Category: ugh

System check »

Man oh man, what a month. Sickness, death and packing tape, and — most recently — a fateful combination of bike + steep hill + pothole + blue Toyota + concrete + my face. Settle down, I typed ‘fateful’ not ‘fatal,’ and the ER doc gave me a handy list of brain damage symptoms to [...]

In black »

Here’s a tip for formal summer funeral wear: Find a black cotton dress with long sleeves that roll up and button themselves into short sleeves so you can stay cool in the muggy transitions between funeral home and church and cemetary, warm in the over-air-conditioned country club where the buffet luncheon takes place. I found [...]

Early symptoms »

I have reached that precarious place, the edge of sickness, the lip of the abyss where wheezing and pain await. It is, of course, the worst possible time for this to happen: the next three weeks involve several important deadlines, visiting relatives, two out-of-state trips, and a writing project that isn’t writing itself. Not to [...]

One thing about which I cannot joke* »

Obviously — obviously — I saw and bookmarked the WaPo “where is he now” story on John Edwards. And obviously (obviously!) I made mental note of the money quote:
Yet as he spends his days in his family’s mansion on the outskirts of Chapel Hill, N.C., Edwards can’t help but fret about how Washington and the [...]

McCain Bookette »

You thought the publishing industry was in trouble? Come now. Would an industry in trouble hand a million (plus?) dollars to a 24-year-old campaign prop blogger best known for writing some captions in a children’s book about torture, and also for having bad grammar? Absolutely! I mean, no!
My point is, this is going be in [...]