Brett Bonfield publishes a new issue on the last day of each month. Entries are 25 words or less (Soupy Sales, via Iggy Pop). It follows three maxims: Save the time of the reader (S.R. Ranganathan) It sounded like a directive for other people in their lives, but it wasn't. It was a directive for him in his life. (Heather Whinna, at the unveiling of Steve Albini Way in memory of her late husband, 2024–11–25) The disappearing moment of experience is the firmest reality (Benjamin Boretz)
The words used to describe the novels that I like best are “literary” and “humor” or “funny” (see Reading , below). Most of the novels that I read are about absurd romantic entanglements. My problem with them is the sex scenes. The scenes are fine; I like them about as much as the average reader. My concern is that I'm not sure which parts of the scenes are funny or why they’re funny. I realize…
My newsletter this month is a list. I am writing it from an airplane. I love air travel, jury duty, anything where I get to read or write. It is incoherent because I am tired and happy, not because I am writing it from a plane. Thanks to my friend, Stephanie, I visited my first Admiral’s Club this afternoon. She also invited me to join her and other friends at King Spa on our way to O’Hare.…
You thought that I could not get any sexier. I was sure of it myself. Sorry, Polymarket, it happened. “Impossible,” I see in your thought bubble. “You already have Tom Jones’s presence, John Coltrane’s embodied artfulness, and Brad Pitt’s I-love-to-watch-him-go. The only thing that could make you hotter would be if you slept in a night guard.” You would be right. If your dentist tells you to get a…
This month’s list combines the least interesting aspects of fan fiction, fantasy football, and Sudoku. Then multiplies the stupidity by a hundred. Which demonstrates that I am human. Give us an instinctive behavior and we will complicate and pervert it. Moving our bodies. Making objects digestible. Marking our surroundings. Procreation. Clothing. Domiciles. Travel. Creating and listening to…
Thank you for helping me figure out which sections to remove from the newsletter. As distasteful as it must have been to consider my navel, y’all have a clearer view of it than I do. Free Fonts and Literary Journals will be lists. I might update those lists every year or two. That’s a better fit for these topics and what I have to say about them. Nerdy Software will go where it belongs: the Uses…
Eight inches. In some contexts, eight inches can be enormous. Close your eyes and imagine it. Eight. Inches. Now imagine something completely different. You and I are holding hands. We are skipping and skipping and skipping. We skip for a mile like that, hand in hand. At the end of that mile, the ground under your feet is eight inches lower than the ground below mine. It is a gradual descent.…
My beloved American Library Association broke my heart this month. (This was not the first time.) The details are immaterial. I have seen it happen to everyone who cares about this association. My friends, mentors, and heroes deserve better. No matter how much you love a community or an organization, it cannot love you back. Our irrational, steadfast belief that they can is a form of pareidolia .…
I started this newsletter in January 2021. For a year, it consisted of sections: Podcasts, Nerdy Software, etc. I thought that I had nothing else worth writing. In January 2022, I wrote an introduction for the first time, and I've included one every month since. The total is now 48, including this one. Some of you are new here. Few of you have been around since the beginning. Plus, no one should…
Imagine that you and I were the subject of an experiment. We let researchers place us in comas on November 1, 2017. They awakened us eight years later. We’ve spent the past month observing and being observed. Learning what we missed. Seeing family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. What would have surprised you the most? What would have required the biggest adjustment? Politics and sports are…
In my experience, accountability has four requirements: Truth Timeliness Legibility Storytelling No lies or errors. Reveal what you know as soon as it’s pertinent. Put it where people who might think it’s useful will see it or can find it with little effort. Explain it in the most inviting and succinct way possible. In this year’s March and April newsletters, I wrote about investments that I made.…
In September, I started learning about literary journals. These are publications that feature fiction, poetry, essays, or visual art. Most are online, a few publish in print, some do both. For writers, deciding where to submit a short story can feel overwhelming. There are several thousand journals. Each has its own schedule for accepting submissions. Some won’t consider your work unless you pay…
I hope there is something that you love to do as much as I love to write. For me, it is the perfect balance of difficult and rewarding. Beth and I went to the Omega Institute earlier this month. While she took a workshop, I had a self-led writing retreat. It was a dream fulfilled. We would arrive at campus by 7:45 a.m. and I would write until 5:30 or 6:00 each evening. I took breaks for lunch,…
My background contemplation this month has been about siblings. I am astonished by how different they can be. The way that some people seem more skeptical and others more credulous. The range of variability in how much they care what other people think of them. What they believe other people owe them and they owe others. I have no idea if nature or nurture is a useful framework or continuum. What…
It’s satisfying to make something that serves your needs. Which feels selfish twice over. Taking the time to make anything feels indulgent. Serving my needs? Don’t get me started. So I doubled down (quadrupled down?) and documented it. If others find it useful, it’s easier for me to justify. I named my project, “ Worklists ”. If Playlists make TikTok of your brain, try out albums as an antidote.…
A problem with leasing a Cybertruck? You might like it. Appreciate its comforts. It might be your favorite place to listen to music. Feel like you’re in full control. You might find reasons to keep it. What’s the harm in making a dangerously rich man even richer ? With subsidizing and expanding his influence ? Sure, he’s a toady . He spreads hate and deadly disinformation to the willing and…
If someone at your gym offers you unsolicited advice, ignore it. Anyone who knows their shit keeps it to themselves. Even if you ask them for guidance, they turn into jacked rabbis. “Bigger arms? Nu?! Already with the swollen biceps?! Oy, such tsuris!” ( Editor’s Note: I’ve never met anyone who speaks this way. It may be a Hollywood invention. ) That’s how I feel about most advice. Especially…
I wish I could invest in Chinese companies. I don’t think it’s possible, and not just for me. I believe that it is impossible for anyone to invest in Chinese companies. Investing is predicated on a company’s stock and bonds enabling investors to determine how much it would cost to buy the company. If you know the price of a company’s stock and how many shares of stock it has, then you know how…
The Russian FSB picked up where the Soviet KGB left off. The KGB specialized in covert bugs and complicit informants. The FSB uses contemporary technology. Almost every Russian uses an FSB-controlled web browser, search engine, and email service. FSB-controlled computers and mobile phones are Russia's most popular. If a Russian is using their computer or phone, they're logged in and sharing all…
Beth was a committed vegetarian when we started dating, had been for years. I was several years in, too. And I had cut out dairy and eggs a couple of years earlier. Vegans were less common then. People asked me about it. I worried that my choice made them feel inconvenienced or judged. I looked for inoffensive explanations. I liked that being vegan required discipline. I needed more discipline in…
This month, a lot of people got worked up about the possibility of mystery drones over New Jersey. We made Orson Welles comparisons . The New York Times reported on drone fever . A U.S. Representative said that the drones were Iran’s doing. New Jersey's best political reporter mewled that this " theory sounds possible ". He wrote that there was "an absence of other plausible theories”. ( Matt…
If the world is ending, I want to be surrounded by kittens when it happens. Sleeping Marty, JoJo, and Lloyd (top to bottom) Sleepy Marty, JoJo, and Lloyd (top to bottom) Welcome to November 2024’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it. Podcasts Behind the Bastards : RFK, Jr. (Worth My Time): Grating hosts tell the tale of a degenerate boor. Nerdy Software I…
What are the odds that the worst human was born between 1878 and 1893? The world population in 1945 was about 2.4 billion. If 117 billion people have been born , that sets the odds a touch over 2%. Of course, that doesn’t account for. Or. And then there’s. How many millions suffered and died because of? I don’t believe in the Great Man Theory. Modern atrocities rely on circumstance, abetting,…
“A device that permits people who haven’t anything to do to watch people who can’t do anything.” That was comedian Fred Allen's description of... television Everything old is TikTok again . In my mid-twenties, Penn hired me to ghostwrite thank you letters to its donors. Someone at the President’s office signed them for her. Someone else mailed them to the donors. The donors employed people to open…
I stopped following the news and renounced social media in 2012. I stopped following sports in 2016. Over the past couple of years, I let myself start following sports again. For the most part, I've followed running. I like following it enough to write about it. That includes my longest work in years, an essay about Sifan Hassan . I also tried to get back into baseball in a small way. I’ve never…
My favorite record review is about Slint’s Spiderland . Melody Maker ran it in 1991. Steve Albini wrote it. I thought about that review when I decided to write about Stay Soft’s Don’t Leave the Feeling . It’s the most recent album to join my list of favorites. I would like to stop writing about music. I don’t read about new artists or albums, and spend little time listening to newer releases. I…
I always wanted my hair to be different. A lot of us felt that way. Many still do. I wanted to look like Kelly from the Bad News Bears . Like Ace Frehley, the lead guitarist in Kiss. Long and not quite straight. Or like John Travolta’s dance teacher, Deney Terrio. Like Shaun Cassidy. Musical, dreamy, avian. With hormones came discord. I wanted my hair to be messy. The right kind. Like Andrew…
Something you can do for the people you love is prepare a letter of instruction . Like other elements of estate planning, it makes mourning a bit easier. No one has to guess what you want if you tell them. In my experience, one of the worst aspects of mourning is fighting about the deceased person’s values. (Thanks, predatory family members!) A self-directed eulogy can serve a similar purpose. If…
Reading. Everything about it. Right‽ You wouldn’t be here otherwise. Our intrinsic pleasure is modulated by texts. Good writing enlivens us. Jargon sends us to the dentist, cliché to the physio. The corporeal experience matters, too. Physical comfort. Lighting. Background noise. Scents. Are you reading this with a cup of coffee at hand? A Powers and soda? On the loo? (If it is all three, I am…
Merle (2012-03-21 – 2024-03-21) The photo of Merle links to a short video. Turn up your volume to hear Merle purr. Welcome to March 2024’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it. Podcasts Alphabet Boys (I Liked It): “Entrapment” is such a dirty word. We prefer to call it “standard operating procedure”. Love, Janessa (I Liked It): We are all hostages of our media…
I’ve had some minor aches and injuries over the past few months. Nothing terrible. More like the Henny Youngmann joke . No long or fast running for a little while longer. Limited bench pressing and squats. If it hurts, don’t do it. That kind of thing. I found myself with time to fill. A specific kind of time. I needed something I could do on my own that requires focus. I’ve started writing more.…