Memoirous

Funny Pearls in the UK https://funnypearls.com/ has published a humorous piece of mine called Shelter in Place--inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing. Really it is funny. In an awkward, lurching way. Basically it's about a wedding, what should be the happiest day of your life, taking place during a time of collective tragedy, national focus on a terrorist incident--of how your bachelorette party is overshadowed by a manhunt, and how this changes everything.

James Schuyler, In January "In January After Ibn Sahl The yard has sopped into its green-grizzled self its new year         whiteness. A dog stirs the noon-blue dark with a running shadow and dirt         smells cold and doggy As though the one thing never seen were its frozen coupling         with the air that brings the flowers of grasses. And a leafless beech stands wrinkled, gray and sexless–all bone         and loosened sinew–in silver glory And the sun falls all on one side of it in a running glance, a         licking gaze, an eye-kiss And ancient silver struck by gold emerges mossy, pinkly         lichened where the sun fondles it And starlings of anthracite march into the east with rapid jerky      ...

My friend turned 70 And we had a surprise party for her. I whispered to another friend as we waited in the darkened room, “I hope she doesn’t have a heart attack.” No problem there, my friend is the youngest person I know. She could practically run the North American BTS Fan Club by herself. My friend lives and breathes BTS the famous South Korean boyband. She collects memorabilia and goes to their concerts every chance she gets. She loves all things Korean. She watches Korean TV and movies. She has episodes on tape. She’ll have girls up to her room to watch with her. She takes these same friends out to the Korean supermarket where they also sell fresh prepared foods; it’s a date, and they stay all day. Recently at a bootcamp a fellow attendee made an ageist comment, one where they sort of low-browed another. My experience has always told me that you cannot judge a book by its cover. This isn’t just a saying. The truth is you cannot even begin to guess someone’s story...

A couple posts ago I wrote about my Norwegian Sweater ( http://memoirouswrite.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-norwegian-sweater.html ). Specifically I wrote about how when I was younger the idea of wearing a thick, wool sweater set me aflame in hot flashes. This is not exactly a series of flashes about hot flashes (though it sounds alliteratively interesting), but I would like to write and explore the idea of what used to feel totally wrong, now is exactly who I am now. Basically I was Young, and now I’m not. Case study: Sundays I used to burn with the energy of a thousand suns. I Sunday came around and I had not done “anything,” then I would have to fix that. Sundays were for ten-mile runs. Going down to the park and playing soccer. Finding someone and riding my bike –60 miles. Sundays were the capstone to an epic weekend. If Sunday night rolled around and I didn’t have anything to tell my friends at work the next day then the weekend was a wash-up. At bootcamp when I g...

With the release of the nominees for Oscar this past week I am reminded once again of how a movie like Little Woman goes against the Hollywood grain. Most of the movies nominated for Best Picture are films that show violence; front and center are car chases, male-dominated leads—with one exception. Best picture Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood Parasite In her piece at Vanity Fair,  Greta Gerwig on the Lives of  Little Women —And Why “Male Violence” Isn’t All That Matters,  Gerwig writes about the film, her script and the utter lunacy of a book about 4 girls, their lives a collection of mundane details. Frm her article: I think Louisa May Alcott, whether she knew it or not, made the ordinary lives of girls and women extraordinary by turning her pen to them. I still think we very much have a hierarchy of stories. I think that the top of the hierarchy is mal...

During Christmas I listened to Dolly Parton's America , a podcast from journalist and podcast celebrity Jad Abumrad, creator of Radiolab and More Perfect. Like all good podcasts there are surprising and insane connections made—where the conversation takes a left turn to something else. I loved the interweaving of themes and threads=all from Dolly Parton. This is America in all its forms. The podcasts begin with Parton in Nashville on the Porter Wagoner Show. She was meant to be the “Dumb Blonde”, second fiddle to the main man, but her ability to carry an audience and build her own fan base was immediately apparent. What Abumrad emphasized is that Dolly’s fans are diverse. She appeals to not only country music fans but to the LGBT crowd. People who vote for Trump, people who would rather die than vote for Trump. In fact, she has more of a following now in her 70s than she did when at age 21 she broke onto the scene on Wagoner’s show. Her songs speak to a whole range of peopl...

In 2016 I felt like I was rockin' the blogging world. This little blog was getting over 10,000 hits each month--a sudden uptick. Of course I was thrilled. I checked with some fellow bloggers to see if they were experiencing the same thing. Yes, but not at that rate. Well, we all know how 2016 turned out. And that Russia was trying to hijack our election and feeding Facebook deepfakes. I know some might debate this, but it has been investigated and proven. IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN. NOW. I checked my stats today and saw that I'm suddenly getting LOTS of views and the audience traffic is mostly from Russia. Today alone, over 300 views from Russia and 18 from the US. Whoever they are, they're trolling blogs and websites for content to create memes and gauge the American mindset (am I typical? bot sure, hope not). This is disturbing and I believe we should all be worried. I'll update as I see more activity.

gods With a little g by Tupelo Hassman book review No one does hopeless teenagers quite like Tupelo Hassman. And, god with a little g is chock full of gloom. Rosary is a dead-end town inhabited by a majority of Thumpers, folks who beat you over the head with the Bible to prove a point. The symbolism here could be cloying if the book was not so damn great. The prose, people, the prose. I could have finished the 356-page book in one night but I kept it for over a month and had the library renew it because I wanted to linger with it, with the feeling—remembering what it was like to grow up, to change from a senseless teenager into a senseless adult. Nothing makes sense—at least since Helen’s mother died of cancer. She spends her time, endless hours, down at Fast Eddy’s tire yard while dark clouds gather above the refinery—Rosary’s polluting industry. There’s the sex—both real love and animal craving. And, the variants, the in between. You see, despite all the sanctimonious...

New Title for Young People Features Iranian/American Relations Cloud of Witnesses by Jane Hertenstein (ages 11- 14, published by Golden Alley Press) is set in Athens, Ohio during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Roland Tanner is a hillbilly, someone from rural Appalachia, and often feels like an outsider within his family and community. Tested as gifted, he is bused from his rural trailer to the town middle school where he meets Hassan, another outsider, whose family has relocated to from Iran to Athens where his father works at the university. The friendship is challenged when hostages are taken when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is overrun in November 1979. While crowds in the streets of Tehran chanted “Death to America,” news outlets depict incidents of Americans burning the Iranian flag. Roland is forced to examine his alliances and loyalties. In many ways Roland and Hassan have a lot in common—both feel like they don’t belong. Hassan: “The kids at school think I’m a terror...

Check out Ashes to Ashes at Little Old Lady Comedy or LOL! https://littleoldladycomedy.com/2020/01/02/ashes-to-ashes/ Also just got an acceptance for another humorous piece for women/about women at FUNNY PEARLS PROMOTING HUMOUR BY WOMEN https://funnypearls.com/

The Norwegian Sweater I remember a time when I was young and hearty— and never cold, so that we ripped the radiator out of the room in order to get two and half more feet of living space I was given thick wool sweaters that I passed on, gave away to Salvation Army; they were made for people living on the streets After having my baby (thirty years ago) my feet ached I bought cushiony fleece and suede slippers from L. L. Bean but hardly wore them; they made my feet so hot I had to kick them off in the night I could not imagine a time when I’d ever be cold My motor ran fast and high, creating energy to light up Chicago, or at least my block I lost more sweaters leaving them on the back of chairs or castoff in other people’s kitchen, or forgotten on the sidewalk after loading up the car. Now I live in thick wooly sweaters six months out of a year and that Norwegian sweater is my mainstay, and those Bean slippers: I sleep in ...

I recently told a group I was having a potluck with that I was going to see Little Women. One of the guys said I love that movie. Now, for a couple of reasons, I knew he was confused. Brien is the kind of guy that watches the Bears and roots for the Sox. Come to find out, he meant the movie Hidden Figures—which made me think that both titles seem to diminish the role of women. But, I digress. The weather was so nice, a friend and I rode our bikes there—to discover it was sold out. So we purchased tickets on-line and planned to go later. Again, I digress. Which is life: a series of digressions. Little Women as the book and movie proves, is a series of small moments in lives considered hidden and little. Indeed, they paint, play the piano, write, perform—but this is in a world where they have no agency. They cannot vote and are limited in the occupations they might choose. The man is the head of the house, even if they make unwise decisions and go off to war. We see ...

Little Old Lady (comedy) or Laugh out Loud or LOL just put out a 50-word flash of mine titled Her Time about reinventing yourself--it's time--your time! https://littleoldladycomedy.com/2019/12/17/her-time/

Monday, December 25, 2017 That After-Christmas Let Down Empathy and New Year A notion like that of empathy inspires great distrust in us, because it connotes a further dose of irrationalism and mysticism. Lévi-Strauss Whitman took the cars all the way from Camden and when he got here or rather there, said, “Quit quoting," and took the next back, through the Jersey meadows which were that then. Butwhat if it is all, "Maya, illusion?" Idoubt it, though. Men are not so inventive. Orfew are. Not knowinga name for something proves nothing. Right now it isn't raining, snowing, sleeting, slushing, yet it isdoing something. As a matter of factit is raining snow. Snowfrom cold cloudsthat melts as it strikes.To look out a window is to sense wet feet. Now to infusethe garage with a subjective state and can't make it seem toeven if it is a little like What the Dentist Sawa dark gullet with gleams and red. "You come to me at midnight" and say, "I can smell...

2020 Goals: *Get the critique group back together *Keep submitting those pieces *Find an agent *All those manuscripts find a home *Ride my bike to Kingdom Come *Make new friends *Lose weight (hahahahaha) *Finish my cross-stitch project