The internet is my boyfriend.

On what would have been Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday:

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:24:00 -0400

Terry Gross: Can you share some of your favorite comments from readers that you’ve gotten over the years?

Maurice Sendak: Oh, there’s so many. Can I give you just one that I really like? It was from a little boy. He sent me a charming card with a little drawing. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters—sometimes very hastily—but this one I lingered over. I sent him a postcard and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim, I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.

"That’s the nature of any creative activity — you’re mostly going to be rejected."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:28:32 -0400

“That’s the nature of any creative activity — you’re mostly going to be rejected.”

- The New Yorker’s Bob Mankoff at a recent TED salon. When Mankoff quit psychology school in 1997 to become a cartoonist, he submitted 2,000 cartoons to the New Yorker that year. Of them, 2,000 were rejected. Today, he is the magazine’s cartoon editor.

(via explore-blog)

Brownstoner Queens' New Editor Is Not Moving To Queens, But He’s Thinking About It

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:49:59 -0400

Brownstoner Queens' New Editor Is Not Moving To Queens, But He’s Thinking About It:

Ugh.

"An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the products sold at By Brooklyn. The..."

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:20:00 -0400

“An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the products sold at By Brooklyn. The store does not sell dandelion and burdock soda, lovage soda syrup, and Early Bird granola ‘gathered in Brooklyn.’ An earlier version also referred incorrectly to the thoroughfare that contains the thrift shop Vice Versa. It is Bedford Avenue, not Bedford Street, or Bedfoprd Avenue, as stated in an earlier correction.”

- NYT via Poynter

The real history of the Southern drawl. (more info)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:32:00 -0400

The real history of the Southern drawl. (more info)

So The New Kids on the Block have a new album.

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:09:36 -0400

Let’s start counting now what percentage of stories about this will begin with something to the effect of “while no longer new or kids.”

And we’re off to the races.

Being 20 wasn't actually that much fun.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:01:23 -0400

Turning 30 soon. Googled “30 is the new 20,” and all the results are about how 30 is not the new 20 after all. Well, phew.

Chills.

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:06:35 -0400

Chills.

"Yvonne Brill is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing..."

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:12:48 -0400

“Yvonne Brill is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing rocket science in the mid-1940s… Part of Mrs. Brill’s rationale for going into rocket engineering was that virtually no other women were doing so. “I reckoned they would not invent rules to discriminate against one person,” she said.”

- Yvonne Brill, Rocket Scientist

Polari: Ancient gay slang?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:31:00 -0400

Polari: Ancient gay slang?:

“Polari is a form of cant slang used in Britain by actors, circus and fairground showmen, merchant navy sailors, criminals, prostitutes and the gay subculture… There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced back to at least the 19th century and possibly the 16th century.”

(h/t @ Queer Museum & see also: Polari Glossary)

And the second runner-up for Miss USPS goes to a colony of mold spores

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:43:38 -0400

rubyspurflower:

Being called “a pretty lady” at the post office is like winning “most charismatic carbon-based being” in a room full of dead leaves.

My friend Caitlin is really the queen of the vivid simile.

"Find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:12:58 -0400

“Find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you’re exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed.”

- David Ferguson, The Onion

Pictures of Hipsters Taking Pictures of Food

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:23:28 -0400

Pictures of Hipsters Taking Pictures of Food:

This Tumblr is so meta I can hardly stand it. (h/t MUG)

Photos of Children From Around the World With Their Most Prized...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:24:00 -0400

Photos of Children From Around the World With Their Most Prized Possessions.

Images by Gabriele Galiberti.

Pick a Year.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:44:00 -0500

Pick a Year.:

People have prophesied that the world will end this year—almost every year. Click through to read them all!

(via @sapinker)

This is a review on Susan Sontag’s first volume of...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:31:00 -0500

This is a review on Susan Sontag’s first volume of diaries. (I like that he still gave it three stars.)

Women Laughing Alone With Salad | The Hairpin

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:37:52 -0500

Women Laughing Alone With Salad | The Hairpin:

Title says it all.

(via rubyspurflower & laughingsquid)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:01:30 -0500

(via rubyspurflower & laughingsquid)

A pickup line for the season. (via reddit)

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:31:00 -0500

A pickup line for the season. (via reddit)

"Sometimes not only you, but every other single person you might look to, has absolutely no idea what..."

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:56:14 -0500

“Sometimes not only you, but every other single person you might look to, has absolutely no idea what to do. No one. If you’re past a certain age, there is no authority to whom you can go caterwauling when things go wrong. I would have anticipated this would frighten me, but it doesn’t; I find it reassuring. It makes you feel gentler about the world, about other people’s imperfections, about the degree to which a hurt may or may not have been intended. None of us knows what to do! We are all only doing our best! It would probably do us well to be kind to each other about that.”

- Carrie Frye