Category: Words, Words, Words
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a turn towards the periphery in order to reach the center
My father in law belonged to the camp who write to know what they think. (Joan Didion, also recently deceased, was, famously, a member, along with Flannery O’Connor and E.M Forrester. (Make what you will of my not having quickly unearthed any famous male subscribers.)) I didn’t know this until I read so in a…
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everything held together by tacit agreement that it would
The afternoon is settling in fast, that nice, milkweed light you get in early winter pooling into my bedroom, the windows muffling the whipping noise of the cars and occasional truck as they exit and enter downtown. In Brooklyn, I always wrote (and, during quarantine, worked) in my bedroom, but in the suburbs, I have…
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6:07, with Milk Chin
The light, at 6:07, has gone opal, where just last week it was oyster and the week before that, a furry, caterpillar grey. I don’t know if my son notices the difference; he is up at 6, or 6:05, or 6:17 regardless of pitch. Only when it rains does he sleep longer. We all do.…
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Encumber, My Lady
I’m not in the habit of doling out maternity advice (for exhibit a, look no further than this lengthy validation of my desire to eat poke bowls whilst pregnant), but here’s a piece: now is not the time to get a dog. I didn’t get a dog, but I have two. One is an angel…
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Talk to the Hand
Last week, I finished Sing, Unburied, Sing, the novel by Jesmyn Ward, and today, I’ve been mulling over baby talk. Sing, Unburied, Sing won the 2017 National Book Award — the author’s second, in only three novels! — along with heaps of critical acclaim. The story concerns racism, and its impact on three generations of…
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Peregrine, or a Long Wander through Baby Names
Like many women (and maybe men, too?), I’ve been thinking about what I’d name my children since childhood. Early on, I had a fondness for long, flowery names — Priscilla and Narcissa were particular favorites — as well as actual flowers: Camellia, Dahlia, Poppy. Later, the names came from whatever book I was currently reading,…
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Liminal States
Recently, I came across a blog my college roomates and I had kept throughout the last semester of our senior year. It was, largely, a cooking blog, and small-ly, a walking blog, because I was not at a stage where I could give anybody advice about cooking that didn’t start and end with a microwave.…
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Folklore, Latin, and Aramaic(?): Language in Harry Potter
This past week, I spent some serious QT with an old friend: Harry Potter. The week had started out on the rougher side, with a pitbull attack that left my dog’s neck and my right calf somewhat worse for the wear. I wanted something comforting to read, the first night, and for some reason Harry…
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The History of Accidence in America (or the name of a thing that may be seene, felt, heard, or understood)
My mother was, and remains, a Latin teacher, and Latin was, and remains a common point of interest between her and my father, who were both classics majors and met at the classics booth on my mother’s first day of shopping classes (my father was the booth boy, and my mother took the bait, at…
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A Pocket of One’s Own
From ages 7 to let’s say 10 but honestly it was older than 10, my at first most-prized and later on most-loved possession was my Felicity American Girl doll. Like all of the historical American G’s, Felicity had a backstory — she was from colonial Williamsburg, and her father was a shopkeeper and a revolutionary who…
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