Archive for January 2013
Storytelling coming to Connecticut! Save the date!
I’ve decided to launch a local storytelling series here in Connecticut, modeled after The Moth, the organization in New York City that hosts the storytelling events in which I compete but absent the competitive element and the random nature of the storytellers. Basically we are planning an evening of pre-selected storytellers, telling true stories onstage…
Read MoreMaking a defeat look like a win
MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND did not win the 2012 Goodreads Choice Award. Being nominated was an honor, of course, and making it to the finals was thrilling, but the book finished ninth behind such bestselling authors as JK Rowling, Junot Diaz and Emily Giffin. However, it also beat books by bestselling authors like Barbara…
Read MoreBest Christmas morning words ever spoken
It’s a little late, but I finally got around to looking at the video footage from Christmas. This was one of my favorite clips.
Read MoreIt’s ironic, damn it. Or close enough.
Anyone who criticizes Alanis Morissette’s song Ironic for its lack of irony is an intellectual douche bag. It’s a four minute pop song. It need not be held up to any literary standard. Yes, “ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife” is not ironic by the truest definition of the word, but…
Read MoreThe Wizard of Oz versus Star Wars
Late last week I “stirred up a hornet’s nest” by writing a piece arguing that the reason Hasbro markets Easy Bake Ovens solely to girls is because the vast majority of children who want an Easy Bake Oven are girls, and the company has no obligation to the minority of boys who might want one.…
Read MoreThe most baffling part about the North Korean government is their inability to lie well.
The North Korean government is obviously unlike any other governing body in the world, but what I cannot understand is why they are such bad liars. While there may be good reasons to enhance the reputation of their country and their dictator around the world, the propaganda that they promote is so ridiculous and ultimately…
Read MoreThe Flogsta Scream: Creepy and bizarre but I kind of love it.
Every night at 10:00 PM, the “Flogsta scream” can be heard in Flogsta, a neighborhood in the western outskirts of the Swedish city of Uppsala. At precisely this time, students throughout the region scream collectively from windows, balconies and roof tops. How the Flogsta scream first began is a matter of debate. Some residents claim…
Read MoreSorry, kid. Easy Bake Ovens are pink for good reason.
Around Christmas, a little girl became a momentary Internet sensation after appealing to Hasbro to make an Easy Bake Oven in a color other than pink or purple. Her brother had expressed a desire for an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas but discovered that this product only comes in pink and purple and is therefore…
Read MoreWe need a lot more of super model Cameron Russell, but not for the reasons you’d expect.
The epilogue
A reader sent this to me today. It’s a photograph of the epilogue of MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND, which creates quite a stir amongst many readers. I love it. When I finished the book, it had no epilogue. I went to bed thinking that my story was finished, but when I awoke the next…
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