Medieval Word of the Day
Category: words mean things (Page 42 of 223)
Banana
At the same trip to Borders I wrote about below, I came upon a book by a person I’d never heard of, Banana Yoshimoto. I’ve decided that “Banana Yoshimoto” has surpassed “Babe Didrickson Zaharias” as my favorite name of all time.
One thing I didn’t mention about the Vegas trip was, my brother and sister-in-law wore words mean things shirts at one point, much to my embarrassment/pleasure. My friend Paul also bought one. It’s a trend sweeping the nation! I would think it was a cute picture, if it wasn’t of me.
“People love being told what they already know.”
-P.J. O’Rourke, in The Onion
I’ll freely admit that I read Al Franken’s latest book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” for much the same reason that righties read Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity: we both like to have our existing worldview legitimized. The difference with Franken, I think, is
a) he’s actually funny, and
b) he actually does his research.
I didn’t learn much from Franken’s book I didn’t already know, especially after all the pre-publication stories about Bill O’Reilly’s “We won two Peabodys” thing. But as a progressive waiting patiently for the pendulum to swing the other way, it was a damn entertaining diversion.
In Borders yesterday, I saw one of those self-help books that had the subtitle, “Don’t be ashamed of your mistakes.” It gave me an overwhelming impulse to write a book titled, “Be ashamed of your mistakes!”
I think it would sell millions.
I also saw a new book by David Limbaugh, “Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity.” In the author blurb they refer to him as “brother of [blah blah blah] Rush Limbaugh.” I thought to myself, how much would it suck to have to refer to your famous brother on your own book jacket? I’m certainly not going to mention my brothers on *my* book jacket, no matter how famous they are at the time. That’s a deal-breaker, if you ask me.
Two developments on the “actually getting something productive done” front: I finally ordered promotional postcards from PsPrint, which I think turned out well; and I’ve been working on a redesign of my business site. Any feedback would be appreciated. (UPDATE: already incorporated several suggestions from John.)
On a sidenote, I would definitely recommend PsPrint. They give you lots of help and templates to make sure your files turn out well, and their online workflow and ordering systems are great.
I read two memoirs over the holiday weekend: “Tender at the Bone” by Ruth Reichl (a gift from my estimable friend Lisa), and “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs. As it turns out, they’re both about the authors’ unconventional childhoods and their mentally ill mothers. But other than that, they’re miles apart.
Reichl’s is light and breezy, even when discussing her mother’s illness, and focuses on the food she ate and cooked in her hippie/preppy odyssey through childhood and young adulthood. Burroughs’ account is darkly funny at times but mostly harrowing, as he’s shuttled from one (literally) crazy group of people to another. I guess I would say Reichl’s was a little too light for my taste, and Burroughs’ a little too dark.
One thing I find fascinating about memoirs is how some people can reconstruct detailed memories of long-ago events, conversations and emotions. My friend Paul has a memory like that – I bet he could write a fascinating memoir. But me, I have trouble with yesterday. (Maybe that’s why I’m so hooked on this most immediate of mediums, the web.) Since I’m on this memoir kick, maybe someone can recommend one that would be “just right” for me.
Lonely
Andrea and MDT haven’t written anything worth puncturing in weeks. Too bad. I’m feeling a little scrappy today.
-Madeline Zane, Unknown News (via Barney Gumble)
That’s a damn good question.