We went to the Eagles/Jets final preseason game last night and had some hotdogs and beers.
There was an incredible sunset.
So awesome that for the first 15 minutes of the game, I exclusively photographed it.
Eventually I photographed some Eagles, too. But those stinkers lost.
The Phils pulled out a ridiculous victory though, so I’ll settle for one Philly win.
Live football = extremely fun and extremely difficult to pay attention to.
Hmm. OK.
The lead (or, as most hard core newsies will spell it, the lede) is the most important part of an article.
The lede is “the introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story.” So, you can guess why it’s so crucial.
I took only a few journalism courses in my undergraduate career, but here are the things I will always remember:
- Don’t misspell someone’s name. Ever. It will end your career.
- The lede is the most important sentence you write.
- The AP Style Guide is your Bible.
- Never write “over” when you mean “more than.”
- Writing a good article is harder than you think.
I was perusing the New York Times this morning and read this hilariously awesome lede:
The last of the tomatoes are coming in now, wide and cracked, heavy with the captured humidity of passing summer, each one a Neruda poem shedding its own light, benign majesty. It is time to eat them, these sunsets of the season, then put away our flip-flops and face the fall.
C’mon, that is a beautiful lede! A little dramatic but so perfectly encapsulating of this time of year. Just ask my mother and father — these are the last tomatoes and there is a certain sadness that comes with eating them. They taste less like sunshine and more like…fall.
Then I read an article about bedbugs that both frightened and entertained me. I laughed out loud and said “wtf” multiple times…mainly because the bedbug researchers are so weird, but also because of the author’s tone when describing them.
The classic bedbug strain that all newly caught bugs are compared against is a colony originally from Fort Dix, N.J., that a researcher kept alive for 30 years by letting it feed on him.
But Stephen A. Kells, a University of Minnesota entomologist, said he “prefers not to play with that risk.” He feeds his bugs expired blood-bank blood through parafilm, which he describes as “waxy Saran Wrap.”
Coby Schal of North Carolina State said he formerly used condoms filled with rabbit blood, but switched to parafilm because his condom budget raised eyebrows with university auditors.
Mmm, anyone disgusted yet?
The reasonable course, Dr. Goddard said, is to recognize that we are, in effect, back in the 1920s “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” era. People should be aware, but not panicky. However, he added, “I don’t even know what to say about them being in theaters. That’s kind of spooky.”
Well, he was asked — can you feel them bite?
“No,” he said. “If I put them on my arm and close my eyes, I never feel them. But I once got my children to put them on my face, and I did. Maybe there are more nerve endings.”
Why in the world, he was asked, would he ask kids to do that?
“Oh, you know,” he said. “Bug people are crazy.”
Affirmative. (It’s a good article, though, you should read it — did you know that bedbugs, no matter what virus or disease you feed them, are “clean?”)
And then, I read this article, about Virgin’s new MiFi service, which completely and utterly convinced me that I do not need Internet service in my new apartment in New York, I just need this thing — my own personal, protected wireless bubble, with no contract, unlimited, and for $40 a month. I can take the network with me when I leave the house (in my pocket, of course, it’s the size of a credit card) to work from a library, a coffeeshop, or stupid Panera and its wireless restrictions.
This is awesome. This little thing connects to the 3G network out there and converts it to wireless for you. I’m totally sold. Screw you, Comcast!
Thanks, NYT, for some excellent coffee reading and as always, good journalism.
I’ll go to the beach every day during Earl to show you what’s up.
Wednesday:
Hmmmm…..what hurricane?
Would you believe it? This is my 700th post.
700. In one year. You can do the math.
How exciting! I wouldn’t be where I am a year later if it weren’t for my devoted readers. Those of you who have read from the very beginning, always supporting me and commenting on my blog to make me feel special, people who commented and insulted me, people who read but didn’t comment….every person who has ever visited the blog. Thank you, thank you, for helping this become such an amazing hobby for me and for letting me share my nonsense with you.
To thank my readers, I’m going to have a little giveaway. I’m going to give away two things:
1. A $20 gift card to Amazon.com, so you can buy yourself a fun book or use it toward a pair of shoes, or whatever; or
2. The entire collection of the Single Girl Reading List — Why Men Love Bitches; Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus; and the third book I have yet to review, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. I’ll mail it to you, free of charge.
To enter: All you have to do is comment on this post. Tell me which you’d like to win, tell me what you’re doing for Labor Day, tell me a recipe you’ve tried lately, or just write your name five times. I don’t care! Just comment.
I’ll choose two commenters at random (out of all 4 of you I expect will comment) and you’ll win! Your chances are good.
Thanks, readers!
**Entries must be received by 12:00 p.m. EST on Monday, September 6th. Winner will be announced on Labor Day!
Happy first birthday, LNE!
I didn’t know what I was signing up for when I dove head first into a blog one year ago. I wasn’t sure I would ever even tell my friends about this little old thing. I just wanted to write, so write I did.
For one thing, in the last year my photography has gotten better. Not just because I got a new and awesome camera, although that’s helped. I’ve really gotten into it, read a lot of articles about it, and learned the best way there is—by taking nearly 2000 pictures in this last year.
No, seriously—look at this old picture from last September of summer veggie quesadillas:
I’ve improved.
In the past year I’ve online dated, ate, cooked, edited. I’ve been baffled by boy behavior, toyed with the idea of buying a dog, and decided to pick my life up and move to a new scary city—two months from today. I’ve laughed at new favorite TV and cried over new favorite books. I’ve been promoted and also demoted to working from home. I decided to train for a 5K and spent 11 weekends at the shore. I’ve had amazing times with friends and family and I’ve learned more about myself than ever before.
I’ll leave you with my first post, from 1 Sept 09:
This isn’t my first blog.
In my short life so far I’ve had three, all since deleted: the first devoted to a high-school boyfriend (and kind of scary); the second, very short-lived, about being a “swingin’ single with problems” right after college graduation (deleted almost immediately after conception); the third, an attempt at a newsy opinion blog during the election. And now here I am, starting again. I just can’t seem to let it go.
I can’t promise this latest adventure won’t be a mess of all three, with added exploits about my job (editor), life (slowly admitting the fact that I’m searching for my future boyfriend, henceforth: MFB), hobbies (cooking), and extracurriculars (I’m taking classes to get my license to teach high-school biology). No one thing about my life is particularly interesting enough to stand on its own, so this will be everything and anything I want to pass on to the ‘sphere out there.
I cannot deny I am actively trying to find MFB, and along the way I’m editing, cooking, learning, and writing. All somewhat compulsively. I suppose instead of “eat, pray, love,” I am shooting for “edit, cook….date.” We’ll see how it goes. All I do is read other people’s blogs, and there is no reason I can’t have one, too.
Cheers, LNE!
“I say we might just eat the sherbet and forget the punch.”
Paula Deen cracks me up. She drops food. She says things like “throw in another stick of butter” like it’s totally fine. She says “Wuss-chester-shire” and “y’all” more than my friend Meredith.
She just made an enormous bowl of punch and instead of pouring herself a cup she stuck a straw in it and used the ice cream scoop to eat sherbet right out of the punch. “I was going to use a punch cup, but…oh well.”
Basically, she’s me, but Southern, and older.
Remember when her pants fell down?
How about when she was on Oprah and almost killed everyone with flying shards of glass?
Oprah: What do you say to your health-conscious critics?
Paula: (cracks up) I’m your cook, notchur doctor!
She made a burger with egg, bacon, the burger, and donuts for the bun. I’m not kidding.
One of my new favorite blogs highlights video clips of her and her “Paula Deenisms.” My favorite of recent is: “It’ll make your tongue want to slap your brains out.”
Bye, y’all!
These photobooth pics can’t really show you how fully Gracie was sitting in my lap and how Preston was nudging my arm every time I tried to type on the keyboard.
But just know that I sat on the couch for a break from the kitchen table and immediately had two snugglebug best friends.
Sigh. I want one.
There’s a lot of chatter around the water cooler this morning about the new cast of Dancing with the Stars.
Now let me start by saying that I hate this show. I think it is cheesy, the judges are hideously annoying, and if I am going to watch a dancing show I’m going to watch a DANCING show. THE dancing show. So You Think You Can Dance. Last I checked, DWTS wasn’t winning any Emmys.
I have to confess that I did watch this show one time, out of withdrawal for SYTYCD and because of a love affair I had with a certain adorable couple, Sabrina and Mark.
When she was voted off super early it was a crime. A CRIME. She and Mark were adorable. They were falling in love right in front of America’s eyes! SHE WAS SO GOOD!! That is natural talent right there.
OK, maybe I was falling in love with Sabrina. Whatever.
(P.S. Where has Avril been lately? I miss her.)
(P.P.S. Worst background singer EVER. He sounds like a dying cat.)
(P.P.P.S. Yeah, all the other “stars” can totally dance like that. Sure.)
(P.P.P.P.S. I’ve tried to learn that dance before. Don’t tell anyone.)
ANYWAY. Now we’ve got Jennifer Grey, star of my favorite movie of all time.
The Situation. (Best move ABC has ever pulled.)
Audrina. Yawn.
Brandy! I hope she dances to her own music.
The Hoff.
Florence Henderson!
Michael Bolton!
Bristol Palin
Kurt Warner cutie pie
So I’ll watch for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to see the love of my life Mike Sorrentino dance and make hilarious commentary and quips on the show.
Great job, ABC! Bring back Sabrina for more of those little dance numbers and you’ll have a committed new watcher.
I hate posts like these where bloggers (and I) go on and just present a mindless, incoherent list.
But they are necessary.
1. I miss dating. I’m going to online date and date in real life and get all my NYC friends to set me up with new eligible boys when I get up to the city. I’m really looking forward to it. I didn’t realize how much fun I had online dating until now, when I haven’t been on a date in three months. Wah! Bring on the profiles and cheesy quotes! I want to get back in the game!
2. The shirt I really wanted went on sale. Am I allowed to buy it? It’s now only $59.50!
Eh? Eh?
3. I watch the Bachelor Pad. But I hate it.
There. I said it.
me: my main question is, why do the singles hate the couples?
Cara: these people are so dumb
me: i think i am missing this strategy piece
i think i’m too smart for this show
Cara: i think it’s strategy?
haha yes i think that is the issue
me: ok, just checking
aw, tenley and kip are really cute, they are both so vanilla
Cara: i cannot stand tenley
me: she talks weird
like she is trying to be cute
Cara: “kiptyn gave me courage to do the zip line”
barf
me: i know, it’s gross
i hate this elizabeth girl
and i hate the name “kovaks”
was that always his name?
i don’t remember that
Cara: yes that was his name
i hate all the girls i think i just decided
me: yeah, me too
i actually really hate this show
Cara: me too
but i cant stop
4. Running isn’t getting any easier. The two miles I run feels like 22. It hurts everything. Everything. I might not be a runner. I’m trying…but it’s not really working. I’m getting defeated.
5. Watching the Emmy’s made me realize how much I miss Glee and Modern Family and Parks and Recreation and regularly scheduled fall TV programming. Bring on premiere week! I even kind of miss Grey’s Anatomy, but don’t tell anyone that.
6. I cannot wait to buy things for my new shoebox apartment.
Rugs:
Also, while browsing the Crate and Barrel catalog today, I found the most perfect piece I’ve been envisioning for all my home office needs. My “home office” has sort of exploded into my room, in that the bookshelf looks messy and is covered with containers of binder clips, highlighters, and staples. Folders, old magazine issues, and dictionaries and references are all over my bookshelf. It isn’t neat and tidy.
Enter the Incognito Home Office, from CB:
It’s only $999! SWEET.
What the heck number am I on? 5? Whatever. I’m obsessed with this song.
That is all.