f: Dooneh came and sat casually on my phone. I couldn't find it for five minutes . . .

this morning, someone spelled my name correctly on the first try.

it's a miracle.

if today were a movie, it would be called revenge of the printers

is there a gene for headaches caused by car heaters? seems my mom and i have the same problem...

f's phrases of several months

me: oh--you have to hear something stupid!
f: do i have to?

---

of my generally dim view about almost everything ("it's broken"; "i'm sick"; "she just wants food")

darling, you're such a pessimistic jew

---

shall i darken the room?
[i.e., turn off the lights]

let the record show that i managed to cook two dishes without getting so much as a drop on the stove.

[before i could celebrate that little victory i also managed to get a sharp piece of dried mint lodged in my thumb. it was later extracted with that universal method of sliver removal: a disinfected-by-fire sewing needle.]

I have now spent two full days with my filing cabinet and Merlin and my head is swimming in a sea of paperwork and badly-written scripts.

This is a show purely for children so I will forgive the bizarrely teenage behaviour of the fully adult actors, the large number of filler episodes--especially in early seasons--and the god-awful repetition. A bit of that is necessary: if anything, the show is a valuable, valuable lesson in humility. It also does a good job with the difficulty of decision-making, with the irrational nature of fear, and with the importance of compassion.

Unforgivable, however, is the lack of character development in Arthur; the troubling focus on loyalty, which is not always grounded in reason; and the even more troubling focus on "destiny"--its existence, its veracity, and its influence.

[SPOILER ALERT?]

Most unforgivable of all is the fact that the dragon was right. About everything. The commendable lessons of kindness, mercy, and understanding--painfully established every season--are really, for me, undercut by all this.

I've taken it much too seriously, as I'm prone to do... but for parents watching this with their children: I would take care to point out its flaws.

dear friends and relations,

wishing you all a peaceful year of love, health, and laughter

С новым годом, с новым счастьем

more dreams of flying... of you being missing and, later, kidnapped... and one long, terrifying death by poison

apparently our cat loves buckwheat...

must be those russian roots

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair

reviewing corrections to a short story anthology: atwood. munro. macleod. richler. gallant.

one sharp breath after another, and my quickening pulse, and the memories, and the ache

ain't no sunshine...

10 cm today and the city has not shut down; it's simply running about four hours behind...

oddly, i enjoyed the series of encores played by itzhak perlman more than the program itself.

aside from this: we were puzzled by the behaviour around us. aren't seniors always saying that young people today have no manners? were we the ones incessantly rummaging through our handbags, shuffling through our programs, or opening plastic packages of candy/chocolate/god-knows-what-else during the performance?

نور العين 

it occurred to me that i understand this because one word is very similar in hebrew and the other is identical in persian

...two exciting publications listed in the fall 2014 edition of the University of Toronto, Department of English Newsletter for alumni

Dante's House, by a former professor of mine
The Writing Moment, published by OUP Canada

In the clearing stands a boxer,
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame,
"I am leaving, I am leaving."
But the fighter still remains

Я думал: вот чуть-чуть - и будем мы на "ты"

i'm not a fan of syntactic indicators of formality/respect (e.g., vous/tu). i think they reinforce idiotic hierarchies, encourage distance, etc

...they have a lovely literary use, though, as signifiers of breakthroughs and familiarity

deepest thoughts with the family of michael brown...
this is simply appalling

i don't know what it is about the monotony of this report but it always makes my mind wander to the most embarrassing, the most unpleasant moments of my life

i guess it only takes one such thought for more to appear in similar circumstances...