My return trip from Canada sucked me into one of those whirlpools of related reading that leaves you rather breathless. In my case, that meant following up my previous book on Wallis Warfield with Caroline Blackwood’s The Last of the Duchess: The Strange and Sinister Story of the Final Years of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and then into Dangerous Muse: The Life Of Lady Caroline Blackwood, which was just…(kisses fingers appreciatively), and finally left me with Great Granny Webster, Blackwood’s best novel, which Philip Larkin cast the deciding Booker Prize vote against because it was based on insufficiently fictional people. Suffice it to say, I am now ALMOST tired of deranged British aristos and drunks and mad painters and mad poets, but not quite? You would be quite happy with any of these books, as well as Blackwood’s daughter’s wonderful memoir, Why Not Say What Happened?
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Mallory and I have a new Toast Stance which cannot possibly wait for the next installment.
CON:
Tagging eighty people in a photo, which, when the tagged person clicks on it in a panic, because some people have a great horror of being tagged in photos, reveals itself to be merely a photograph of the tagger’s new baby, they just wanted to make sure you were forced to go look at it.
The social compact is hereby dissolved. throws chair through starbucks window, steals several bags of chocolate-covered coffee beans
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Game of Thrones. DUUUUUUUUUUDE.
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An ex-con on Orange Is the New Black (don’t talk too much about the second season today! we have a dynamite series of pie charts and diagrams on it for you on Thursday!):
So you weren’t a smart-ass in prison?
Dude, if you ever saw me in the prison element, you would have thought I was brain damaged. Seriously. How I am now is not how I was in prison. And I don’t mean that in an “it was a long time ago, I’ve turned my life around” way. I mean that I kept my mouth zipped in prison. I would sometimes go for days and only say maybe five words to people. I kept my mouth shut, and if I thought someone was an idiot or annoying, which happened all the time, I kept it to myself. I wanted to get the hell out of there, and talking shit to people was a definite way to make my stay longer.
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I watched Maleficent this weekend, and am happy to talk about a) how I was rooting for Angie to fuck ‘em all UPPPPPPPPP and b) how not one single solitary male character could get it. You couldn’t give us one srsly good-looking man? and c) how many potential MISANDRY gifs I want you to make for me from it.
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My dad is visiting, so mostly we’ve been watching the World Cup, and it’s been pretty great. He knows everything about soccer! Ask him about the career of some rando on Uruguay’s team and he’ll be all “well, he was born in Paysandu, came up through the youth system…” I have also learned that if Frodo had given my father the Ring, he would have started off by giving every single Italian player a yellow card for diving, but it wouldn’t stop there. Oh, no. It wouldn’t stop there.
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I did not actually see Frozen, but that song is a weak-ass rip-off of the VASTLY superior “Defying Gravity,” and also Mallory informs me that a young woman gave up a perfectly dope ice fortress for no good reason.
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Super great Paris Review interview with August Wilson:
INTERVIEWER
Can you say what first drew you to the theater?
WILSON
I think it was the ability of the theater to communicate ideas and extol virtues that drew me to it. And also I was, and remain, fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness. A novelist writes a novel and people read it. But reading is a solitary act. While it may elicit a varied and personal response, the communal nature of the audience is like having five hundred people read your novel and respond to it at the same time. I find that thrilling.
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
The World Cup is awful for a number of social reasons, but it’s also the best and I am really looking forwards to Puma’s Arsenal uniforms.
I was firmly a puma child as a youth soccer player, but I cannot imagine playing in such a tight shirt.
So many hilariously cartoonish abs! It’s delightful.
All I want today is for Germany to totally crush Portugal.
That is what we are merrily rooting for at my house as well.
ha, from the looks of it… that might happen.
(for me, an ideal world would be on in which Germany and Portugal draw, and the US wins tonight. NOT GONNA HAPPEN.)
Apropos of the first half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1Ju8mIgAk
I will refrain from too much OITNB discussion, but GOD I am glad to hear someone else think that is hilariously unrealistic that Morello was allowed to sit in the van, with the keys, for THREE HOURS, and nobody saw anything wrong with this. Really. Really?!?!
Also, people who tag a zillion people in their baby photos just so you’ll look? Deserve to go to a prison where they do not allow you on 3-hour random breaks with your van.
What really killed me was that no one checked the mileage on the vehicle. I mean, I just work for the Canadian Coast Guard and they check the mileage on the one we use for work. I refuse to believe they don’t check it on a vehicle driven by an unsupervised prisoner.
I work for THE GOVERNMENT in uh – shall we say vaguely – a way related to jails (not prisons but close). I guarantee you that they would check the damn mileage. Hell, I am a non (convicted!) criminal regular employee type and if I drive a government owned vehicle for any reason, I have to use a special credit card and mark down before and after mileage AND that mileage has to match the Google maps I submit for reimbursement, etc. I got a phone call once about seven extra miles (I had to take another route due to a highway backup). C’mon, son.
I don’t get why they even need an inmate to drive them to the hospital. Doesn’t it make way more sense for a guard to drive the sick inmate? Why involve a second inmate at all?
I THINK the idea is that it’s her job there, as driver, like Poussey’s is in the library? HOWEVER the glaring flaw in this plan is that A) she is a prisoner and therefore a flight risk who should probably not be allowed to spend 3 hours alone in a van with keys, and B) she is NOT THE KIND OF PRISONER WHO SHOULD HAVE THAT KIND OF FREEDOM (I will refrain from spoiling people, but, REALLY).
Really, though.
I know what you are referring to there and while I can sort of bring myself to accept that Morello got away with it, I don’t see how the dude didn’t put 2 and 2 together and contact the prison about what had happened. Unless the other shoe drops after episode 6, which is the farthest I’ve gotten so far.
Keep watching! I finished it this weekend and all becomes clear. Ish.
Sorta clear. A little bit clear. Still kind of confusing.
There is a throwaway line a few episodes later indicating that the guard wasn’t checking up like she should, but still. Even with that information it makes no sense.
Still, it was a great hour of TV. I was so tense the whole time!
Me and the husbmate watched that episode basically with our hands over our eyes because we were both so tensed out.
I’ve commented that “Let It Go” sounds like it was cut from Wicked, but I think it’s better than some of the songs that made the cut, so. And the ice fortress IS awesome, but she had a pretty solid reason to leave it. I shouldn’t be allowed to offer my input on this, actually, since I watched it very recently and my eyes literally turned into hearts the first time there were overlapping vocals.
Also, Game o’ Thrones: haven’t watched yet, know they cut Lady Stoneheart, don’t care nearly as much as the Internet seems to.
Yes, as if the series hasn’t been renewed for more seasons than there are books. We’ll get to it!
I wonder how intentional their Father’s Day timing was. I remember they had something horrifying on a Mother’s Day too.
Re the Facebook photos: UGH people do that?!?!? That to me is grounds for unfriending AND blocking. On a related note, I just found out that a person that I used to be really good friends with (and whom I spent a lot of time defending to other people when he acted crazy and got all drunk) has not only defriended me but has BLOCKED me on Facebook. I cannot help but think this has to do with his upcoming nuptials and am REALLY annoyed.
Seriously, why do you both unfriend someone and then BLOCK them so you can’t see their comments on mutual friends’ pages? THIS IS SO WEIRD. Help me figure this out…
I had the great unfriend and block by a dude in very similar dynamic. Only he unfriended and blocked me around the time I got married so… I guess he’s not a wedding person?
I do have a couple of people I have blocked and unfriended (coworkers I REALLY don’t want all up in my personal life even though I’m friends with other coworkers, that one ex who is a drama king and somehow always manages to get a reaction out of me no matter how much I try to stay on the high road. Thank you blocking for keeping me from the drama)
I mean if someone wants distance from you that much there is really only one thing you can do.
LET IT GO. . . . LET IT GOOOOO!
Also worth reading: this NYTimes article about maternal mental illness.
I just finished reading this! And, I’m going to say for the first time possibly ever in history – you should read the comments! There are a bunch of really moving anecdotes about women struggling with the disease, or people whose mothers had it, or therapists who want to weigh in on how the healthcare system has let mothers down.
I feel so lucky. My APN when I was pregnant was SO GREAT and when I mentioned I had a history of depression she IMMEDIATELY launched into a conversation about possible treatments, medications that were safe to take while pregnant, and Warning Signs.
My Ob-Gyne was pretty meh but my APN? Lovely.
That’s a really good article, though unsurprising. Looking back at my own pregnancy, I can see my depression coming. I have always been a “particular” person – I like things to have their place, etc – but never anything that was officially diagnosed. Once I was pregnant (which happened at a point of ENORMOUS upheaval in my life), I found myself getting very anxious, and very agoraphobic. I enjoyed being pregnant. I loved the feeling of having something living growing inside me. But I was very depressed afterwards, and I’m still struggling with it. I never thought of hurting my child myself, but I can remember having wild dreams where the baby and my partner would die in some accident, and I was suicidal for about a month before that settled out through therapy and my hormones settling back to normal. I have worried and been anxious about all of this passing to my child and having a terrible effect on her, that she’ll think I don’t love her when I go through bouts of depression/detachment, but I know I’m a work in progress, and I’m learning to lean on the support system I have, even when I think it doesn’t exist. It has been…interesting to say the least.
Gah, I realize that all sounds terrible!! But it’s the truth, for me anyway. The wonderful thing, though? Is that it’s not that bad for everyone. AND it can be managed, through therapy, or medication, or a combination of things. None of us are alone (whether we’re pregnant or not!). And that is pretty reassuring.
I HAVE A LOT OF MALEFICENT FEELINGS GUYS. There was a lot I loved about it and some stuff I found problematic and some things I was disappointed about but I just really liked how it was ultimately about the power of female relationships and affection, and how effing useless all the men were. And Angelina Jolie, my god, I adore her. And the WING SCENE ahhh that was some heavy shit! Yes, feelings.
Reverse Bechdel test! No two male characters with names talked to each other about anything other than a woman. It was glorious.
Angelina! I had high expectations and she soared over them.
[SPOILERS] Great point about the reverse Bechdel test; I hadn’t even thought of that! I got some misandrist glee out of how Prince Philip was relegated to a minor plot device, and then got literally tossed out of the room when he failed to fulfill his one purpose in the story, awakening/saving the princess. Though I did really appreciate that he expressed some reluctance to kiss Aurora while she was asleep (yay consent!) – I like to think that when she became queen and grew up a bit she made him her captain of the guard, or took him as her powerless but pretty royal consort.
And yes, Angelina, again, just wow. Even if you hate everything else about the movie, it’s worth it to see her.
I loved Philip. He was so adorably useless. I was afraid he was going to be useful but then he wasn’t and all was well.
I am many hours late to this but one thingI liked about the prince is that he appeared age-appropriate for Aurora! I am so sick of old dudes macking on teenage princesses.
Same here with the feelings. (Possible spoilers, I dunno, maybe not) I loved that the most important dynamic of the film was the female mentor relationship, but I struggle with accepting that it comes at the expense of her actual mother being basically a footnote. (And worse – she’s essentially a prize for King Mr. Not Winning Any Oscars Anytime Soon.)
And the wing scene really hurt. When I realized what was about to happen, all I could think over and over was “pleasedon’tshowthatonscreenpleasedon’tshowthatonscreen.” Then cue feelings about “Are we really going to take this metaphor and use it as a redemptive character arc?” BUT then cue fantastic realization that even though Maleficent is physically affected by trauma, her power is completely unscathed.
And I think that’s what I loved most about this film. I do think there’s plenty to possibly pick apart and criticize, but I also think that they did this particularly well. Her character withstands and is allowed to feel physical pain, but there’s never that annoying suggestion that “aww, she’ll never be the same again,” because she still stomps armies of men for funsies in her free time. With magic.
I like to think that Aurora, who is still very young and presumably has access to all kinds of castle records and people who knew her mother as well, will want to learn about her. Her father said they looked very much alike, and that must have piqued her curiosity.
It is too bad that we didn’t get to see more of the queen, but one thing I liked about the movie was that there were many different female characters with different personalities and alignments and levels of importance in the story, and she was just one of the less important ones.
If nobody’s mom died offscreen how would you know it was a Disney movie?
Maleficent and Frozen are the only two popular movies I can think of that turn the Villains Are Evil trope completely around and show us whole people who are hurting and sometimes lash out. I loved that. I loved that it ended up being about how you can come to profoundly regret a past action, but still make it right (in a way) and be a good person. That’s a really powerful message for kids to see. For adults too.
It wasn’t perfect, but it got it so much better than the majority of the crap out there. I hope this is a sign of a continued new direction.
That’s exactly how I feel about it – there’s plenty to critique about the story, but the movie got so much right that it was thrilling to see and hopefully an indication of the direction we’re moving in. And I agree about the effectiveness of the way they turned the trope around – Maleficent’s redemption felt true and earned, and it was really about her and Aurora and how they saved each other, and I just really loved that. It felt powerful and real to me.
1. “Why Not Say What Happened?” is an incredible title for a book, and I may buy it based on that alone, without knowing anything about its content.
2. GAME OF THRONES. I was chewing on my arm out of anxiety for the entire last half of the episode.
I watched Game of Thrones this morning. After -that- scene two weeks ago I realized watching it late was not going to help my sleep schedule.
That Frozen song!
We are in Croatia visiting family and we heard a little Croatian girl singing that song, so it is world wide. But also, when we heard it, my 5 year-old said that she was sick of that song. Do you know how many times it takes for a 5 year-old to get sick of a song? I had not know it was possible until that point. Please, please make it stop.
In Frozen, I don’t think she willingly gave up that castle… she was DRAGGED out from it. Ugh. The more I thought about the movie, the less I liked…lots of issues with consent!
Yes – can we talk about how it was actually kinda great when the parents died because they were horrible abusive assholes who imprisoned her daughter and made her hate herself? Good riddance.
RE: OITNB reality vs. fiction perspectives and doin’ time, here’s an interview with the ‘real’ Alex Vause character inspiration :http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-real-alex
ALSO WOW finished the second season last night. I will be counting down til thursday’s charts.
I finished it last night, too! Miss Rosa FTW!
I can’t WAIT for the next series, but this one was seriously great.
That facebook thing is not limited to babies, it also covers shitty bands, shitty events and any other self promotion. Rely on the news feed, people!
I defriended several people for repeatedly inviting me to shit. 1. I haven’t spoken to you since we were in high school together. 2. I live in another country. 3. I didn’t like you then. 4. Nor would I like your shitty band now. Stop inviting me to hear you play at Shitty Local Bar #34, dude.
Ditto for the girl I knew in middle school who kept inviting me to plays at her JCC, the dude from elementary who repeatedly put on “concerts” at some studio in New York, and a guy from high school who invited me to his dance shows in Iowa. STOP INVITING EVERYONE ON YOUR FRIENDS LIST, IT IS A HORRIBLE THING TO DO.
I once had a guy grab a phone out of my hands to invite every last one of my Facebook friends to his shitty event
I’d known this guy for all of like twelve minutes
UGH
Tag me in ALL THE PHOTOS. I have a sneaking suspicion that being tagged as a random set of pixels in a million pictures of babies/album covers/event promos will someday be our only way to undermine facial recognition software.
Or at least anyone trying to spy on me will have to weed through the same obnoxious ugly babies that I do. That’ll show ’em.
I informed my partner fairly early in my relationship that I didn’t care whether or not he wanted to take my last name if we made it official, but if we did wind up in a position to give a last name to a tiny human, we would be using my super-common one rather than his super-rare one. Because it seems like in the internet era, having a super-common name is one of the greatest gifts we can give to new human beings (or ourselves; I still can’t find myself on Google).
But your method takes that to another level, and I whole-heartedly approve.
I have a confession to make. I not seen Frozen. I have not heard “Let It Go”.
When it comes up in conversation I just nod like I know what people are talking about. I’ve been meaning to, like, watch a youtube clip of the song or something but I keep forgetting and now it’s been so long that maybe it’ll just blow over, right?
I mean, it came out in November, so it will eventually blow over, right?
It seems like we get the Disney super-powerhouse movie about once every two decades; are any of the parents who are suffering through this outburst the same ones who obsessed about Lion King for two years straight?
I will join you! People do keep asking me why I’ve not seen it and I remind them I’m a 36 year old spinster and why on earth would I. (I haven’t seen the Lion King either.)
Thanks for the Great Granny Webster tip!
(Who in their right mind puts Philip Larkin on a prize panel? I don’t believe the man voted ‘yes’ in his entire life.)
Also re: Baby photos and being tagged therein: I think you have every right to untag yourself and comment as follows “Didn’t see myself in the photo so I untagged myself, but cute baby BTW” and then unfriend the person.
“This photo looks nothing like me, are you sure you remember last night right?”
Guys I don’t have a TV and I’m SO WORRIED that the online streams are going to get overloaded during the US-Ghana game today and I will actually die
Is there a local bar showing the match that you could go to? I am trying to decide if I am going to attempt to avoid all forms of media while I am in class or skip class and watch the match.
There are a few places in town that have been showing all the games, but their setups all kinda suck and also when I went somewhere for a game the other day, their TV broke halfway through! Now I’m just antsy and paranoid.
Skip class and hang out on Toast Soccer Twitter instead!!!
“he was clutching her portrait when he died” This is as it should be – break their hearts, Lady Caroline!
I can’t wait until we’re allowed to talk about Orange is the New Black! But I have to say, one of the ways I can enjoy it so much is by remembering that it’s realistic fiction, not a realistic depiction. I don’t know much about prison but the show says worlds about patriarchy and race- and class-based oppression, and I think that’s great.
My dislike of being tagged in a photo just because you want me to see it is closely followed by being tagged in a status update just because you want me to weigh in on it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind when people (including myself!) tag two or three people because you’re asking a question that they are particularly equipped to answer or because they can confirm some unbelievable thing you’re claiming. But tagging as many people as Facebook allows in a post about your spiritual journey? Are we all supposed to clamor in praise and support?
I leave for vacation at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning. Maybe I’ll just obssessively refresh the Toast from the car (ETA: I’m not driving). I don’t even know where to start a discussion of S02, though, because what is there to say besides “Best misandry television EV3R”?
Although I do kinda have thoughts on Vee. The small nitpicks seem barely worth mentioning, due to otherwise amazingness.
I can't wait until we're allowed to talk about Orange is the New Black! But I have to say, one of the ways I can enjoy it so much is by remembering that it's realistic fiction, not a realistic depiction. I don't know much about prison but the show says worlds about patriarchy and race- and class-based oppression, and I think that's great.
My dislike of being tagged in a photo just because you want me to see it is closely followed by being tagged in a status update just because you want me to weigh in on it. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind when people (including myself!) tag two or three people because you're asking a question that they are particularly equipped to answer or because they can confirm some unbelievable thing you're claiming. But tagging as many people as Facebook allows in a post about your spiritual journey? Are we all supposed to clamor in praise and support?
I'm actually finishing up my first trimester — I think post-natal depression is my #1 worst fear about giving birth (besides having an unhealthy child). Ripping, tearing, stretch marks, c-section, fine. Brain being taken over, not feeling love for my baby, urges to kill, NOT FINE. Not fine at all.
Also maternity care in the US in general is abominable and reading articles like this, that showcase the total lack of proper care or support for new moms, make me really frustrated.
The only time I am ok with being tagged in a photo that isn’t actually a photo of myself is if it’s my niece. Simply because she’s the coolest. She’s also kind of a mini-me. Not trying to say I’m the coolest – but she definitely is. Speaking of which – has anyone ever noticed that it seems like nieces and nephews sometimes take after their aunts and uncles a lot more than their parents?
Is this an appropriate place to talk about how I almost got arrested on my 21st birthday for unwitting accessory to drug dealing? Every time I see discussion of OITNB I breathe a sigh of relief for what was apparently the most inept sniffer dog in the history of sniffer dogs… and a bigger sigh of relief for my friend who narrowly dodged a drug accessory bullet like 50 times over the course of her relationship with a guy she did not know was a drug dealer.
I have a good friend who has a long off-and-on history with depression, and just celebrated her son's first birthday. She sat down with her doctor and husband while she was pregnant, and made detailed plans about "what if" she starts to suffer, and how her support system can be available for her and aware of her mental state. She did great! I think having plans in place, as well as supportive family/friends, are key.
Game of Thrones!! It was heartwrenching to see the initial fascination and adolation Arya was sending towards Brienne for being a woman in armor with a big fucking sword. Sword ladies!!!
I knew what was going to happen next but I would love an AU where Arya goes around and pretty much squires herself for Brienne.
that was definitely one of my top 5 favorite things in this episode! I was totally hoping they would join forces, righting wrongs in Westeros, with Podrick being a squire.
Yeah. It makes sense for Arya to give her the side-eye after her connection to Jamie was revealed, but.. *siggggh*
I would watch that. I also am going to miss The Misadventures of Brienne and Pod when they’re done adventuring. I had so many feels about this season, which makes last night’s finale feel almost…anticlimactic?
Same here, but I wonder how that storyline is going to work next season..
I’m hoping they’ll bring it back on track at the beginning of next season. Their storyline for the season didn’t end at the place I thought it would.
Ditto, and I’m thinking that it’ll be brought on track next season as well. However, D&D has shown that they don’t really care about staying true to the smaller details of the book, so who knows what will happen next?!?
It’s both exhilarating and terrifying for me as a book reader. 😀
Game of Thrones!! It was heartwrenching to see the initial fascination and adolation Arya was sending towards Brienne for being a woman in armor with a big fucking sword. Sword ladies!!!
I knew what was going to happen next but I would love an AU where Arya goes around and pretty much squires herself for Brienne.
That takedown of Frozen was not without value, but for me it was How It Should Have Ended’s take that was 100% the critique I needed: no character makes very sensible decisions in that movie, but the parents’ insistence that the response to fear-based magic was to lock a child away from the world for decades and teach her to fear and hide her powers is really just the dumbest, least-sensical thing ever.
I could talk about Maleficent allllllll dayyyyyyyy. Those of you who haven’t seen it, do you know what the moral is? “Men make pretty good servants, but are otherwise superfluous at best, destructive at worst.”
THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION.
Also, Sam Riley isn’t quite my type normally, but I was really into the way he was styled in the movie. So, Crow Man could get it IMO.
“Go ahead, turn me into a crow again,” he pouted dejectedly, “Or any other sort of creature you want.”
And Reader, she did, just to shut him up.
And she lived happily ever after.
For any and all interested parties, I can independently confirm that this is, indeed, literally the moral of this movie, and it is glorious.
I deleted my Facebook like 4 years ago, and finally made a new one because I’m trying to make friends and EVERYONE asks what my Facebook is. Fine. FINE.
I looked at it once this morning and I hate it already.
Ugh. I deactivated my Facebook account last fall, and while I kind of want to reactivate it to keep in touch and see baby pictures and whatnot, I am dreading doing it.
I half-like, half-resent FB, but for me the key has been keeping it really, really small. I have maybe 100 FB friends, every single one of them people I feel connected to. My metric is “If I saw this person across a busy street, would I cross the street to chat with them?” If the answer is no, I don’t add them. It’s worked very well for me.
I deleted my Facebook account years ago because (a) I hated getting friend requests from randos (b) I was mortified to see pictures of me in other Facebook accounts (c) getting “poked” was annoying and (d) nobody had anything interesting to say, myself included. If I want important info, I’ll email you, ‘kay?
Yet, that said, I did open another account strictly to access my backcountry horsemen’s club Facebook page (that I suggested we create to better meet online members’ needs re: ride notifications, etc.) but I haven’t looked at it once.
Facebook is great for keeping updated on which of your friends are comprehensively terrible beneath the mask of their day-to-day pleasantness, if that is a thing you wish to discover.
The Bergy Bits quote Frozen and Dimples knows all the words to the songs and they calm down with the soundtrack in the car and they nap after watching the movie on TV. This is all I need to know.
the movie was great i just think she should have murdered everyone and stayed in her ice palace instead of having friends
If she’s being honest in the reprise of “For the First Time in Forever,” then she was perfectly content there. I concede this point.
ARG I’m getting sent to ads again when I click on Link Roundup on the homepage (TD Canada Trust this time – cars ads last time). Both Link Roundup and Read More sent me there, and yes I waited until the page finished loading before I clicked. Can anyone tell me if this is a site thing or is it my browser?
Ew, I got one for BC Tourism; glad to know it’s not just me. If it helps any, Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba explains why those ads pop up (it’s not the site, but malware ads tacked onto the site’s legit ads. Supposedly they are nearly impossible to eradicate).
Thanks, that’s good to know!
Okay, I really liked the August Wilson interview, but I didn’t realise it was from 1999. I spent a good five minutes going ‘hang on, didn’t he die some years ago? I thought he did because I picked up a bunch of his plays from my college library to read after I found out. He did, right?’.
That was a lot more confusion than I was planning on having today. But! it was still a great interview.
The Paris Review has been looking into hiring necromancers for interviewing dead authors, this was just a test run. Sorry didn’t make that clear!
This weekend, I met the couple who wrote “Let it Go.” They seemed very nice, and I did not address the male half as “Mr. EGOT,” which to be honest, I was a little worried I might do.
Lady Caroline blackwood is everything.