peripheral...
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Maybe this week I will only write about music that...
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If you loved and/or love Rilo Kiley, you should...
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“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely...”
– E.B. White, in this spare, lovely, melancholy New York Times profile from 1969.
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"We are all friends ... That's just kind of not... →
Some students at Wilcox County High School in Wilcox, Ga., are planning what will be their school’s first-ever racially-integrated prom. I hate that this is something that has to happen but love so much that they’re doing it. But of course it’s tricky. Like the white-only and black-only proms that are held every year, the integrated prom is planned and funded independently from...
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Magazines I Read As A Kid & What They Taught Me
Highlights: Reading is fun!
Ranger Rick: Nature is cute! Mazes suck.
National Geographic: Nature is fucking terrifying! In some countries ladies don’t wear shirts and their boobies are weird!
American Girl: Girls are awesome! You are awesome! You can do anything! History is awesome! Nazis are a thing! Also: DOLLS!
Zillions: Ads lie! You should get a job even though you are 11!
...
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Here is a question. (A total bummer of a question?...
When did you realize that human life is finite—that you are going to die one day—and how did you feel?
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Hey, neat.
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“The White Stripes’ Elephant came out a decade ago. April Fool’s Day, 2003. It is...”
– Spin | Rob Harvilla, “The White Stripes’ Elephant Turns 10” (via marathonpacks)
Have I never been shocked by a record I love hitting the ten-year mark? Something about this always seems impossible. But if it’s true, then it has also been just about ten years since I was about to...
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jamiesoncox:
A Shot of Jamieson, Episode 2.7 -...
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Happy THIS STUPID DAY, everybody.
March 2013
43 posts
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My First Love Was A Lion Tamer (Redux)
A few years ago I wrote a thing for Thought Catalog about the first great love of my life, Gunther Gebel-Williams. Then last fall I reworked it for True Story (where readers do a show-and-tell with a personal artifact that relates to their piece) and then this reminded me that I had intended to post the betterized version here but never did. So here it is.
[[MORE]]**
I got married last year,...
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“BLVR: Did you ever watch The Simpsons?
RA: No, but my son did. It’s apparently...”
– The Believer | Renata Adler interviewed by Alice Gregory
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Perhaps we’ll shortly learn it was arson all...
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The New Yorker | Jo Ann Beard, "The Fourth State... →
Scrambled up my insides.
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