i read matthew klam’s “issues i dealt with in therapy” in 1999 and xeroxed it and tucked it away in my “best short stories” folder (!) (a tradition that died after a couple of years, though i still have the folder). more about klam in “why matthew klam’s new book is only 17 years overdue”:
But mostly, he was afraid that his success had been all about voice, and that even if his voice was good, it hadn’t evolved enough to justify another piece of writing. “My voice has not changed, and it’s not an interesting voice,” he says. “It’s just my voice. And here’s the thing: I’ve written, in my voice, plenty of shitty fiction.”
Teaching allowed him to write and to feel like no one was really watching. “There is nothing more invisible than a professor at a university — nothing,” he says. “No kid sees you’re alive. They don’t give a shit. If you fell over dead in the middle of class, they wouldn’t notice. They’re 19. I’m 50. It’s a good way to work because you’re invisible.”
Procellatech Reacher Grabber Pick up Tool ($19 for 2)
I don’t have any particular brand I use, but it’s just one of the things that’s like a hand that you use to pick up trash. The one I have isn’t fancy. My local council in England gave it to me, and it’s just made of plastic, but you don’t want a heavy one if you’re walking eight hours a day picking up trash. It was just something I did while walking because people in England throw their trash out their car windows. There’s never any shortage of litter to pick up. I guess it’s like my hobby. So I’ve picked up so many tons of garbage that my local garbage council named a garbage truck after me. Actually, about four years ago, I got invited to meet the Queen because of all the trash I picked up. There’s a day when she invited do-gooders to Buckingham Palace, and I thought, if this isn’t a dress-up occasion, I don’t know what is. I really thought it would just be me and the Queen and my boyfriend. It was like 8,000 people.
ok, this is a twisty story, but i was reading about bonjour tristesse and discovered that it was written by arthur laurents, who also wrote the book for west side story. which led me to nora kaye, a ballerina laurents had a romance with (according to laurents’s memoir). kaye eventually married director herbert ross (who directed footloose) (!), who she was with until she died in 1987. in 1988, ross married lee radziwiłł, and they divorced in 2001. shortly after, ross died, and he was interred with kaye (!!!!!), and this is their gravestone at westwood village memorial park cemetery (!!!!!!). what a burn!
“Alma Thomas began to paint seriously in 1960 [at age 69!!!!!], when she retired from her thirty-eight year career as an art teacher in the public schools of Washington, D.C. In the years that followed she would come to be regarded as a major painter of the Washington Color Field School.”
Even after seven nights a week for two decades, I am still stopped in my tracks every time my bartenders snap those metal lids onto the cocktail shakers and start rattling the ice like maracas. I still close my eyes for a second, taking a deep inhale, every time the salted pistachios are set afire with raki, sending their anise scent through the dining room. I still thrill when the four-top at Table 9 are talking to one another so contentedly that they don’t notice they are the last diners, lingering in the cocoon of the wine and the few shards of dark chocolate we’ve put down with their check.
