Woke up, put clothes on, didn't go to work.
Dawn responded to my anti-right-wing comment. Since I don't like when other people generalize about liberal beliefs, I figured it was only fair to print her responses to my generalizations, and a follow up. (Note: Her blog is worth reading today just for the Eternal Sunshine story - that's pretty amazing!)
DAWN: "I just read your blog. Coincidentally, I volunteered yesterday morning too, partly because I thought volunteers would be more needed on a holiday weekend. I know what you mean in that many right-wingers seem to err on the side of harshness with regard to the poor. However, I don't think it's right to write off a whole group of people as heartless because they have conservative beliefs.
Only a tiny percentage of people volunteer, period. Lefties may claim to care about the poor, but all that apparent concern doesn't add up to much if they don't act on it and give of themselves when they can.
Rather than distinguishing between conservatives and liberals, saying conservatives are heartless and liberals care, I think it's better to simply point out the importance of actually doing something for those less fortunate, regardless of what philosophy one proclaims."
MY RESPONSE: "I agree. The point wasn't that I volunteered, though. The point was that a typical right-wing argument is that if you help people, there's no 'incentive for them to work hard.' This is such a ridiculous argument because obviously the incentive to work hard is that you can afford good things and not have to eat in a soup kitchen or live according to other people's will."
DAWN: "I know the volunteer thing wasn't your point, but I think that's a gross oversimplification of right-wing arguments. Sure, there are ultraconservatives, or libertarians like [names bleeped], who don't believe the government should give any humanitarian aid. But most conservatives would agree that the poor, or at least the very poor, should receive some sort of help. They just believe it should be as part of programs that give them an incentive to work, and not mere handouts--save for things like disaster and emergency aid. It's better for charities to be in the business of handouts and government to be in the business of getting people on their feet."
Well, that was some donated food for thought.
I also meant a few days ago to print Jon K. the Writer's responses to one of my entries, but I didn't get around to it. So until I do, check out his writing at www.rumored.com.
5/31/2004
5/30/2004
5/29/2004
I just realized something funny about one of the Amazon reviews of my 2nd book. Read this sentence carefully:
There's a lot to like in this appealing novel about a young window getting back into the social swing.
I guess I wanted to write about pane.
"Fascination" by the Human League just came on the radio. It reminds me of a summer in the '80s when the song was on the bus radio as I was being taken to a new day camp for the first time, looking around at all the kids. I think I could hear any song from the early '80s and have some sort of short (and probably mundane) memory of where I was when I was listening to it. I imagine I'm not alone.
There's a lot to like in this appealing novel about a young window getting back into the social swing.
I guess I wanted to write about pane.
"Fascination" by the Human League just came on the radio. It reminds me of a summer in the '80s when the song was on the bus radio as I was being taken to a new day camp for the first time, looking around at all the kids. I think I could hear any song from the early '80s and have some sort of short (and probably mundane) memory of where I was when I was listening to it. I imagine I'm not alone.
Woke up, put on clothes, didn't go to work.
Conversation I heard at a New York City street fair:
MAN: What language are you speaking?
BEARDED VENDOR: Hebrew. I'm Jewish.
MAN: You look like Allah.
BEARDED VENDOR: I'm not fucking Allah.
This morning I volunteered at a pretty well-run soup kitchen in NY for a few hours. They need more people on a holiday weekend, esp. at the end of the month when gov't checks run out and people are hungrier. My job was to stand by the door and help give away some extra food that had been donated. Doing this, I clearly saw the right-wing side of things -- I mean, what's the incentive for anyone to work when they can take home three cans of sardines, a bottle of no-frills apple juice, and powdered milk without even lifting a finger?! What are we trying to do, make everything equal? (Note: Heavy sarcasm at work.)
Conversation I heard at a New York City street fair:
MAN: What language are you speaking?
BEARDED VENDOR: Hebrew. I'm Jewish.
MAN: You look like Allah.
BEARDED VENDOR: I'm not fucking Allah.
This morning I volunteered at a pretty well-run soup kitchen in NY for a few hours. They need more people on a holiday weekend, esp. at the end of the month when gov't checks run out and people are hungrier. My job was to stand by the door and help give away some extra food that had been donated. Doing this, I clearly saw the right-wing side of things -- I mean, what's the incentive for anyone to work when they can take home three cans of sardines, a bottle of no-frills apple juice, and powdered milk without even lifting a finger?! What are we trying to do, make everything equal? (Note: Heavy sarcasm at work.)
5/27/2004
We are having quite the thunderstorm outside now. Looks like flash flooding should be expected.
I listed below the location of the June 15 reading.
I originally thought the streaking-at-the-carhop scene was in American Graffiti, because that's what someone told me a few days ago, but I watched the movie and didn't see it. That's why I'm trying to figure out which movie it was in. (It's for something I'm writing, that I'll tell you about when it comes out.)
Crack-crack-crack. Mother Nature is angry tonight. Laws, yes.
I listed below the location of the June 15 reading.
I originally thought the streaking-at-the-carhop scene was in American Graffiti, because that's what someone told me a few days ago, but I watched the movie and didn't see it. That's why I'm trying to figure out which movie it was in. (It's for something I'm writing, that I'll tell you about when it comes out.)
Crack-crack-crack. Mother Nature is angry tonight. Laws, yes.
5/25/2004
Today I got the best subject head I ever got from someone who liked Carrie Pilby:
SUBJ: just your run of the mill ego enlarging fan letter
In other news, as predicted, Anonymous responded to my post about women being called 'crazy.' Then he took it down after women didn't find it funny.
SUBJ: just your run of the mill ego enlarging fan letter
In other news, as predicted, Anonymous responded to my post about women being called 'crazy.' Then he took it down after women didn't find it funny.
I tend to be the least intellectual person in the room. The other day, I took a walking tour of Dorothy Parker's old haunts, and afterwards there was a small lunch at the Algonquin. Some people were talking about Dorothy's friends hanging out in speakeasies, and several people said that Prohibition was the dumbest thing ever.
"That's how the mob made their money," one woman said.
"And the Kennedys," said another.
"And Bo and Luke Duke," I added.
Eleven of the twelve people just stared at me. The twelfth laughed.
You know what? The other 11 were just damn culturally illiterate.
"That's how the mob made their money," one woman said.
"And the Kennedys," said another.
"And Bo and Luke Duke," I added.
Eleven of the twelve people just stared at me. The twelfth laughed.
You know what? The other 11 were just damn culturally illiterate.
5/24/2004
5/23/2004
Woke up, got dressed, didn't go to work.
A few random thoughts or experiences I had today...
1. How come, with all the advances in computing, no one has come up with a way to unsend an e-mail? AOL lets you do it with mail to other AOL accounts (and thank God, considering the ones I've had second thoughts about...). A friend of mine who was a programmer explained why to me a few years ago, but it still seems to me that they could create kind of a rubberband that allows you to yank your e-mail back if you decide to unsend it.
2. Whenever I think I see someone famous in NY, I always doubt myself because it seems to me that if someone were really famous, they would not be in the same geographic square as me.
3. Whenever a man tells me that his ex-girlfriend, or any woman, is crazy, it generally just means she liked him more than he liked her. I never hear women saying their boyfriends or ex-boyfriends are crazy unless the men out-and-out stalked them or threatened them with violence. But I hear from guys about "crazy" women all the time. If a woman is "crazy" doesn't that just mean she got very emotional about something (like a breakup?) Even if it's Alanis Morisette-grade emotional, does that mean you're "crazy"?
(I'm sure I'll hear it from both the Anonymous Blogger AND the Blogette on this one.)
4. If you take the Monorail from Newark Airport out to the new Amtrak/NJ Transit train stop to Penn Station, and you look out the window, you can see the men in the state prison playing basketball outside.
5. Today I saw a fat girl wearing a t-shirt that said, across her breasts, "Hey, I'm up HERE!" with an arrow pointing to her head. An hour later, I saw a boy in a gray shirt that said, "Stop reading my shirt." I liked that one better.
6. I think that's all the clutter in my mind right now. Thank you.
A few random thoughts or experiences I had today...
1. How come, with all the advances in computing, no one has come up with a way to unsend an e-mail? AOL lets you do it with mail to other AOL accounts (and thank God, considering the ones I've had second thoughts about...). A friend of mine who was a programmer explained why to me a few years ago, but it still seems to me that they could create kind of a rubberband that allows you to yank your e-mail back if you decide to unsend it.
2. Whenever I think I see someone famous in NY, I always doubt myself because it seems to me that if someone were really famous, they would not be in the same geographic square as me.
3. Whenever a man tells me that his ex-girlfriend, or any woman, is crazy, it generally just means she liked him more than he liked her. I never hear women saying their boyfriends or ex-boyfriends are crazy unless the men out-and-out stalked them or threatened them with violence. But I hear from guys about "crazy" women all the time. If a woman is "crazy" doesn't that just mean she got very emotional about something (like a breakup?) Even if it's Alanis Morisette-grade emotional, does that mean you're "crazy"?
(I'm sure I'll hear it from both the Anonymous Blogger AND the Blogette on this one.)
4. If you take the Monorail from Newark Airport out to the new Amtrak/NJ Transit train stop to Penn Station, and you look out the window, you can see the men in the state prison playing basketball outside.
5. Today I saw a fat girl wearing a t-shirt that said, across her breasts, "Hey, I'm up HERE!" with an arrow pointing to her head. An hour later, I saw a boy in a gray shirt that said, "Stop reading my shirt." I liked that one better.
6. I think that's all the clutter in my mind right now. Thank you.
5/22/2004
5/20/2004
Woke up, put clothes on, went to work.
Ditto for yesterday.
A lot of people misuse the word "enormity." It means extreme evil. It doesn't just mean enormousness (although my dictionary says that's an informal usage). So try not to say, "I can't even begin to describe the enormity of my feelings for you, Buck." Unless you really mean it.
I have a feeling that even the people who've used it to describe 9/11 don't know what it means, but luckily it works in context anyway.
Ditto for yesterday.
A lot of people misuse the word "enormity." It means extreme evil. It doesn't just mean enormousness (although my dictionary says that's an informal usage). So try not to say, "I can't even begin to describe the enormity of my feelings for you, Buck." Unless you really mean it.
I have a feeling that even the people who've used it to describe 9/11 don't know what it means, but luckily it works in context anyway.
5/18/2004
I got this junk e-mail today. I wish there weren't so many of these...it's going to give guys a complex.
>>Subject: Small Small Little Dicky?? LoL orders exodus
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 05:30:04 -0400
Increase the length of your DICCKY by 2-5 full inches
Thicken ur DICCKY and make it much fuller & harder
Here is what you can expect from taking [PILL]:
WEEK 1-3: Your DICCKY will experience greater and longer lasting erec--tion and a noticeable increase in thickness
WEEK 4-8: Your DICCKY will have grown in lenngth
WEEK 9+: Your DICCKY will have taken on a new body, not just longer and thicker, but much harder & healthier
Booost ur confidennce level & selff-esteem
Screw ur lover like never before
>>Subject: Small Small Little Dicky?? LoL orders exodus
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 05:30:04 -0400
Increase the length of your DICCKY by 2-5 full inches
Thicken ur DICCKY and make it much fuller & harder
Here is what you can expect from taking [PILL]:
WEEK 1-3: Your DICCKY will experience greater and longer lasting erec--tion and a noticeable increase in thickness
WEEK 4-8: Your DICCKY will have grown in lenngth
WEEK 9+: Your DICCKY will have taken on a new body, not just longer and thicker, but much harder & healthier
Booost ur confidennce level & selff-esteem
Screw ur lover like never before
5/16/2004
Woke up, put on clothes, didn't go to work, did some novel writing. (Well, really revising. Do I actually write anymore?)
The reading I'm participating in on Tuesday, June 15 involves summer camp stories. It should be fun. Other writers participating are Jeff Somers, who writes short stories, wrote a novel called Lifers, and has a really funny and self-referential zine; Jackie Corley, whose on-line lit mag and publishing efforts are doing wonders for up-and-coming writers, and it's hosted by young writer Ned Vizzini, who happens to have garnered a positive "Books In Brief" review of his novel Be More Chill in the NY Times today.
I was lucky enough to hear a panel of non-fiction writers from my alma mater yesterday as part of alumni activities, people who I really admire whose journalistic efforts have made lives better, so it was a good writerly weekend.
Oh, on another note, my psychic powers predict a final run for The Gipper very very soon. Enough on that.
The reading I'm participating in on Tuesday, June 15 involves summer camp stories. It should be fun. Other writers participating are Jeff Somers, who writes short stories, wrote a novel called Lifers, and has a really funny and self-referential zine; Jackie Corley, whose on-line lit mag and publishing efforts are doing wonders for up-and-coming writers, and it's hosted by young writer Ned Vizzini, who happens to have garnered a positive "Books In Brief" review of his novel Be More Chill in the NY Times today.
I was lucky enough to hear a panel of non-fiction writers from my alma mater yesterday as part of alumni activities, people who I really admire whose journalistic efforts have made lives better, so it was a good writerly weekend.
Oh, on another note, my psychic powers predict a final run for The Gipper very very soon. Enough on that.
5/14/2004
Woke up, put clothes on, went to work.
Howard Stern was funny today (I'm one of the people who started listening again now that he's pissed off at Bush). He was setting up a "family feud" this morning with a gay-hating family vs. as he put it, "actual gay people." The gay-hating family is protesting a play about Matthew Shepard. A girl in the family said, "He was trolling in bars for sex." Artie Lange responded, "Everyone who's heterosexual does that."
Howard Stern was funny today (I'm one of the people who started listening again now that he's pissed off at Bush). He was setting up a "family feud" this morning with a gay-hating family vs. as he put it, "actual gay people." The gay-hating family is protesting a play about Matthew Shepard. A girl in the family said, "He was trolling in bars for sex." Artie Lange responded, "Everyone who's heterosexual does that."
5/13/2004
This country's politics are becoming increasingly hostile, which is good because it means people care. It's also frustrating that people can be so far apart on such visceral issues. I can undestand why, though -- lives are at stake. Those who really believe abortion is murder can't just sit by and allow it. Those who believe people aren't getting proper health care can't sit by and allow it, either. Those who think stem cell research saves lives can't just allow it to be blocked. Those who don't want to see their sons sent to war... Marriage is a centuries old tradition that some feel must be modified and others feel is threatened. Howard Stern is being bleeped. Out here in the Northeast, most people I meet tacitly assume that there are no Bush supporters in the room. Often, it's true. We almost forget how the rest of the country feels about issues like gay marriage until we leave our comfortable confines.
I have a simple solution. Let's just break the country in two. Bush can have his half and Kerry can have his half. The Bush half can listen to Bill O'Reilly in the morning. I could go on with this, but I have work to do.
I have a simple solution. Let's just break the country in two. Bush can have his half and Kerry can have his half. The Bush half can listen to Bill O'Reilly in the morning. I could go on with this, but I have work to do.
