This isn’t about the quality of the entry! And in fact if it had been a crap effort, my reaction wouldn’t have been the same. I am not complaining nor am I criticizing here. I am merely observing that my ick trigger went off.
Off topic, but I could use a push one way or the other. My subscription to the Post ends tomorrow. I cancelled at the time of the Ann Talneas affair. They’re offering a year for 30 bucks. If I take the offer, I could be all altruistic and say that I’m supporting the great journalists who are still there. In truth, I usually just read it now for the sports and the comics, and loll about on Sunday mornings doing the three crossword puzzles. For what it’s worth, I can count the number of times that I’ve ordered something from Amazon on one hand and still have a middle digit left over to show my opinion of Bezos. Should I stay or should I go now?
You should follow your own conscience. I dropped my subscription and have been quite open about it, using terms I’m sure neither Gene nor Pat appreciated. But that was my call. The columnists who gave the Post value I was willing to pay for have left. That made the math simple.
This very day I shared this piece by Monica Hesse as an example of why I still subscribe to The Post. It is writing, and commentary, at their finest. https://wapo.st/3E5Ljsf
You got me Pat. In for another year. I failed to mention that for years, I’ve started my Saturdays with Free For All and have continued to do so. I could do without the editor’s intrusions there. After all, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it.
Wow Pat. Thanks for the note about Monica Hesse’s piece. Sitting in a coffee shop in Pueblo, CO, with tears in my eyes. I agree that Trump never stepped foot in that museum.
I think I would need to know the gender of the eye-color poster. Even the most ungirly girls get roped into to trying makeup once in their teen years. Even if a friend applied it, I think you would take a look in the mirror.
Re: breakfast cockroach. My mother in law was at the beach. We were staying in an old beach house at a state park. She pounded herself a cup of coffee and went to get the newspaper from the porch--she was in the kitchen. She settled on the couch with her coffee and paper. Took a few sips, then put the cup on the coffee table. Read a bit. Picked up the coffee, raised it to her mouth and saw roach's antenna waving about. She hurled the cup across the room and then stomped the soaking roach. I never leave coffee unattended at the beach, and will never stay in said state park.
Not unexpectedly, nudity and porn have shown up once again at the Pool. This allows me to dust off (wipe down? reexpose?) my brief encounter with adult filmmaking --- that is, films about adults faking sexual pleasure by (more or less) adults for those here who may not have been previously bored by it. Now you can join the crowd. When you're a perspiring screenwriter, you take what you can get. I got two --- what were then called "quality" --- porn um...adult...films. "Quality" in that they had actual cinematic three-point lighting rather than three guys with flashlights. There was also a set --- okay several rooms in the director's house charged to the films' budgets. Since most of the dialog consisted of responsive grunting and groaning, my job was largely to write the actors into the bedroom or onto a countertop --- or each one, in succession --- as quickly as possible. Being a budding Billy Wilder, I thought it only um...professional...to show up during shooting in case one or another grunt or groan needed a rewrite or polish. That's what professionals do, right? Well, suffice it to say, reality did not meet my um...professional...expectations. As the man said, "parts is parts." Probably the most sexless experience since my first sexual encounter. Not that I expected romance's crooked little smile to beam down on the proceedings, mind you, but then neither did I expect sex acts to be choreographed like an NFL game color commentator providing a detailed description of the "Hop to Gun King Trips Right" play about to unfold before your eyes. Ah well, did manage to sneak in a couple of Tennessee Williams references. That's what professionals do, right?
Apart from the "Gene" part, I would imagine your relationship with Gene Robinson went a little deeper than with your other WaPo colleagues --- the Empress notwithstanding. If I'm not mistaken, he was a Nieman Fellow with you at Harvard and "Style" AME during your editorship.
Whelp, that breakfast cockroach just hit the nail on the head for one of my biggest aversions. I shuddered.
Should have come with a warning.
But it was so well done!
This isn’t about the quality of the entry! And in fact if it had been a crap effort, my reaction wouldn’t have been the same. I am not complaining nor am I criticizing here. I am merely observing that my ick trigger went off.
I could tell you thought it was good. 😀My “but” should have been an “and.”
Fair enough.
The couch potato is absolutely brilliant, as is the hatched egg salad! That breakfast cockroach made me shudder too.
Couch potato deserved better.
I can’t pick a favorite, I laughed at so many!! Brilliant (food)stuff! But double-triple appropriate cringe for the date bug. 🐜 bleeeech!
The Grape Divide was hilarious bc my first look interpreted Florida as nuts…still funny when I realized those are raisins. Either works, right? ;-)
The idea was that the red states are all grapes -- and Florida is old, dried-up grapes. But nuts work too!
Same here.
Appreciating all the initiative! I had an idea, didn’t execute. Appreciate the art of the coffee grounds.
Off topic, but I could use a push one way or the other. My subscription to the Post ends tomorrow. I cancelled at the time of the Ann Talneas affair. They’re offering a year for 30 bucks. If I take the offer, I could be all altruistic and say that I’m supporting the great journalists who are still there. In truth, I usually just read it now for the sports and the comics, and loll about on Sunday mornings doing the three crossword puzzles. For what it’s worth, I can count the number of times that I’ve ordered something from Amazon on one hand and still have a middle digit left over to show my opinion of Bezos. Should I stay or should I go now?
You should follow your own conscience. I dropped my subscription and have been quite open about it, using terms I’m sure neither Gene nor Pat appreciated. But that was my call. The columnists who gave the Post value I was willing to pay for have left. That made the math simple.
This very day I shared this piece by Monica Hesse as an example of why I still subscribe to The Post. It is writing, and commentary, at their finest. https://wapo.st/3E5Ljsf
You got me Pat. In for another year. I failed to mention that for years, I’ve started my Saturdays with Free For All and have continued to do so. I could do without the editor’s intrusions there. After all, if you don’t get it, you don’t get it.
Yeah, I think they're going overboard with that as well.
Would one of you please say more about the editor's intrusions? I canceled my WaPo subscription at the end of January.
Wow Pat. Thanks for the note about Monica Hesse’s piece. Sitting in a coffee shop in Pueblo, CO, with tears in my eyes. I agree that Trump never stepped foot in that museum.
It is a great, underappreciated, museum.
I like the Homer: Wine dark gulf. It elevates a good joke to greatness
I think I would need to know the gender of the eye-color poster. Even the most ungirly girls get roped into to trying makeup once in their teen years. Even if a friend applied it, I think you would take a look in the mirror.
Definitely a guy. As you say: even the ungirliest of girls is forced into aesthetic self-scrutiny, whereas boys are encouraged not to care.
Also: some people have dark green eyes that look brown.
Re: breakfast cockroach. My mother in law was at the beach. We were staying in an old beach house at a state park. She pounded herself a cup of coffee and went to get the newspaper from the porch--she was in the kitchen. She settled on the couch with her coffee and paper. Took a few sips, then put the cup on the coffee table. Read a bit. Picked up the coffee, raised it to her mouth and saw roach's antenna waving about. She hurled the cup across the room and then stomped the soaking roach. I never leave coffee unattended at the beach, and will never stay in said state park.
Coffee? Unattended? Not in MY house! ☕️ ☕️ ☕️
It's curious that Gene believes the diary peeker was a dad. I know otherwise.
I know. I realized too late that it was probably a ma.
Goat joke bahh-hd.
ISWYDT
Don't really speak goat. Best shot.
Re: Michael Bennett. The stupid are usually the most cocksure.
Not unexpectedly, nudity and porn have shown up once again at the Pool. This allows me to dust off (wipe down? reexpose?) my brief encounter with adult filmmaking --- that is, films about adults faking sexual pleasure by (more or less) adults for those here who may not have been previously bored by it. Now you can join the crowd. When you're a perspiring screenwriter, you take what you can get. I got two --- what were then called "quality" --- porn um...adult...films. "Quality" in that they had actual cinematic three-point lighting rather than three guys with flashlights. There was also a set --- okay several rooms in the director's house charged to the films' budgets. Since most of the dialog consisted of responsive grunting and groaning, my job was largely to write the actors into the bedroom or onto a countertop --- or each one, in succession --- as quickly as possible. Being a budding Billy Wilder, I thought it only um...professional...to show up during shooting in case one or another grunt or groan needed a rewrite or polish. That's what professionals do, right? Well, suffice it to say, reality did not meet my um...professional...expectations. As the man said, "parts is parts." Probably the most sexless experience since my first sexual encounter. Not that I expected romance's crooked little smile to beam down on the proceedings, mind you, but then neither did I expect sex acts to be choreographed like an NFL game color commentator providing a detailed description of the "Hop to Gun King Trips Right" play about to unfold before your eyes. Ah well, did manage to sneak in a couple of Tennessee Williams references. That's what professionals do, right?
The tiny head swan made me laugh out loud.
Apart from the "Gene" part, I would imagine your relationship with Gene Robinson went a little deeper than with your other WaPo colleagues --- the Empress notwithstanding. If I'm not mistaken, he was a Nieman Fellow with you at Harvard and "Style" AME during your editorship.
I admired the considerable effort that went into the Leaning Tower of Pez. Surely much harder than playing card houses or Jenga.