October 20, 2005
Good news
Rory Carroll, who since yesterday has become Pickle Me This’s favourite freckly ginger journalist pinup, has been freed in Baghdad. Talk about capturing hearts.
In sweeping-the-nation news, Gas and Dash is sweeping Nova Scotia. And apparently happy slapping, the original nation sweeper, is still going strong.
October 20, 2005
Miffys in the Mail!!
Look who arrived at our house today, a wonderful surprise courtesy of the wonderful Bronwyn Enright. We got the one on the right, Miffy in overalls. I travelled Nippon for a year searching for her to no avail, and now she’s mine! It’s been a long time since new Miffy goods came my way. She joins a larger Miffy stuffed toy, a Miffy head pillow, the Dick Bruna elephant and a stuff Snuffy (Miffy’s dog), the Miffy t-shirt I happened to be wearing today, the Miffy soap and bathsalt in our bathroom, two Miffy picture frames, one Miffy glass, two Mugs, a lunch box, two sets of chopsticks, two childrens’ books, two purses and I am sure something else. This love will never die.
The other good news is that if I hadn’t wasted my entire afternoon doing my creative writing exercise incorrectly, I would have completed everything I had to do today. Currently dreaming undergraduate essays again.
October 19, 2005
Woolfian
It may have become clear that I since I’ve started my masters, I have become obsessed with Virginia Woolf. This shows no sign of letting up and I keeping peppering every day conversation with, “Well, Virginia says…”. Because she said everything. She also wrote a wonderful essay in a collection called “Lives of the Obscure” in her First Common Reader called “Miss Ormerod”. I read it the other day, and really enjoyed it- a very sprightly, creative take on character-driven historical fiction. It reminded me of my new friend Lindsay’s “Sky- A Three Letter Prayer” novel-in-verse about Amerlia Earhart, and of what drove me to write my Mitford poem, and a poem I am currently writing based upon a woman in Margaret MacMillan’s “Women of the Raj.” Anyway, “Miss Ormerod” is a wonderful essay and Eleanor Ormerod is begging for an updated biography. You can learn about her here or thru Woolf’s bio. She was an foremost entomologist in Britain during the late 19th century, a lecturer who introduced entomology as a study, the first woman fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and the first woman to receive an Hon. LLB from the University of Edinburgh. In other Woolf news. I read her Craftsmanshipessay yesterday, and it was fascinating look at the power of words and the challenge of writing.
On Tristram Shandy and a new film. That book has been mentioned around me near daily for the past month or so, and I guess I should read it. (Virginia would agree). Zoe Williams talks art. Russell Smith on the arts. Maud Newton on marginalia.
October 16, 2005
Call for Submissions
Pickle Me This Press is now accepting submissions for our second publication, an anthology of poems about knitting, entitled “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Please send your knit poetry to picklemethispressATgmaildotcom by January 31st, with your contact information and a short biography.
October 16, 2005
Stuff to see
Robbie Williams wants a pop amnesty. Free verse is doing Stephen Fry’s head in. On author photographs. Maryam Namazie and the clash of liberalisms. Plath to Moss: The Primrose Hill set. A friend of ours in Japan got married this past weekend, and photos are posted here. Sasha Trudeau goes to China.
October 15, 2005
Saturday Morning
What now? Check out my arts and crafts/recycled object furniture at Now Doing. This website continues to be wonderful. Now reading Eight Months On Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel, and it’s absolutely enthralling. And “Spring Comes Suddenly” was printed yesterday. Next up is the binding. It’s turning out really beautiful.
The clouds sail by like ships on a sea.
October 9, 2005
Lurkey
Post Thanksgiving dinner. I found a 2002 article by Margaret Atwood on To the Lighthouse. Zoe Williams says it’s ok to have normal-sized things. On Ethan Hawke, who as “Troy” in Reality Bites taught me loads about cool. Joan Didion in the NYTimes.
October 7, 2005
Miffy Enjoys Singapore Airlines
This page has been crying for a picture, and as nothing photographical has happened of late, we will remember Miffy’s flight. You may note that this photo was taken in Japan where our Miff is ubiquitous, and the passenger to Miffy’s left has a Miffy neckrest.
Speaking of Japan, I got a package in the post yesterday from a former student. She sent me a box full of Japanese cookies (oishi) and a wall hanging that she had made. It was the first package the had ever come in the mail for me with patterned wrapping paper and a bow on the outside.
I continue to be so busy. However paper for Spring Comes Suddenly has been purchased. Did I mention we’re going to the Toronto Small Press Book Fair? You should come too!
Gleanings: At Maud Newton, a take on the Harpers Ben Marcus corrects J. Franzen article. Guardian books is obsessed with poetry. Andrea Levy notes the influence of Coronation Street in shaping her storytelling. I take this as meaning I can watch Eastenders for homework.
And congrats to Tom and Katie! Pickle Me This is going to be following their pregnancy closely. Heaven forbid Katie goes the Marie Osmond in the closet route, because of course she’ll be dealing with her postpartum depression with vitamin c tablets. And now she’s been banned from making noise during the birth, under John Travolta’s recommendation. When I marry a man old enough to be my teenage dad, I want to be a scientologist too.
