literally speaking
Friday, dec. 15, 2006 | 0 comments
Marco (after listening in on the tail-end of a phone conversation I had with a friend): What’s “such a disappointment”?
Evany: Oh, she just got a bad apple.
Marco: Boyfriend or car?
Evany: No…uh, it was an actual apple.
do I sound like a musical robot?
Thursday, dec. 14, 2006 | 0 comments
My Bleep Bop arrived, and it is so perfectly chubby and tidy and squeezy — the whole package was such a treat, all wrapped in delicious vintage tissue along with a handmade card and a sweet little button, oh! Best of all, it came to me from My Imaginary Boyfriend, thereby making way for a whole series of “Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific”/“Nut ‘n’ Honey”-style misunderloguing (“Does Marco know about this imaginary boyfriend, and if so, is he threatened by the gentleman’s most excellent taste in felty tree ornaments?”).
And on the topic of robot love: have you seen the holiday wrapping paper at Old Navy these days (not, for some reason, available on their website)? Such a triumph.
chop, chop
Tuesday, dec. 12, 2006 | 0 comments
My friend Jessica (scroll down to the “Kashi GOLEAN Crunch!” review) crocheted a herd of lovable stuffed trees (inspired by the trees posted at Craftster) for Saturday’s party, and then each of us got to take one home!
These past few strange nights I’ve been applying my busy brain and my feeble crocheting know-how to hooking up a misshapen (I think mine need to be fed a little more stuffing), bald-spotted (and crocheted a little tighter) forest of friends for my perfect little tree. Their umbilical chords still need to be cut, and they still need ornaments — maybe some embroidery-thread blue, pink, and red stars? Or pear, apple, and banana beads from the frayed, vintage plant-hanger my aunt Cordy gifted me? — but even naked, they’re elementally satisfying, especially en masse:
And here they are all together in a nocturnal shot, looking strangely guilty:
leslie
Tuesday, dec. 12, 2006 | 0 comments
This news about Leslie Harpold has just sent me reeling. How can this be true? I still keep hoping that maybe it isn’t. This whole morning my friends and I have been calling and typing each other, struggling to wrap our heads around it. It just doesn’t seem possible! Less than a week ago, I went to lunch with a mutual friend and the word was that she was doing so well in her new little house, that there was a garden being gardened, that she was settling in and loving her new turn as a homeowner. This internet feels like such an inadequate place to be talking about such terrible news, but to not say something here feels like all kinds of wrong, too. Because for me, Leslie is such a huge part about what’s good about the web. I’ve only met her a few times in person — drinks in NYC, a hectic BBQ, a lovely brunch — but I’ve always tuned in to whatever she had to offer online, and really she did such amazing things here (Smug, the annual advent calendar, oh so many things, and wow could she write). I’m just sick with sad that this is the last we’ll be hearing from her.
Updated to add: more voices and info here and here and here and here and here. Oh, I’m so sad!
And even more links: some of my favorite people share really nice words about Leslie here and here and here.
just my lucky bun day
Sunday, dec. 10, 2006 | 0 comments
Tonight I saw a commercial for American Express with the Spinal Tap anthem, “Gimme Some Money,” playing in the background, apparently without a stitch of irony or self-awareness. Though maybe they were going for some kind of ultra-subtle hilarity? Like the funny lies in the fact that American Express knowingly chose a faux-faux-ho song about money to give their message a winkie dab of piquancy? Either way — oblivious or subversive — these are not qualities I’m really looking for in a credit card company. Can’t they just give me a lower interest rate? A quiet, parental air that fills me with feelings of trust and calm? A prettier, more opalescent card? Money? Can’t they actually just gimme some money?