Mary Phillips-Sandy lives here.

Train ticket to Cairo, found in a Michael Cunningham novel rescued from a stoop box in Brooklyn. (Verso: “Train No. 916, Car No. 6, Chairs 29/30.”) Scribbles on Working Assets notepaper, found in an otherwise forgettable book defending New Urbanism. From the Portland library. Pictoral ode to Newsies, found, marvelously enough, in a volume of [...]

Many, many thanks to Kristen Iskandrian (“Going to Georgia”) for letting me (“Going to Maine”) know that this exists: a Google map depicting every place ever mentioned in a Mountain Goats song. For some breathtaking fact-check work, be sure to click on the comments tab.

Put your phone on silent. Keep it in your bag or in your pocket until you need to make a phone call. Advanced version: turn off the phone. Think a blazingly accurate and devastating thought about someone more successful than you. Do not type it on the internet. Make a cake. Not easily-shared, single-serving cutesy [...]

Roaming and/or preparing to roam the East Coast (here and here and here and here and here). Remembering to renew my Flickr pro account, and therefore taking more photos. Occasional not-so-secret food tumblring. Trying to master this once and for all. Working working working, here and there and elsewhere. Hotly anticipating the forthcoming Marie Stella [...]

When someone you miss is an ocean away, approximately 10,000 kilometres from home, and in the throes of a dissertation defense, and battling a Kafka-esque visa misunderstanding, and  (just for good measure!) suffering from the swine flu, your first thought — upon noticing that Birthday Season has rolled around — will involve a credit card [...]

It’s hard to see at this size, but one of those signs says “grilled chicken.” I can’t muster the energy to get worked up about “illegals,” but I do think that people who order grilled chicken at a place like this should be deported, maybe from the planet.

Speaking of blogs and blogs about things, this evening I learned that my uncle — who is my role model in just about every respect — has been, for some time, contributing to an anonymous group blog. This is may be more interesting if you know that my uncle is an actor whose work you’ve [...]

Yesterday in the car headed north I flipped the radio to the news talk channel, where a Texan preacher was reciting Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia delegates, like really emoting it in a quintessentially Texan-preacher fashion, and when he was done the hennish host clucked “Wow, gosh, I am just SO inspired by that,” [...]

…identify ‘em all and I’ll buy you a hot dog and a box of sparklers.

…more?