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Book vs. Film – Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
I can count on one hand the number of people I know who have at least heard of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. I don’t know if it’s one of those books that was really big when it came out and then sort of faded away, or if it was always had something of a ...
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Book Review: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
The back of my copy of Kitchen (which is actually my mother’s copy, that I stuffed in my bag coming back to school) proclaims that “Bananamania Is Here!” Apparently I missed Bananamania, as I’d only heard about the Japanese writer this year reading reviews of her recent novel The Lake. I wanted to read The ...
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Respect the Bird
I was all set to write an entirely different article on typeface, but when I realized it was to be published on Thanksgiving, I had to reconsider. Turkey Day is undoubtedly my favorite holiday despite being a vegetarian, and should I have chosen to ignore it by blogging about Helvetica, I wouldn’t have been representing ...
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Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Thanksgiving is coming up. It’s a much anticipated day in America, a day of sharing a meal in communion with family and perhaps some friends. After the floating turkey balloons, the Sesame Street and Charlie Brown floats of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, televisions switch over to the green of the gridiron for some Thanksgiving Day ...
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Errands of our Foremothers
Do you have a butcher? I don’t. I don’t have a butcher. I’m rather miffed at myself about this. I bet some of you do. I just bet it. I bet some of you still have milk delivered to your house. My friend Karoline told me about how when she was growing up she had ...
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Book vs. Film – The Princess Bride
When I participated in the 30 Day Book Meme on my blog, I was worried about not being able to fulfill Day 20, which was supposed to be about my favorite romance book. I didn’t have a favorite romance book, so what’s a girl to do? I had The Princess Bride in mind as soon as I ...
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25 Years Ago In The UK
25 years ago today, the top 5 singles on the UK charts were, for the first time ever, all performed by female vocalists. Without further ado, here they are, all unapologetically from 1986: (advice: if you only watch one video, minute 1:49 – 1:52 of “Walk Like An Egyptian” is incredibly odd and confusing [and ...
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Book Review: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (trans. Natasha Randall)
I flung myself at him as though he were kin, straight into the blade, and said something about being an insomniac, the dreams, the shadows, the yellow world. The scissor-lips flashed and smiled. “How awful for you! By the looks of it, you’ve developed a soul.” A soul? That strange, ancient, long-forgotten word. We ...
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Indie Booksellers
Last week I found myself eating a late brunch at Trident Booksellers & Café. It’s a bustling café (and bookseller) several blocks from my school in downtown Boston that a) has fantastic lemon ricotta stuffed french toast and b) thrives on a high-end street despite being a mom & pop business. My judgment may not ...
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Occupy Slander
Slander is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation.” Libel is the published equivalent of slander. It’s easy to imagine, of course, that for every libel, slander must come first; thus I refer to every instance of false allegations ...
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In the Perimeter by Brian McFarland
Check this tweet: @fourteenletters Brooks Sterritt : Tree of Lard Did you feel it? That little linguistic carcrash in your head? That tingle in your Broca’s area. That little instant when your noggin had to back up and say whoa? Let me break it down: Tree..ok,. we’re good, got it, drew it in 1st grade, ...
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Ways We Get Famous
Alright, just hold your horses: I’m about to make a declaration sounding as though it might come from the mouth of whichever of your elders you want to pick. Ready? OK. Ahem. It used to be, you had to actually have some talent to be famous. Have I done it? Have I blown your mind? ...