A wandering ghost is a dangerous kind of entity, because he or she might decide to wander back … herein, of course, lies the very root of our horror of ghosts. They are feared not because of what they are, but because of what they remind us of being. We are frightened of ghosts because we are frightened of dying. That is the first thing to be said about the matter: that ghosts, like corpses, are unwelcome because they are memento mori. – Roger Grainger The Social Symbolism of Grief and Mourning, 28-9

Reading… Injun by Jordan Abel. Technically for the thesis. I don’t know that this is my favourite of Abel’s works. It’s fascinating, but in a lot of ways I feel like he did the same things only better in Un/Inhabited.   Watching… All the season premiers! Seriously one of the best times of year for me. Two favourites: The Good Place (Kooky and a little absurd, Kristen Bell is absolutely in her element in this one) and This Is Us (Because since Parenthood ended, I haven’t had something that is guaranteed to make me cry every week, and this one definitely fills that void. Plus Milo Ventimiglia and Justin Hartley.)   Listening… The cover of “Jolene”…

Reading… I’m actually still slowly making my way through Meghan Daum’s The Unspeakable. Her essay on being someone who loves animals perhaps a little too much really hit home for me. Can we talk about the fact that I tear up at lost cat posters? Or maybe not. It might make me cry.   Watching… Re-watching New Girl. I needed a sitcom-y palette cleanser. I’ve been tired this week. I loved the early seasons just as much upon re-watching them. I’ve just reached the point where I stopped watching last time because I was starting to feel kind of “meh” about the whole series, so we’ll see how things go from here on…

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. — Jane Austen, letter December 24, 1798

Reading… The Unspeakable and Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum. When I discover a writer I genuinely like, I have a tendency to dig deep into their body of work. My interest in Daum started with a piece in Harper’s Bazaar about choosing not to have kids. Then it was the collection of essays on the same topic, edited by Daum. Next I finally picked up her personal essays. In what is perhaps an illogical or contrary approach, I started wit the most recent collection first. The writing is fantastic. It is easy to see why Daum is lauded as a master of the personal essay. Her unflinching, at…

If you know me at all, you know I am a self-professed musical theatre junkie. I even occasionally flirt with the idea of ditching grad school and running away to join Broadway. An impractical life plan if there ever was one, but one that has appealed to me in some way or another for as long as I can remember. As a result, I think about the practicalities of life in musical theatre more than most, and I am particularly interested in the role of age in stage productions. How old is too old to play a role? Could I, creeping up to 30, convincingly play the teenage Natalie in Next…

If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein

Reading… The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It has been many many years since I first read this novel. It keeps popping up in my online readings and real life discussions, though, so I thought perhaps it was time to break it back out. In my opinion, it has one of the all-time greatest opening sentences: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”   Watching… Chicago Med. I caved. I’m watching it. I don’t know if I am as invested as I am in Fire and PD, but give me a couple more episodes and I may just…

Most cynics are really crushed romantics: they’ve been hurt, they’re sensitive, and their cynicism is a shell that’s protecting this tiny, dear part of them that’s still alive. — Jeff Bridges