2008

reasons i want to live in berlin...

So safe here.  Never feel like am racing rapists/muggers/murderers/thugs to my apartment door. ...

I’m actually very sad that I won’t get to see Sex and the City with my girlfriends. ...

all the sad young gossip girls

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“I hear you were treated for breast cancer in 2006. I had a...”
— “Questions for Cynthia...

how to be a modern gentleman

How to be a (modern) gentleman 1. Some things don’t change: say please and thank you and ask...

Happy birthday to my wonderful father, a man who has survived hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a...

Reading at Tryst this afternoon I started making a list of various sites I’d like to visit...

Final stop at my place on Friday’s progressive dinner...

darwin award winner since 2008

I spent the entire day panicked that I’d deleted a crucial folder in my office’s shared...

OMG CENTER STAGE 2

ten of our favorite commencement speeches

There is a story by Julio Cortázar, “House Taken Over,” in...

journeys to foreign lands

Last night I went to Georgetown for the first time since a very goal-oriented Christmas shopping...

God, but I love the Daily Mail.

things that are younger than john mccain

i wish i knew people with small children to...

on cnn's coverage of the west virginia...

M: they've basically been like "well who really knows if they were sober when they voted. the whole state is fucked up on oxycontin and moonshine. half the voters had to stop fornicating with a sibling for an hour to drive their broken down cars to a dilapidated shack and drop a bean in a glass jar -- that's the state standard for polling places..."

I’m recovered enough now to appreciate how awesome...

“Cetinje: visit the medieval capital high in the mountains...”
— Suggested day trips from a...

“Our analysis also shows that Millennials mostly reject the...”
— “The Progressive...

Lots of freaking out about the summer going on over here. ...

a series of my friends' facebook status...

L.R. HATES the rain M.R. trying to decide which I hate more right now, rain or Nissan Pavillion J.P....

Outtakes

alexbalk: Did you know that when Williams composes a score he comes up with lyrics in his head...

I have said it before and will say it again: this town is too. Damn. Small.

nationals book it after foul ball...

Going to The Source tonight with Lemmonex and Betty Joan. Have to get in good girl time before...

the most horrifying craftsperson on etsy

Josh Brolin as George W. Bush. Who knows how the movie will...

broadway musical closes after one...

Feeling guilty for reading an of-the-moment book I know will annoy me when I have untouched...

“After the age of about thirty they abandon individual...”
— George Orwell, Why I Write

“The generation gap in voting is a question not just of...”
— James Poniewozik

I would love to be one of those people who can be happy...

Two thousand words until I’m done with this never-ending, unceasing, terribly frustrating,...

cats that look like wilford brimley

not the association disney was going...

So I stumble out of there in last night's LBD, my hair all weird and messed-up, no sunglasses so I'm squinting into the sun, and who should I pass but a bunch of hearty-looking women on the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Compared to them I looked like-
Miley Cyrus?

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According to the British tabloid The Sun, The Sound of Music was selected by BBC executives as one...

Rich-Joseph Facun, Dads Return Home from Deploment, Virginia...

damnit! why is everyone stealing from my...

On my way to a meeting for my Berlin class.  Holy crap, I leave in three weeks!

no "mami" or "baby" involved

A guy on the Metro today told me I had very nice hair.  That, friends, is how you holla at a lady. 

celebzaredum: Patriotic PDA with Spencer and Heidi Doin’...

where to dine before i leave

Lounge at The SourceBrunch at Red DerbyNew Haven-style slice at Pete’s ApizzaOysters and wine...

"if there's anything america loves more than...

dad buys 7-year-old son mike's hard lemonade,...

“The courses offered through [redacted] will fill the voids...”
— I’m still not done with...

i only write about gossip girl so much...

EJ: will you watch this episode?
Jen: i don't know how!
Jen: i'm checking if they're showing repeats
EJ: poor little j
EJ: can she find a bootleg?
EJ: or has her love affair been ruined by outside forces?
EJ: said with kristen bell singsong
Jen: *rolls eyes*
EJ: hahaha i'm totally calling you little j now
Jen: could you not?
Jen: haha
EJ: spotted
EJ: little jenny h
EJ: dabbling in postgraduate life
EJ: can she handle the real world?
Jen: i don't like where this is heading
EJ: or will her stumble from college make her faceplant in grant park?
Jen: i will cut you
EJ: you know you love me
EJ: XOXO!
Jen: murder.

today in Gossip Girl

my relationship to tonight’s guest stars: - nelly yuki’s ex-boyfriend went to high...

not to mention the inexplicable heath...

There are lots of gems in Leon Wieseltier’s review of Martin Amis’ new book, but here...

How did I not know Flight of the Conchords were playing across the street from my office next...

“Ms. Friedman acknowledges that, like many work-obsessed people, she is her own worst vacation...

I bought it yesterday and read the entire thing in three hours over a half-carafe of the house white...

“You can get a point across better by making people laugh...”
— Amy Poehler

“Entitled We Will Never Die, the pageant featured music by...”
— Sometimes truth is stranger...

this is why i don't have a food blog

S shared a delicious asparagus recipe that I futzed with earlier this week and am officially smitten...

Once in college I asked Al Sharpton a question at a media...

My office has become an Axis of Evil Scents.  Someone down the hall appears to be brewing a...

words and phrases that make me very...

“Synergistically influence” “I am very rare”

Lemmonex: sometimes i really think life would be easier if i had some wacked out philosophy guiding my life

why i'm leaving DC for a while, part...

Lemmonex and I just spent ten minutes discussing the decay of our respective crushes on Begala and...

“Columbia Heights” Ingredients: 1 oz scotch 1/2 oz vodka Dash of tequila Juice from several squeezed...

“I can’t think about that anymore. If I do, I’ll...”
— I’m taking the Scarlett...

NYT explores hiking in Bosnia and...

and so the judd apatow backlash begins

Dear Maureen Dowd: Please shut up.  You have nothing interesting or new to say. I find your prose...

I can’t even believe how little enthusiasm I’m mustering for the Pennsylvania primary. ...

little sister

Jen: oh, p.s. i made a tumblr
because i feel the need to copy EVERYTHING YOU DO

on his pilot for a show that's a cross...

Brad: anyway, the show would consist mostly of mutants and la trust fund girls interacting/cannibalizing each other
i think if would appeal to a very large audience
considering most people in the us either like the hills or want to see the people on the hills eaten
me: or some combination of the two
there'd be two girls sitting at some sidewalk table in LA eating pinkberry
and a mutant cannibal runs up to them and starts gnawing on one of the girls
and the other scoffs and goes "that was random"
Brad: while texting their friends "kristin totes got eaten, VOM"
me: and then the next day at teen vogue whitney would totally naturally, not at ALL like the producers make her do it, ask "so what did you do last night?"
and lauren would be all "audrina was eaten by a zombie cannibal, and brody was flirting with some skanky girl right in front of me at les deux"

So much work still to do on this one paper. So sick of school.  I just want to watch Gossip Girl and...

“Jeff and I ended up at the same bar with the bands. I...”
— Last night my little sister...

Mystery text from an unknown Denver number at 11 this morning: “So tell me u won 14 games of...

“You had to send a wrecking crew after me, I can’t walk right” 

Who are these 73 women and what on this Earth has made them...

This shoe hurts my soul. 

“Love is hiding who you really are at all times Even when...”
—  Jenna Maroney

standards

mmmm, att giving iphone user 2 free hours of internet per day at starbucks
i won't actually go in to starbucks
but i will use their tasty internet when i need to download gigabytes of man-boy-goat porn

Bought myself some toys today.  Nothing too big, just four weeks worth of language classes in Munich...

“The honing I have been doing in both my research and writing...”
— I am not even a third done...

Putin to marry 24-year-old rhythmic gymnast

Helen Mirren always seems to be having the most fun. 

The most active thing I’ve done today is Googling “chronic fatigue syndrome.” Oh,...

Just got totally awesome news for this fall.  I’m  beyond excited.  It’s all coming...

“Clinton’s argument assumes that “regular”...”
— Eugene Robinson

Listen

Free last-minute ticket to sold-out New Pornographers/Okkervil River show!  Lisa, I adore you.

I’m goofily smitten with Colin Meloy for his glasses, his voice, and the new material he...

I am not especially proud of the fact that I told a Red Top Cab dispatcher to go fuck himself.  But...

history's my hobby-- get your own

He dances down the hotel steps that keep Remnants of last night’s high life and distress. As...

S: a lawyer for jesus!!! i hear the pay is shit, but the benefits are great.

goldenfiddle: LOL  Not soon enough! 

not really something to shout about

I came home after a 15-hour day yesterday to find Pepco workers preparing to shut down power on my...

“If Heathcliff were alive today, would he mention Cathy’s...”
— Essay About Questions for...

grad students funding application essay...

“At every stage of my life, my spirit has been driven by an unrelenting desire to understand...

Saw Chris Dodd on the street tonight. I was tempted to compliment him on his appearance on SNL but...

“People have a need for melody, just as they need food or...”
— Richard Rogers

“If you asked me my personal opinion, over a beer in the pub,...”
— “The Follies of Instant...

Magical three-week extension on my paper!  Bless my professor’s disorganization.  Universe, I...

My high school choir teacher used to instruct us to imagine...

times i miss having a roommate

When needing a witness to confirm that the preseasoned steak I’m cooking for dinner smells...

God, reading over that list I can’t believe what a Little Miss Campus I was.  The memory of...

I found this list today while looking for notes from my...

something i plan to start chanting every...

X: people can change
but you cant change people

“King sometimes gets suspended in time at the March on Washington in ‘63,” Carson...

I went to Opening Day four days ago and only now is my...

Item: Whether to go to a college roommate’s bachelorette party in New York next weekend. Pro:...

But seriously, we all agree the...

alexbalk: Co-worker: commenters on Jezebel were NOT THRILLED about the chick lit book covers. they...

“I think it will be hard for the cult members to explain the...”
— The Dilbert Blog

S: how fucking michigan that she’s wearing a damn down...

“You don’t call a paint ‘pigeon,’ you call...”
— I think the “I...

Emails from moms are the best.  Especially from my mom.

Today I am strenuously objecting to people not doing exactly what I want them to do. Also, fatty...

Listen

Jen: So, you know the basic plot.
Em: No, actually, I don't know the basic plot of the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks.
And I rather take pride in this.

Oh sure, it’s all fun and games and April Fools’...

Peep Set Me Up! 

thankful

For having the kind of relationship with my mother where we’re on the phone and I interrupt...

Who still hunts down a phone number, picks up a phone, dials the number, and poses a question to a...

Today was a really good day that followed a really good weekend.  So, put that in your pipe and...

loving paul o'neill a little right now

“I feel like when she walks by, I have to watch some...”
— S