Square Pegs

Let us be upfront about this: we are perfectly willing to accept a genius grant. Just recently, the husband realized the truth about us — we were born to be showered in gifts. We will not say how many years it’s taken him to come to this conclusion. Suffice to say, more than a few. So if the MacArthur people want to help us fulfill our destiny, we are available. That being said, we realize our particular genius cannot be cajoled by mere money (oh, don’t get us wrong…we are mercenary to the soles of our little feet). We were […]

It is a rare human who finds their calling at a young age. Usually the ones who do are seduced by the freedom that comes from driving a garbage or fire truck. Generally, this urge is outgrown about the time said person discovers girls (or boys). Some, however, never waver from their vision of the future. We salute that steadfast nature. Also, we worry. With clear eyes and an unquenchable thirst for syntactical truth, I will distinguish between defining and non-defining relative clauses and use “that” and “which” appropriately. I will locate and remove the hyphen from any mention of

Those of you who know about our little issue with the serial comma (or as we like to call it Our Favorite Thing in The World), avert your eyes. We are going to say something shocking. Of course, if you’re reading this, you have a synopsis to finish. It is past 5 p.m., and we haven’t seen it come our way. Self-sabotage is all very good, but we said we wouldn’t leave our computer until we heard from you. Grammar and structure are really important. Really, really important. They make reading easy and fun. Perhaps we would we have screamed

We were never much for Ernest Hemingway in our misbegotten youth — too much guy writing for our taste. Always, we gravitated toward F. Scott Fitzgerald. But tastes change (hence spinach enjoying a regular role at meals), and we’ve developed more of an appreciation for Hemingway. What we once disdained as overly simple, we now see as jaw-droppingly complex. It’s actually quite inspiring. And it’s quite obvious that we aren’t alone in our need to develop the Hemingway taste — even the Nobel people needed some time… Report: Old Man of Sea Hooked Nobel for Hemingway

We admit to only a passing interest in the annual visit of a mysterious stranger to Edgar Allan Poe’s gravesite. Frankly, for us, keeping up a tradition for more than a week requires much effort. And, quite possibly, the most fascinating aspect of this year’s pilgrimage is that the nocturnal visitor eschewed top hat and white scarf. Clearly they have officially gone out of fashion. As for the cognac? Well, everyone has a theory, but for us, the only question is why not cognac? Mysterious fan marks Poe’s birthday with cognac, roses — for 56th year

Being the child of a librarian is rough — you get to be a guinea pig, of sorts. The drawback is that your mother works in your school and things get dicey when you’re in the principal’s office. The upside is that you get your greedy little fingers on new books before the other kids. If we didn’t count it as one of our life’s major accomplishments, we’d have to admit we are so nerdy, it’s embarrassing. It’s amazing how clearly our childhood reading stands out in our mind. We can see the school library. Pinpoint the location of the

We’re not big on predicting the future (seriously, keeping a crystal ball all shiny and stuff requires a lot of effort, and we don’t have much in the way of staff), but we were so waiting for the blogger backlash, like, almost a year ago. Mostly because we enjoy irony, and it’s hard to top the rising number of blogs versus the, uh, downfall of blogs. Because, see, it’s not like one size fits all. Oops, sorry, lapse into cynicism. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re not entirely sure of the point being made in the article below (heck, we’re still trying

We admit it: we’re lame. You send us a form that says “return this or else we’ll send you books” and we don’t return the form. And then we get books. But not always the books we want. Yeah, the Internet has helped, but we still, uh, accidentally forget to follow through and end up with way too many books on low-carb cooking, and not enough books we want to read (the former being books we probably should read). And while new members will still get to choose five books for $1, with an obligation to buy four more, the

We are of two minds on the concept of anonymous reviews. One mind thinks that anonymity allows a reviewer to be more honest (and we’re bothered by the fact that we have to include “more” before honest). The other mind thinks there is a bond between reviewer and reader, and, in reviews, voice is not always discernible. Mind #1 reminds us that it is virtually impossible to write without bias (computers notwithstanding, and we have our doubts there). Mind #2 asks what’s wrong with stand by your opinion. Is it any wonder that we can’t decide on a restaurant? In

We’ve all heard the stories: far more books are written than published. The same goes for motion picture screenplays. Far more musicians than necessary. And probably there’s a huge surplus of poetry. So what gives? Why are so many people out there trying to get creative with it? Seriously, is the world filled with artists or is writing, to take one aspect of the artistic life, so undervalued and undertaught that people see it as an easy way to make a fast buck (yes, yes, we all get the lovely satisfaction of watching such folk fall flat on their faces,