WS Merwin is such a sweet, spiritual man–a Buddhist and Environmentalist– who lives in Hawaii. (pic from Univ. of Arkansas Daily Headlines).

And, he’s 82!

Today NPR interviewed him (click to listen) for just a couple of minutes and he read this poem, so tiny and beautiful:

Separation

by W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin, “Separation” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993).

And here’s a pic of the young WS Merwin (photo from Univ. of Arizona Poetry Center).

OK, and shameless plug for a new T-Shirt, but it is writing inspired. It’s called, INKSpiration, and it’s

ONLY $10 and I love it. I just bought one. It’s from Threadless and you can buy it, for $10, HERE.

(cute guy not included–or I’m assuming). There are also many other shirts for $10 without a Pen on it.

You can buy it here.

Language is a

cracked kettle on

which we

beat out tunes for

bears to dance

to, while all the time we long to

move the stars to pity.

~Gustave Flaubert

Look! Even Preston Sturges, famous writer and director, wore T-shirts!

Anyway,

Threadless is having another sale: $5, $10, and $15 T-shirts. Tons of ‘em!

$5!!

Here are two of my $5 faves:

The Scr-Emo

and

Napoleon (who looks kind of like Adam Ant)

The third one is a $10 Tee, still a bargain for Cowboy and My Pretty Pony fans!

The last two nights when I was driving home at 7pm The Writer’s Almanac on NPR played the same show–which was about Augusten Burroughs (author of Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf at the Table…duh). It felt kind of like that movie, Groundhog Day, in fact, I had to check my cell phone to see if it was still the same day. Weird.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mr. Burroughs, born October 23, 1965.(photo by Brad Harris, courtesy of New York Magazine).

I’ve never met you (though Ted and I did see you at BEA in LA in 2003; you walked past us down a long hallway heading to an event), but I admire your tenacity and drive, your prolificacy, and your taste in art and artists (as seen on his splashy new website), and most recently–your tattoos! Nice ink.

There is even an official Augusten Burroughs T-shirt, designed by the awesome James Anthony (whose handprinted T-shirts,  featuring illustrations, engravings and woodcuts from the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, i’ve oogled on Etsy for a while). He’s got a great sale going on now, too. Check him out. I’m going to have to get one myself, I think. (photo courtesy of augusten.com)

Oh, but back to Augusten Burroughs. There was an interesting article/interview with him in New York Magazine back in April, called The Memory Addict about writing memoirs. The quote before the article is intriguing:

Memory is the same as imagination.
—Giambattista Vico, New Science, 1725

Speaking of quotes, here’s one from Mr. Burroughs himself, on writing in general:

“The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.”

It’s called The Average Bear.

Buy it here.

Well, Threadless, which is a little cooler than Sears, is having a back-to-school sale,  and many of the shirts are just $12. I haven’t bought a T-shirt in ages (actually it’s probably been just a couple of months).

Editors Note–This Just In!!

Threadless has actually reduced prices for 140 of their funnest shirts to as low as $9.

Get them now!!

Here are some of my faves:

This one is extra cool– the flames and blood vessels only show up in sunlight! Kind of like those shirts from the 80s that would change colors with your body temperature.

The second one reminds me of my friend Laurel.

Buy it NOW!!!

The last one is a pic of me in Carmel, in one of my own Threadless shirts (and one that still draws attention wherever I wear it):

And, I can’t believe that includes one of the Ts i’ve been lusting over.

Remember the game Clue, and the fabulously campy movie starring Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Leslie Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, et al?

Uh, yeah, well check out this T-Shirt. Only $5. That’s FIVE DOLLARS.

And the second one is pretty cool, too:

it’s a T-shirt full of movie Spoilers.

I must have died and gone to T-shirt heaven.

That’s how many words I wrote today! On my Spring Break! (who needs Daytona Beach, eh?)

I wrote 12 pages.

12

That’s probably more writing than i’ve done in the last month.

I am, as Eduardo puts it: En Fuego. (which I think means on fire?)

It was such a good day of writing.

And then I read for a bit, a new book: Me and Orson Welles by Robert Kaplow– which tells the (based on actual events) story of a young boy who gets swept up into the world of theater for one week, taking a bit part in “Julius Ceasar,” directed by (and starring) Orson Welles in 1937. The book is a nostalgic blast, full of theater in-jokes, and impeccable period details about NYC. What I also love is that Kaplow includes cameos by famous people– frazzled Brit John Houseman, a horny Joseph Cotten, and, of course, an egomaniac Welles.

Some great lines from the book:

“…By the way, if anybody asks, you’re an Equity Junior Member. And you’re getting twenty-five dollars a week.”

“Swell!”

“No, you’re not getting twenty-five dollars a week. You’re not getting anything, except the opportunity to get sprayed on by Orson’s spit, but we’ve got enough Leftos in the company to start a demonstration if they find out you’re not being paid.”

The film of the book is currently in production with Zac Efron as the young boy and Claire Danes as the older woman he falls in love with (the one who is talking in the above quote).

Great fun.

Oh, and speaking of fun, Threadless is having a $9 T-shirt Sale!

They’ve reprinted the T-shirt Ted has/loves:

Meat is Murder. Tasty, tasty murder.

and this one:

Video games ruined my life. Good thing I have two extra lives.

as well as many others, all for only $9!! Check ‘em out! Buy yours today! Buy two!

When I cook I often turn it into this production– as if I have my own cooking show. I like to chop onions with more flourish than usual, talk to myself, cheat to the camera, throw minced garlic into a pan with enthusiasm, ooh and ahh at the sizzle of olive oil.

It’s kind of like what I used to do as a kid– pretend I was on a talk show like Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas (Gawd, does that age/date me???). I would sit on the shabby gold couches in our wood-paneled living room and pretend I was being interviewed about my career and my life, stopping off and on for station identification and to sip water from a mug.

I thought I was the only one who did this but a few months ago when I took a creative writing workshop night class the fabulous instructor revealed that she sometimes envisions herself being interviewed by Terry Gross–her with the soothing, intelligent voice– and I had to laugh: I do that too! Sometimes on my way to school, or coming home from school after listening to Terry I imagine myself being interviewed by her, what she would ask me, what I would say.

Am I crazy, or what? Does anyone else do this?

Anyway, here are some pix from some recent cooking ‘shows’ of mine.

Oh, and by the way, have you seen this TOO CUTE FOR WORDS website, hi monkey.net? Which stars a tiny stuffed monkey– he makes crafts, food, cookies, travels to exotic countries, hangs with monks. It’s my new web obsession.

We get most of our fish, like this Ahi, from Trader Joe’s. Yes, it was already marinated, but I added more stuff, like sesame and light sodium soy and of course ginger.

Everything’s better with ginger, and mary ann. har har. ok, not funny.

I’ve recently started to cook more Bok Choy. Bok Choy is the ‘white cabbage’ and is soo tasty with just a smidge of garlic and ginger and scallions and broth.

hey, how did that Sam Adams Light get there?

I’ve also rediscovered corn. Corn on the cob especially– with Smart Start Butter. Did you know you don’t have to boil corn in a pot of water? That you can steam it more effectively in just an inch of water. MMMMmmmm.

Last week we had Ted’s sister in law, Laura, stay one night with us (she was at a conference in LA and drove down). She’s wonderful. We met Eduardo out for a drink and then saw this funky fun band that played 60s surf music (think BeachBlanket Bingo but with an EMO twist) . The band was named Monsters From Mars and they were so much fun!  They did an instrumental Beach-Blanket-Bingo version of Britney Spears’ Toxic that was outta control. I wish I had bought a T-shirt.

Anyway, for Laura’s visit I made a Weight Watchers Bruschetta that was deeelicious. And only one point per serving.

of course I used the freshest tomatoes and basil.

But I also made a low-cal Hummus (that was Weight Watchers approved!) from a website called This Mama Cooks! 2 points per 1/2 cup. yowza!

I added sliced bell peppers to give it a bit more flavor.

Gotta love appliances like the Cuisinart (a wedding gift).

Speaking of gifts, I meant to post some of the recent Christmas gifts I either gave, or received this past holiday, like this awesome Ice Crusher from Tonya’s shop–called The Happydashery on Etsy:

I gave this Ice Crusher to Ted for Christmas. It’s one of my favorite gifts. So cool and vintage, black and shiny.

Tonya seems to find the funky-est, funnest stuff. She’s also got a great website which often features pictures of her ADORABLE son, aptly named Dash. And this week she’s doing a giveaway on her blog featuring one of her funky finds. Check it out. And while you’re at it, check out her hubby Neil’s blog (he’s doing a giveaway too). I’m telling you, the three of them are so cute they should be modeling for JCrew (or JCrafts?). Cuteness all around.

I gave my best buddy Eduardo this super neato bar set from Cocokelly on Etsy. It was their last one, but Tonya does have one in her Etsy shop, so check her out.

Found this gem– Owl Lamp on Etsy as well, from Dandelion Girl’s shop. I couldn’t resist!

And finally, my most recent T-shirt came from Etsy, too– from the shop Secret Lovers. Gotta love a shirt that states: Beards Not Bombs.