Mighty Girl » excerpts

Mortality, the Blog

Maggeh — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:10:49 +0000

This is the skull of a suspected vampire.

“At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by ‘vampires’ which, rather than drinking people’s blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them from doing this.”

Huh. I found her on Legacy Matters, a fascinating blog that’s mostly about death.

The link above is to the site’s “No Way to Go” section, which is worth a look, my friends. Here’s a Roald Dahlian photo of a priest who floated away with a bunch of helium balloons and was never found.

Given some of the more choice examples in the “No Way to Go” section, this one is looking like an unequivocally excellent way to go.

I prefer to think he just floated right on up, no waiting.

Pity the Fool, a Quotation

Maggeh — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:52:45 +0000

From a A Cup of Joe:

“I must learn to love the fool in me–the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.” — Theodore I. Rubin, MD

The Believer

Maggeh — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:23 +0000

“Attempts to flee from yourself are useless.” – Paul Auster

(via Sarah)

GOOD MAGAZINE

Maggeh — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:48:20 +0000

If you were next to me when I was reading this week’s The Week, these are the parts I would have read to you out loud:

-Car deaths rise 18 percent on election days in The States. So maybe mail-in ballots this year.

-Ottawa is looking to pass a law that would protect people who apologize from being sued. More apologies for everyone!

-Poland may become the first country to chemically castrate pedophiles.

-A Zimbabwean soccer team took a ritual-cleansing dip in a crocodile-infested river, and one of them didn’t come back out.

-Hooman Majd, who has often translated for Iranian President Mahmud Amadenijad, says Amadenijad never said there are no gay people in Iran. Instead, he said Iran has no openly gay culture.

-Doctors are trying to help Erik Ramsey speak again. Ramsey’s body is completely paralyzed, and doctors have implanted wires in his brain that can read brain signals, which computers can then translate into speech. Rad.

Mighty Love: Nothing But Bonfires

Maggeh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:00:22 +0000

Nothing But Bonfires is written by travel writer Holly Burns, who grew up all over the globe and landed here in San Francisco. We met at Blogher, during the Mighty Haus launch party, and I was too wine-soaked to insist that she sit down and relay her entire life story. Check out her about page first, as her life story is a good one. An excerpt:

“My favorite piece of punctuation is the parentheses, with the semi-colon taking a close second. Things I like include: oatmeal, going to the library, gold shoes, the word “brouhaha,” Trader Joe’s, beauty products with clever names, reliving scenes from My So Called Life in my head, black licorice, the page in Us Weekly where they say “Stars: They’re Just Like Us” and then show them looking zitty and doing laundry, San Pellegrino, Target, Mark Ruffalo, when people say things like “um, clean up in aisle three from all the names you just dropped,” German accents, free samples, people who can drive stick, hydrangeas, when the phone rings in the middle of the night and it’s just a wrong number and NOT someone on the other side of the world dying, men in pink shirts, and Nigella Lawson.“

Mighty Love: Zulkey

Maggeh — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:07:02 +0000

Zulkey is a thinky humor site, and I met Claire Zulkey years ago at SxSW. It turns out she’s still smart, and funny, and good at getting it all down on paper. An excerpt.

“Things I Have Learned About Vegetable-Matter-Based Packing Peanuts

1) They can be dissolved and thus washed down the drain

2) They taste like Pirate’s Booty

3) Demonstrating how I learned this makes people uncomfortable.“

Mighty Love: A Cup of Tea and a Wheat Penny

Maggeh — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:00:48 +0000

I met Zan at the Mighty Haus launch party, and I wish I’d had more time to get to know her while she was in town. She writes over at A Cup of Tea and a Wheat Penny and lives in New York. An excerpt from her site:

“They’re all readers down here in the tunnels, just like up on the buses. Only here they turn the pages faster.

An older couple embarks; the woman finds a seat. I stand to offer the man my seat, and he politely waves me back down.

‘You sit. You’d better finish your coffee, before you spill it.’

‘Sir, I’m not allowed to drink coffee on the train. You’re not even supposed to know I have it.’

A girl pulls a notebook hurriedly from her handbag, as if the thought might fly from her mind before she has a chance to capture it in its perfectly formed newborn state. She clicks open her pen and writes:

‘Download RADIOHEAD!!!’

With two underscores.“

What’s Yours

Maggeh — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:07:42 +0000

Poem from the May 12 New Yorker:

One Can Miss Mountains

and pine. One

can dismiss
a whisper’s

revelations
and go on as

before as if
everything were

perfectly fine.
One does. One

loses wonder
among stores

of things.
One can even miss

the basso boom
of the ocean’s

rumpus room
and its rhythm.

A man can leave
this earth

and take nothing
–not even

longing–along
with him.

–Todd Boss

Worth Repeating

Maggeh — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:24:22 +0000

Catching up on a year’s worth of old magazine subscriptions. Some snips:

Julie Morgenstern in O Magazine — “If I ran out of time today, what would be the one thing that, completed, would give me the greatest sense of accomplishment and contribution?”

New Yorker Mar. 20 article “Pretty Things,” about Hedi Silmane models — “They seemed in imminent danger of getting laid.”

Dave Grohl in Esquire Nov. 2007 — “Anybody who has to focus on being real has a problem. It’s like having a panic attack over how you’re prone to panic attacks.”

Do Your Own Thing

Maggeh — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:54:05 +0000

I’m still reading the comments from my 100 Things to do Before I Go posts. The best one so far is from Claire, who says:

“…the direct result of you writing this excellent list is me quitting my stupid, stupid admin job and heading to uni to study nursing at the ripe old age of 27. Thanks Maggie â€¦ I really needed this!!! Reading your list and seeing all the fabulous things you would get up to got my bum into gear to start living my life too.â€¨xx”

Well done, Claire. Go! Go! Go!

Here are some ideas that intrigued me from the lists you posted on your sites. I like the way they all sound together:

Sarcomical
show photos in a gallery
participate in a humanitarian mission in another country
have a rose garden
Daaydreaming
22. Find my best friends from growing up .. Maria Salas, and Phillip Avila
29. Be debt free
41. Learn to accept that I will always need meds for my depression
This Happy Home
1. own a store with big display windows.
12. embroider a self portrait.
24. make my own wine.
Writing to Sanity
12. Do not go online for 3 consecutive days
61. See an author read from his or her work
73. Learn the correct way to hold and shoot a gun
The Littlest Tree Hugger
7. Learn Spanish, French, Arabic and conversational Japanese
12. Help put my niece thru college (if she wants to go)
25. Keep a goldfish for longer than a month
The Fray
1. See sloths in Costa Rica.
5. Live off the food in the kitchen (a la Laura) for one month
11. Spelunk.
Lucky Magpie
28. Find out the real name of my biological father
49. Do something to get into the Guinness Book of World Records
72. Have part of my income come from something internet related
Esmon.net
1. Make my own cream soda.
6. Spend a night on a train.
19. Build and furnish a dollhouse.
More Kisses Please
3. ride a giraffe
13. spend a night in the room Janis Joplin died in
16. pay someone’s rent for the month
The Nonhipster Mom
7. Make really great marinara sauce.
12. Stop being mad at my parents.
19. Make puff pastry from scratch.
Scarlet Words
23 Build a time capsule
24 Read the dictionary from beginning to end
73 Have my dogâ€™s teeth cleaned
The Metamorph
8. Own a Victorian style home, complete with claw-foot tub, window seat, and sparkling crystal chandelier.
14. Learn to sing again.
24. Stay a night in Draculaâ€™s Castle.
Spandrel Studios
3. Have tea at the Plaza
8. Design the perfect jacket
9. Flip an egg in a pan