July 5, 2008
Today I am filled with nausea.
“I’ll die if you touch me,” I said. “You are sure you are not coming with me? Is there no hope of your coming? Tell me only this.” “No,” she said. “No, honey, no.” She had never called me honey before. A passage from Lolita that sealed the importance of that book for me. So heart-wrenching. It was proof that despite everything, it was a real love story.

“I’ll die if you touch me,” I said. “You are sure you are not coming with me? Is there no hope of your coming? Tell me only this.”

“No,” she said. “No, honey, no.”

She had never called me honey before.

A passage from Lolita that sealed the importance of that book for me. So heart-wrenching. It was proof that despite everything, it was a real love story.

July 3, 2008
- from Keith Gessen’s All the Sad Young Literary Men by way of Oates’ too-long review/summary in The New York Review of Books. I recently discovered Gessen’s Tumblr and after purchasing What We Should Have Known last night, spent approximately two hours today writing a sad questioning e-mail to him that I never ended up sending. —- Being unemployed is really getting to me, so next week I’m taking a legal proofreading class to increase my chances of getting something asap.

- from Keith Gessen’s All the Sad Young Literary Men by way of Oates’ too-long review/summary in The New York Review of Books.

I recently discovered Gessen’s Tumblr and after purchasing What We Should Have Known last night, spent approximately two hours today writing a sad questioning e-mail to him that I never ended up sending.

—-

Being unemployed is really getting to me, so next week I’m taking a legal proofreading class to increase my chances of getting something asap.

July 2, 2008
(link) photo by Nicholas Haggard via Something Changed
(link) photo by Nicholas Haggard via Something Changed

Dear Zooey,

I forgive you the Tin Man and The Happening. Just keep singing.

Sincerely,

kseniya

July 1, 2008

courtneyc: “The whole point of that aroma is not to flavor the food,” he said. “This is what happens to me personally when we set oak leaves on fire—I’m transported to my youth, raking the leaves in front of my house, jumping into the leaves, and setting them on fire.” He went on, “What we try to do is really search out that kind of emotional trigger.”

Before going to Chicago, I reread this New Yorker profile of Alinea chef Grant Achatz. Achatz lost his sense of taste after undergoing treatment for tongue cancer. The story chronicles his rediscovery of flavor from sweet, to bitter, to salty. The above reminds me of the scene in Ratatouille when Anton Ego takes his first bite of the ratatouille. Love.

A sad and fascinating story. Very timely too, as my mother and I had a conversation last night about the tragic irony of certain people’s illnesses.

Chuck Klosterman surveys his classroom of German students on the Americans they most identify with

gregbrown: The results are pretty interesting. (attn Mindy)

Further proof of my recent discovery that Esquire publishes some pretty great short essays. Their online archives are full of them.

chainchewinggum: I love stories of people like Hetty Green aka The Witch of Wall Street… stories of wealth and eccentrics that captivated (or infuriated) people across the world. She had plenty of money but was the thriftiest woman ever… never buying new clothes or even showering. She let her son’s leg get gangrenous, because she wouldn’t pay for a doctor after at age 9, he got into a sledding accident… and she would only eat dry oatmeal heated in someone else’s office. How much money did she have? Well, Hetty managed to to turn $7million inheritance into $200million (or about $4 billion in today’s market)… compare that with the $80million JP Morgan was worth when he died 3 years before her. Her son nicknamed The Colonel was also a lunatic. He married Mabel Harlow, a prostitue who was his first sexual experience… they ran a whorehouse together, and later funded teenage girls at Wellesley in exchange for scandalous visits to the Green’s Massachusetts estate. Scandalous. I too love stories of weirdness and wealth.

chainchewinggum: I love stories of people like Hetty Green aka The Witch of Wall Street… stories of wealth and eccentrics that captivated (or infuriated) people across the world. She had plenty of money but was the thriftiest woman ever… never buying new clothes or even showering. She let her son’s leg get gangrenous, because she wouldn’t pay for a doctor after at age 9, he got into a sledding accident… and she would only eat dry oatmeal heated in someone else’s office. How much money did she have? Well, Hetty managed to to turn $7million inheritance into $200million (or about $4 billion in today’s market)… compare that with the $80million JP Morgan was worth when he died 3 years before her. Her son nicknamed The Colonel was also a lunatic. He married Mabel Harlow, a prostitue who was his first sexual experience… they ran a whorehouse together, and later funded teenage girls at Wellesley in exchange for scandalous visits to the Green’s Massachusetts estate.

Scandalous. I too love stories of weirdness and wealth.

June 29, 2008

FUN FACT: Au Bon Pain Co. owns Panera Bread (aka St Louis Bread Company, as Matt and I discovered while in MO) but NOT Au Bon Pain, which they sold to Compass Group North America in 1999.

(wiki)