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Old Chicago Culinary Institute Cookbook
The other day I was looking through the massive Chicago Culinary Institute cookbook I inherited from my mom. I think the cookbook’s about 50 years old. Even if a lot of the recipes are dated (um, meats gelled in aspic? Peanut butter/mayo/pickle sandwich, anyone?)it’s fun to look through. This spun sugar doesn’t look messy at…
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We Will Make Sure You Don’t Know How Beautiful You Are
Everyone’s seen the new Dove ad, right? In it, women describe themselves to a police sketch artist, who draws them without seeing them. Then, other people who have actually met the women describe her to the artist. The sketches are notably different. In the ones where women have described themselves, they end up looking like…
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Spark Anthology Arrives
I have a short story in the new Spark anthology. I mentioned it before. My friend Brian Lewis, who was at the CalArts summer school with me, founded the journal this year, as a way to showcase CSSSA grads (and others). It officially comes out tomorrow, but you can get an e-copy or preorder right…
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Grateful for Flats
Today I took Eldest to see the musical ASSASSINS at the Cygnet Theatre in Old Town. It was really good. Solid cast. We decided we liked the guy playing John Wilkes Booth the best (Booth is sort of the star anyway, the guy egging everybody else on) and also decided he is much better looking…
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Mommy Groups: The Power and the Glory
I gave Jeanine Cummins a blurb for her new novel, The Crooked Branch, which just released. It is an excellent, entertaining book, funny and dark in parts (with lots about the Irish potato famine) which everybody should immediately buy and read. You should also pick up THE OUTSIDE BOY (which I just recommended to my…
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Candy Crush Philosophy
Life is like a box of candy… There’s this game on Facebook I’ve been playing called Candy Crush. You have to line up at least 3 similar “candies” in a row to zap them away (not diagonally). Sometimes you do that and more rows fall down, unseen from above, and line up perfectly and disappear.…
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Star Trek Blanket
The day before yesterday, I dreamed we bought a sectional sofa and I bought Star Trek pillows for Cadillac. (Always old Star Trek, never Next Gen). The next day, I walked into the fabric store and saw Star Trek fleece 40% off. COINCIDENCE? It’s NEVER a coincidence. Thus, it was imperative that I make Cadillac…
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The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns: Literary Tastes Pick
I got some exciting news! I happened to glance at my phone and see that my trusty friend Sarah McCoy (author of THE BAKER’S DAUGHTER and all-around awesome lady) Tweeted that THE CARE AND HANDLING OF ROSES WITH THORNS won the American Library Association’s Best Women’s Fiction award for 2013! Every year, the Reference and User’s Association (RUSA)…
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Fifty/Fifty Challenge 2012
I participated in the Fifty/Fifty Challenge for 2012. You’re supposed to watch 50 movies and read 50 books. I used Pinterest to keep track of it. I mostly forgot about it, though, until the end of the year, when I tried to remember all the books and movies I’d seen. Whoops! I looked at my piles…
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A Medical Quibble
I really hate it when I go to the doctor’s office and fill out a million forms, and while I’m leaving and I have to make a follow-up, the admin says, “What’s your name/birthdate/phone number?” Why are those systems not linked? Didn’t I just fill out that crap out? The insurance told us to go…
MARGARET DILLOWAY 