Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, Lately I've been thinking about poet Mary Ruefle's essay "On Beginnings," specifically the idea that if every word we ever speak were to be written down â from our first babblings to our last utterance â we would have a lifelong sentence. (Ralph Angel reportedly responded with "that's a lot of semi-colons"!) I'm a thinker way more than I am a talker, but I'd sure like to read my own lifelong sentence. What...
17 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, Before my home is tented for termites, I get to move everything I own into storage. Everything means everything: the art on the wall, the mugs in the cabinet, the books (the books!!!!!!!) on the shelves (and the shelves, natch). Then, I get to move everything I own out of storage and back into my home. 𼳠Anyone wanna recreate the 300-strong human chain formed in Chelsea, Michigan, to assist Serendipity...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 1 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, Like many of you, I have so many passwords to keep track of, almost all of which are force-changed regularly. This is a good thing for the safety and security of my accounts, I suppose. But is it a good thing for my brain? Better for my brain is the Password Game, forwarded to me by Michael. It's a gem: true to life, difficult, and funny to boot. Please, if you play and win, email me your password (wink...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, I walk. A LOT. It's not only my primary form of exercise, it's how I work to detangle the constant twist of ideas in my head. Being in physical motion helps to shake loose the clarity and vocabulary I need. A dear friend passed this information along to me. The walk would be way more than I could manage, but I like imagining the process vicariously. The longest road in the world to walk, is from Cape Town,...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 4 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, *Technicial difficulties beyond my control delayed the delivery of this edition by a few hours. Apologies.* I'll be honest: I'm existentially exhausted by life right now. Can you relate? Helene versus the giant My creative writing, always a process as slow as molasses down an iceberg, has reached a slowness of comic proportions. Thankfully, I have my wonderful clients and lots of editing! When everything...
2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, As Eliot wrote, "April is the cruellest month." I hope all is well wherever you are in the world! Think a friend would appreciate Editorial Notes? Send them this link to sign up: Refer a Friend! (And if youâre the appreciative friend, you can subscribe at the same link.) Example of the Week Sometimes this is a good exampleâor a great one. Sometimes this is a bad exampleâor just a funny blooper. Sometimes a...
3 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, I recently attended a wedding, and like many, the reception included numerous speeches/toasts from family and very close friends of the bride and groom. We've all been through drunken/embarrassing/horrifying speeches at such events, and while many of those shameful exhibits stick in my memory, this is not the vignette I want to share. Instead, I'll say this: if you are chosen to toast a couple on their...
3 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, I love my morning coffee. I NEED my morning coffee. My morning coffee is black, medium roast, and hot enough to shock me awake. I also enjoy tea, dark chocolate, the occasional soda of the brown fizzy variety. So, imagine my horror to learn that it is actually possible to die from caffeine consumption! (Granted, I don't come anywhere close to a toxic level of daily caffeine, but I nevertheless appreciated...
4 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations Hiya Reader, As a child of working parents in the seventies and eighties, I grew up on a steady diet of engineered, processed food. White bread âfortifiedâ with a fraction of the nutrients taken out in processing, carcinogenic pink bologna, square slices of âcheese foodâ glowing yellow-orange in plastic wrap. âRead the labels,â I taught my children. âIf you canât pronounce it, if it doesnât seem like a name for food,...
4 months ago â˘Â 2 min read