Among the least important but most acute annoyances of modern life are the vocal patterns of young people. These patterns include the phenomenon known as vocal fry, where the last word of a sentence just sort of evaporates into the back of the speaker’s mouth. Check out this video for annoying examples. Worse yet is the thing […]
A week ago yesterday my Sunday started pretty typically: Did the Times Crossword, started laundry, got a pot of chili in the oven (I like to braise chunks of chuck roast), then headed to the gym with Beth. I hadn’t been feeling exactly sharp all day, but I’d hoped working up a sweat, hitting the […]
Four different editors at University of Illinois Press went over the rough draft of my memoir before they published it. All of them suggested changes. One of the most common request? Stronger verbs. They also wanted descriptions that were more precise, more colorful, more heartfelt. Now, 12 years after my memoir, Long Time, No See […]
Beth here. We debuted our “Mondays with Mike” feature just about a year ago, and since then many of you blog readers have told us how much you enjoy starting your week reading my husband Mike Knezovich’s posts. Some of you newcomers might not know that Mike had been weighing in occasionally with guest posts […]
As I write this on a Sunday afternoon, the snow’s falling at about an inch an hour in Chicago, with accumulations possibly reaching 16”, and all that snow blowing around in 25-40 mph gusts. At least that’s what it says online—I’m looking over my computer screen at a grey, but by comparison, mild day in […]