Pertinent to my Interests

Documentary reviews, body neutrality, parenting, Jupiter, piano, cats, European history, ghosts, rodents, the collapse of civilization, and if this goes on long enough I'll probably end up cataloguing my entire smushed penny collection.

Month: September 2023

  • School Picture Day

    School picture day was this week, which means in about a month we’ll receive an overpriced packet of photos and I’ll take down the old photos hanging in the kitchen and put up the new ones. I don’t want to take down last year’s school pictures in which my oldest has a cowlick, and an…

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  • Am I… not short?

    At just under five feet six inches tall, I am taller than the average woman in the United States. But I am short. I am short because I live with a tall person. And let me tell you something about tall people: they love to place things up high. If the choice is between putting…

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  • Childproofing

    One of the things that has surprised me about life with older kids is how quickly and easily our house stopped being childproof. I used to have this place totally locked down. Both kids were very curious and active. They climbed everything, opened everything, destroyed everything. It wasn’t that I loved the look of baby…

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  • Documentary Review/ McMillion$

    A six-episode deep dive into human greed. This documentary series follows the FBI’s investigation into the McDonald’s Monopoly fraud. The fraud took place starting way back in the 1990s (when I remember collecting Monopoly pieces!), but the investigation didn’t get started until the very early 2000s, when a young, hungry agent named Doug Mathews decided…

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  • Tales from School, vol. 1

    My youngest told a kid in his class that he sounded like a drunk boomer.

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  • Documentary Review/ Harley & Katya

    Heartbreaking. I somehow missed this story in the news when it happened, so went in without expectations. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this headed when one key character’s present-day interview tape is missing. Harley Windsor, from Australia, and Katya Alexandrovskaya, fromRussia, were a pairs figure skating phenomenon for a few…

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  • A priest walks into a…

    I crossed the street with a priest today and had these thoughts in this order: If I were a priest I would be constantly making up jokes because every moment of my day would be a humorous set-up. A priest, a fat lady, and a bicyclist are crossing the street… A priest walks into a…

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  • Meanwhile, in the real world…

    It occurs to me I should write about actual things that are going on in the real world, and not just the things going on in my mind. In an effort to be a fun, active mom, I took the kids to a playground after dinner on Wednesday just like all the other fun, active…

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  • Unfair Assumptions

    I get hassled for money sometimes when I’m walking around my neighborhood. Not every day, but frequently. I hate being asked for money. I lived in New York City for too long so despite being generally sympathetic towards humans who have fallen on tough times, I have zero tolerance for panhandlers and their bullshit. Now…

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  • Melted marshmallow

    During the summer my kids sometimes accompanied me to the grocery store. They took this opportunity to lobby for ridiculous cereals that I never buy (“look, this one has less sugar than oatmeal squares!”). That is the story of how I ended up with both Rainbow Krispies and Cocoa Krispies in my cupboard. You should…

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