Month: August 2001
Some of these men could use hand warmers, though. Clammy.
“‘Yeah, yeah. For $25, you can’t guarantee she’s not an ax murderer,’ he muttered. ‘I understand. I was married to one of those once.’”
When I spoke French at school, teachers made me kneel on hard kernels of corn
“Your average American kid grows up in Cleveland, marries a girl from Texas and settles in Kansas. Your average Cajun boy grows up in Crowley, marries a girl from Ville Platte and settles somewhere close to her mama. In Eunice. We tend not to stray so far.”
Next day: I’ve recovered from my temporary insanity. Phew.
“I’m concerned about my state of mind. I’ve been wondering what it would be like to have a kid. Picturing myself with a kid. Checking into my medication to see what risks there are. Imagining discussing the possibility with my neurologist. I’m not sure how to deal with this. Have I lost my mind? Am…
The risky life of aging writers circa 1963 New York
“Age and outmoded purity and patience may kill sometimes. Old lady writers, without means, without Social Security, reading in bed all day
For once the habit of aping your neighbors has yielded dividend
“Until recently it was a nightmarish experience entering these villages messed with excreta, with swarms of flies coating the village yards. But of late a sea of change has taken place as a result of which walking from village to village is now a pleasant experience.”
For those of you who thought ‘Bull Durham’ was a romance
“We would get back from a five-hour bus trip at four in the morning and have to pitch a tent. In the rain. Sometimes it was fun. And sometimes it was a nightmare. At the end of the year, we said, ‘At least it can’t get any lower than this. This is truly the bottom…
I like the heat. I like to sweat
“For anyone who had to be out yesterday, the heat was like a furnace that pressed down on the spirit and seemed to compress the body from all sides
AIDS: They exaggerate the figures to scare you
“1. If you drink yoghurt with banana you can be cured of AIDS. 2. If you are HIV positive and you sleep with a virgin you will be cured. 3. If you press ice on your penis after sex it will kill the virus.”
In London, any temperature over 70 is a good excuse for heat-induced rage
“I’ve noticed a general low level of pissed-offness in London. Expectations have been raised and people have a more international outlook, but they’re all working really long hours, everything is expensive, and they still look sweaty and hot and fat in their summerwear. The noise is also more intrusive here. New York is bounded by…
Surrounded by faiths, I had none at all
“Years after my mother died, I decided to read her medical records. There I thought I’d find the most precise evocation of her fate: the facts of her death, the hows and whys that stand independent of stories and dreams… Doing so wasn’t easy. At first my mother’s doctor’s office fell back on confidentiality. That…