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That Girl, Plural

3/31/2023

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A WRITER'S WIT
How did I know I was gay? When I slept with her, I had me on my mind. When I slept with him, I had him on my mind.
​​Jon-Henri Damski
American Essayist and Columnist
​Born March 31, 1937
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J. Damski

My Book World

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Lehman, Elizabeth J. Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture. Lawrence: U Press of Kansas, 2011.

Lehman centers her book around five topics: 1) how cinema treats women in the early 1960s; 2) how young women navigate leaving home in the late 1960s; 3) single women in the early 1970s sitcoms; 4) working women in 1970s action series; and last, single women dealing with sexual aggression in 1970s film. All throughout, Lehman draws from 1960s and 1970s film and television shows to explore these topics of popular culture. For example, she draws on character Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to demonstrate how, with careful tinkering by writers and directors, Mary walks a fine line between keeping her sex life on the down low and yet confronting her boss about why she is paid less than the man who has preceded her as producer of the news. But though the author’s analysis may seem like a TV Guide description at times, she uses television and film to demonstrate how US women transition from the world of their mothers and grandmothers to the mid-century world of marked change for the lives of women. In the latter part, she utilizes a book/film like Looking for Mr. Goodbar to explore how women seeking an active sex life messes with the heads of young men raised like their fathers, how such men can turn violent because they’re no longer in charge of such a negotiation. An interesting read for younger people to see how far (or not) American culture has advanced during the early twenty-first century.

​Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marguerite Duras

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Charles Cumming
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margarita Simonyan 
FRI: My Book World | Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot

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A Writer's Wit: Anna Sewell

3/30/2023

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There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.
​Anna Sewell
Author of ​Black Beauty
​Born March 30, 1820
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A. Sewell
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Lehman's ​Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marguerite Duras
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Charles Cumming
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Margarita Simonyan
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A Writer's Wit: Lara Logan

3/29/2023

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Seeing death is not as difficult as you might think. What's harder is to see people suffer. It's the people the dead left behind that get to you.
​Lara Logan
Television and Radio Journalist
​Born March 29, 1971
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L. Logan
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Sewell
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Lehman's Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture
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A Writer's Wit: Bennett Madison

3/28/2023

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The minute you think you’re safe is the same minute you’re fucked. [From September Girls]

Bennett Madison
Author of I Hate Valentine's Day
Born March 28, 1981
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B. Madison
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lara Logan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Sewell
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Lehman's Those Girls: 
Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture
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Woman of Many Mansions

3/24/2023

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
The barb in the arrow of childhood suffering is this: its intense loneliness, its intense ignorance.
​Olive Schreiner
Author of Woman and Labour
​Born March 24, 1855
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O. Schreiner

My Book World

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Dedman, Bill and Paul Clark Newell, Junior. Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. New York: Ballantine, 2013.

W. A. Grant builds a mining empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, leaving his heirs quite wealthy. The youngest daughter by his second wife, Huguette Clark, makes good use of her inheritance in any number of ways. She schools herself about the things she loves: Japanese art, painting, and more. Though she commits some errors, such as marrying and then having the union annulled in a very short time, she is a prudent woman. She may be plagued, however, with one of the maladies of inherited wealth, which is a certain guilt at receiving so much for having done so little to “earn” it. As a result she seems quite generous with those she loves and trusts, almost to a fault. All someone must do is drop a hint about being short of money for some project or an upcoming bill, and she grabs her checkbook.
With that kind of naivete, she winds up trusting a crook as her money manager. In the end he bilks her out of millions, or attempts to. After Huguette dies at the age of 104, nineteen mostly distant relatives go to court to contest Huguette’s will, which leaves much of her money to those who have worked for her for years. But after it is all done, the judge awards most of her fortune to the nineteen relatives, many of whom never even meet the woman or haven’t seen her or tried to see her since they were children.
The main thrust of the book, in any case, is that W. A. Grant and his daughter (later) have as many as five large mansions built, and she never, except as a child, ever lives in any of them. She spends most of her adult life in a 5,000-square-foot apartment on Fifth Avenue across from New York’s Central Park. Instead of selling those mansions early on, however, she maintains each one of them, whether in Santa Barbara, California, or in the New York City area. Each one is fully staffed for many decades even though no one from the family, and Huguette in particular, ever abides in them. The strangest thing about her living situation is that at some point her health becomes so bad that she must go to the hospital. Once she is there, she rather likes the company and attention she receives every day, so instead of installing a nursing staff back in her Fifth Avenue apartment, she virtually moves into Doctors’ Hospital. And there she spends much of her last twenty years of life, thus expanding the motif of empty mansions. In the end, she hasn’t lived in any of them. Her story is perhaps a cautionary tale about the hazards of inheriting a large fortune. Is it really yours? And can you ever share enough of it to assuage your guilt that you might not deserve it?

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Bennett Madison

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lara Logan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Sewell 
FRI: My Book World | 
Elizabeth J. Lehman's  Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture

A Writer's Wit: Kim Stanley Robinson

3/23/2023

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That's libertarians for you—anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
​Kim Stanley Robinson
​Author of ​The Ministry of the Future
​Born March 23, 1952
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K. Stanley Robinson
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Dedman/Clark's ​Empty Mansions

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Bennett Madison
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Lara Logan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Sewell
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A Writer's Wit: Nicholas Monsarrat

3/22/2023

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The marvelous maturity of London! I would rather be dead in this town than preening my feathers in heaven.
​Nicholas Monsarrat
Author of ​Master Mariner
​Born March 22, 1910
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N. Monsarrat
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Kim Stanley Robinson
FRI: My Book World | Dedman/Clark's ​Empty Mansions
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A Writer's Wit: Phyllis McGinley

3/21/2023

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Meek-eyed parents hasten down the ramps
To greet their offspring, terrible from camps.
​Phyllis McGinley, Poet
Author of "The Conquerer"
​Born March 21, 1905
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P. McGinley
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Nicholas Monsarrat
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Kim Stanley Robinson
FRI: My Book World | Dedman/Clark's Empty Mansions
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The Band Still PLays On and On

3/10/2023

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A WRITER'S WIT
A historian is a prophet in reverse.
​Friedrich von Schlegel
Author of Lucinde
​Born March 10, 1772
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F. von Schlegel

My Book World

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Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin’s, 1987.

I am indeed glad that I finally read this book. I tried to in 1987, but it has sat on my shelf, I think, because at the time it was just too painful. The news, what little legitimate news there was, seemed full of what Shilts calls AIDSpeak. What I failed to realize was that through his book I was reading history: the pokiness of the Reagan administration and the congress to take action: the controversy of closing gay bath houses (mostly on the coasts); the quarrel between US and French scientists over who discovered HIV first; what at the time were only hundreds of young gay men dying each week (later thousands); the religious right proclaiming we were getting our comeuppance instead of dispensing Christ-like kindness to treat our suffering. It’s all here in this book, and I, without checking my facts, believe little has changed. He got it right, got it recorded, before he himself succumbed to the disease in 1994. A hero and a journalistic master.

Coming Next:
No Posts Until March 21, 2023
TUES 3/21: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis McGinley

WEDS 3/22: A Writer's Wit | Jeffrey Nicholas Monsarrat
THURS 3/23: A Writer's Wit | Kim Stanley Robinson 
FRI 3/24: My Book World | Dedman/Clark's Empty Mansions

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A Writer's Wit: Vita Sackville-West

3/9/2023

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Women, like men, ought to have their youth so glutted with freedom they hate the very idea of freedom.
​Vita Sackville-West
Author of ​All Passion Spent
​Born March 9, 1892
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V. Sackville-West
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Randy Shilts's ​And the Band Played On

TUES 3/21: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis McGinley
WEDS 3/22: A Writer's Wit | Nicholas Monsarrat
THURS 3/23: A Writer's Wit | Kim Stanley Robinson
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A Writer's Wit: Jeffrey Eugenides

3/8/2023

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One of the reasons that art is important to me is sometimes it actually feels more coherent than life. It orders the chaos.
​Jeffrey Eugenides
Author of ​Middlesex
​Born March 8, 1960
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J. Eugenides
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Vita Sackville-West
FRI: My Book World | Randy Shilts's ​And the Band Played On
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A Writer's Wit: Elizabeth Moon

3/7/2023

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There are relatively few science fiction or fantasy books with the main character being an old person.
​Elizabeth Moon
Author of ​Speed of Dark
​Born March 7, 1945
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E. Moon
Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jeffrey Eugenides

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Vita Sackville-West
FRI: My Book World | Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On
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Architecture: Refreshing the Old, Welcoming the New

3/6/2023

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The Old Made New Again: Pioneer Pocket Hotel, a Tradition of quality

Ken and I met on Valentine's Day in 1976, and it has always served as our anniversary date. This year, on our 47th, we booked a suite at the Pioneer Pocket Hotel in downtown Lubbock.

Beginning with the hotel restaurant, the  West Table, we shared a fine, if noisy, dinner—both partaking of a fine Scarpetta Pinot Grigio and a Pan Roasted Chicken with Warm Potato Salad and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette.

Thumbnail history: the Hotel Lubbock with six floors opened in 1925-26. Five floors were added in 1929-30. In 1961, it came under new ownership and was christened the Pioneer Hotel. It was replete with Italian marble floors in the lobby; the structure featured three restaurants; and its ballroom served as a center for civic events, including TTU fraternity dances. The May 11, 1970 tornado superficially damaged the hotel, but its steel-and-concrete structure remained a fortress (much better than the former Great Plains Life Building next door). Nineteen-seventy-five saw the hotel become a retirement center for people with low or fixed incomes and remained that way till the mid-1990s. It closed because the owners could not afford to make mandated changes in plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. It sat empty, boarded up for nearly a decade until the McDougal Companies bought it and converted the hotel into as many as twenty-five condos, some as large as 2,800 square feet. It opened in 2012, and in 2018, the third-floor spaces were converted into ten pocket hotel rooms or suites. It is difficult to pin down the term, but pocket hotels may have begun in Japan. The Pioneer Pocket Hotel features a "staffless" status. Clients book and pay online. On the day of arrival, they receive a text with door codes, and voila, there you are—ready to enjoy your stay fully stocked with fresh sheets, towel service, bottled water, and more. Our suite featured a TV in each room, but we didn't watch much.

​Ken and I enjoyed our one-night stay—an evening free from cooking—and will certainly consider staying again. It would make a great place for an overflow of guests in your own home! Note the gallery of photos directly below.

The New rises from a Cherished Musician's Legacy

On February 20, as an extension of our anniversary celebration, Ken and I booked two tickets for the Czech Filharmonie Brno, established in the 1870s; the orchestra performed in Helen DeVitt Theater of the Buddy Holly Hall which opened in 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning. The program, as is typical of the Brno orchestra, features an all-Czech program, including Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta and Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 in G Major. Buddy Holly Hall's Helen DeVitt Jones Theater seats around 2,300 persons by way of orchestra and dress circle seats on the main floor, and three balconies: the mezzanine, grand tier, and balcony levels. A smaller theater can accommodate lesser audiences. I can't wait to see an opera in the venue because that's certainly what it feels like to be there! Note photos below.
See Buddy Holly Hall | Helen Devitt Jones Theater for Upcoming Performances, Pop and Classical
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Lahiri: Among the Best

3/3/2023

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A WRITER'S WIT
I was raised in Catholic school where we were given a lot of heavy literature and a dense, weighty lyric wasn't strange to me.
​​Jennifer Warnes,  Songwriter
Author of "Right Time of the Night"
Born March 3, 1947
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J. Warnes

My Book World

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth. New York: Knopf, 2008.

These are eight long stories that are reminiscent of Alice Munro’s long stories in that Lahiri seems to tell an entire lifetime in one. She neither leaves much out, nor does she include too much. Each word, each sentence, fits into each paragraph, each section, to make a complete and satisfying story. Her characters have depth, sometimes taking readers in surprising directions—in the same way that actual human beings can surprise us in our own lives. I tried to read each story in one sitting because quitting before it is done is like leaving a banquet after one or two courses. I admire her work for its craft and its deeply conveyed emotions.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Moon

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jeffrey Eugenides
THURS: A Writer's Wit |Vita Sackville-West
FRI: My Book World | Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On

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A Writer's Wit: Matt Taibbi

3/2/2023

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The moral angle to the foreclosure crisis—and, of course, in capitalism we're not supposed to be concerned with the moral stuff, but let's mention it anyway—shows a culture that is slowly giving in to a futuristic nightmare ideology of computerized greed and unchecked financial violence.
​Matt Taibbi
Author of The Divide
Born March 2, 1970
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M. Taibbi
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Jhumpa Lahiri's ​Unaccustomed Earth

TUES: A Writer's Wit | Elizabeth Moon
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jeffrey Eugenides
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Vita Sackville-West
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A Writer's Wit: Robert Lowell

3/1/2023

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No use describing Yaddo—rundown rose gardens, rotting cantaloupes, fountains, a bust of Dante with a hole in the head, sets called Gems of Ancient Literature, Masterpieces of the World, cracking, dried up sets of Shakespeare, Ruskin, Balzac, Reminiscences of a Happy Life (the title of two different books), pseudo Poussins, pseudo Titians, pseudo Reynolds, pseudo and real English wood, portraits of the patroness, her husband, her lover, her children lit with tubular lights, like a church, like a museum . . . [from a letter to poet, Elizabeth Bishop]
​Robert Lowell,  Poet
Author of ​Life Studies
​Born March 1, 1917
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R. Lowell
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Matt Taibbi
FRI: My Book World | Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth
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    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

    See my profile at Author Central:
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