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Book: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Posted on August 27th, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Author: David Sedaris
Anna’s Rating: 4/5 (I should change to a 1-10 scale so I can give it a 9.)
Comments: Didn’t change my life, but it did, at times, make me laugh so hard that tears were rolling down my face.

Me Talk Pretty One Day is a series of essays divided into two parts: the first part is a collection of memories that begin in the author’s childhood in North Carolina and his adult life in New York City.  The second part relates the experiences associated with moving to a foreign country (France, in this case) and learning a new language.

The absolute best chapter is entitled “Jesus Shaves”.  It relates the story of second languages learners together in a class as they try to explain the concept of Easter to someone who had never heard of the holiday.  Lacking vocabularly leads the students to describe Easter as the day when the man with long hair dies on two morsels of lumber and goes above your head to live with your father after coming back to say hello because he’s nice.  Unfortunately, I can relate to this situation.

I also enjoyed reading about the author’s life in New York City, as I can relate all to well to this, too.  Bits of New York wisdom are interspered, such as the fact that “owning a twelve-foot ladder in New York is a probable sign of success, as it means you likely have enough room to store one” (p. 153) and that “to be broke in New York was to feel a constant, needling sense of failure, as you were constantly confronted by people who not only had more but much, much more.” (p. 101)  Asking movers with a full truck if the apartment they just emptied had been rented yet is not going too far - “they asked the same thing of the emergency medical crews pulling up to the hospital morgue.” (p. 115)

I’ll likely as not pursue some more of Sedaris’s works - he has a way of stringing words together into memorable short stories that produce laughter in quantities that will embarrass the reader in public, causing cheeks to ache from smiling too much and bellies to hurt from laughter.

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Car Show: Macungie, PA (2009)

Posted on August 2nd, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

After spending a month sleeping, my body is finally healing.  Now, I’m going to make an effort to catch up on my blogging, and as I assume I’ll be going to a good many car shows in the future, this seems a good place to start.

[Every mad scientist needs a Prowler]

One of the first things I discovered at the show was the car I am destined to drive after taking over the world.  I think every evil overlord deserves a car like the Prowler.  Most unfortunately, they apparently went out of production about five years ago.  As the quantity of mad scientists and evil overlords on this planet is limited, the market for it was simply lacking.  Pity.

[Lee with Mad Scientist hair - “Uh-Oh!  You look CRA-ZY!”]

Speaking of mad scientists, Lee’s hat hair pulls off quite the crazy engineer / mad scientist look.  I think he should go for it.

[Bob’s new car - a 1955 Hudson Wasp]

The problem with car shows is that they have cars.  More specifically, they have cars for sale.  Most unfortunately, this car show had the specific make and models of cars that both Lee and his cousin Bob were looking for, a situation that spells certain doom for this family.

[Lee’s kryptonite: a 1982 Corvette with the T-Top]

Were the price a bit better, I have no doubt that we would have left the show with two new cars.  (This, I have learned, is why car enthusiasts carpool to these events: so they have extra drivers to bring home new acquisitions.)

[The first car I ever wanted - a Delorean.]

I have to admit, there are vehicles that even I have a weakness for.  My obsession with the Delorian is, of course, tied to Back to the Future, but still, it’s just a neat car: the stainless steel panels, the gull wing doors…the flux capacitor…not a standard feature, I understand…

[Kaiser with bamboo interior]

There were also a number of random and amusing vehicles, such as the vintage NYC taxi cab and a large variety of cars with wood paneling.  Above, however, is the car I found to have a bamboo interior, which seems like something I might find at Ikea…hmm…  Still, awesome.

[Miniature human in miniature lime green sports car]

My other random find was this: a lime-green stoller in the shape of a sports car.  (I needed something lime green from the day, didn’t I?)

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