Why Women Don’t Make Top Ten Lists: Prose on Prose

Dear CF,
Laura Miller’s article on Publishers Weekly’s top ten list led me to Francine Prose’s article, “Scent of a Woman’s Ink,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1998.  It’s not available to nonsubscribers but it’s a formidable piece and relevant still, though it’s equally interesting to think about the ways in which some things [...]

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Letter From a Sterling Institute Ex-Friend

Thanks to Hank for writing in about how his friendship with a longtime family friend changed as a result of the Sterling Men’s Institute (Hank’s comment originally appeared here):
I’m a veteran of men’s gatherings ala Robert Bly’s “Ironman” and was invited by a longtime family friend to participate in The Sterling Men’s Weekend (for $900.00). [...]

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ShudWeNaNoWriMo?

Dear CF and beloved commenters and lurkers,
National Novel-Writing Month. I’m gonna do it, or a variant of it that might start a little earlier. Wanna join me?
Below are the official rules, which we could tweak. For example, I like the starting from scratch idea that doesn’t let me use any previous drafts or notes. I [...]

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Facebook Statustics

There’s a Facebook tool that goes through your archive of status updates and analyzes them for frequency of word usage. My friend Andrea’s most frequent word was “party.” Fun! I thought. I write funny status updates! I will try! My results:

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Respect the Cock

Dear CF,
I learned yesterday that in my city one can legally own no more than 12 chickens. This puzzled me. Why 12? At first I thought it might have to do with egg packaging—grocery stores do tend to sell chicken thighs and breasts in packages of six or twelve. Maybe we’ve just internalized the base-12 [...]

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A Very Great Company of Radiating Pencils

Dear CF,
It has always been a great fantasy of mine to draw well.  It has also been a great fantasy of mine to work in a messy and unhygienic laboratory where Kimwipes and agar have not yet been invented, where there aren’t Biohazard containers or sharps disposal boxes, and where one could (not that one [...]

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Today in Millicent’s Garbage

Dear CF,
It’s moving time round these here parts, so people are leaving all their broken things by the dumpster. I’ve been passing this set of drawers (one drawer missing) for three days. Today I remembered I’d bought some yellow gingham vinyl on a whim. Behold the fruits of my labor:

The card is from our beloved [...]

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Mother’s Day

Chum o’mine,
I thought of you on Mother’s Day. I hope it has cooled off in your city. While it was hot for you, the air here was sodden and unraining, the kind of day where you wear a cardigan and sweat through it after walking a block.
I spent Mother’s Day with mine. It was her [...]

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American Idle: How Fear and Anger Drive Us To Our Fallen Work

Dear CF,
[Opening insult framed in sexual terms that broadcasts author's failure to properly express anger:] Those radio guests can suck my boob.
[Agreement plus fake announcement of topic]: I’m with you: anger and fear, weirdly understood as alienating or paralyzing emotions, are no such thing—if anything, they’re over-activating. Without anger, fear and their cousins discomfort and [...]

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Is Susan Boyle a Fake?

After all our gab about her here, here and here, brace yourself:
SUSAN BOYLE HAS BEEN KISSED.

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