Doggie Dancing
OK Go’s “White Knuckles.” As Peggy Hill would say, “Everybody gets to dance with a dog. Everybody wins.” Continue reading Doggie Dancing
Author: Stefanie Gunning
Native New Yorker. Brooklynite before it was cool. Wife. Mom. Voracious reader. Movie obsessive. Grown-up theater kid. Fervent supporter of the Oxford comma. I write about love, friendship, marriage, and motherhood. Surviving an abusive, narcissistic father. Growing older (and more courageous) as a Gen-X woman. Growing wiser, generally. The comforts of pop culture. Weird things I buy on the internet and occasionally regret. My ongoing quest for the perfect haircut, cashmere sweater, slouchy trousers, and cozy home by the sea.
Update, in which I am seduced by abundance and an apple green cover
Not so long ago I wrote a post about why I’ll never give up actual, physical books. Today, my Kindle arrived. It’s lovely, truly. It’s everything everyone says it is : Easy to read, even in bright sunlight! Genuinely easy to use! Immediate access to all the books ever written, plus dictionaries for looking up words you don’t know and would otherwise probably just ignore … Continue reading Update, in which I am seduced by abundance and an apple green cover
The Devil’s copywriter
M. Night Shyamalan has a new movie coming out. It’s called Devil. It’s about the Devil hanging out in an elevator. I know this, because the copywriter assigned to craft a compelling synopsis of this film was only able to summon the following: In the film, a group of people is trapped in an elevator, and one of them is the Devil. Back before I … Continue reading The Devil’s copywriter
I’ll just have dessert, without the cancer
Laura Linney has a new show on Showtime, The Big C, and that is a good thing. Laura Linney is a wonderful actress, and a beautiful woman over the age of 25, and anytime anyone puts her on TV the world gets a little bit better. Also, Gabourey Sidibe is in it, and as far as I can tell no one is raping or force-feeding … Continue reading I’ll just have dessert, without the cancer
Juliet at 41
This is a love story, which begins, as these things so often do, with a (paraphrased) line from The Fantasticks: There is this boy. He’s a man now, but when I knew him, when I loved him, he was a boy. We were teenagers, in the late 1980s, in a suburban town in Westchester, NY. He was good-natured and darkly mischievous, politically active in a … Continue reading Juliet at 41
Summertime, and the reading is easy
Summer arrives this year on June 21, and with it comes my annual juicy-as-a-peach Solstice Book List. Here’s what you’ll catch me reading on the subway during the next couple of months: “I’m Down” by Mishna Wolff. According to the Publisher’s Weekly review on Amazon: Wolff details her childhood growing up in an all-black Seattle neighborhood with a white father who wanted to be black … Continue reading Summertime, and the reading is easy
Scent
My Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab fragrances have arrived. Here’s what was in the box: From the Illyria collection, a 5ml bottle of Cordelia and a 5ml bottle of Titania. Cordelia is described as “The essence of faith, love and devotion: lilac, lemon, green tea, wisteria, osmanthus, white cedar, and Chinese musk.” The lilac in this formulation is so fresh and true, it instantly evokes the … Continue reading Scent
Kindle vs. iPad: The Decision
I’ve been going back and forth over whether to get an iPad or a Kindle. I even polled my Twitter and Facebook friends. Pros and cons for both were offered with heartfelt enthusiasm. After carefully weighing my options, I’ve made a decision: Books. Sticking with books. Here’s why: 1) Pages. Open a book that’s been sitting on your shelf for a while, and there’s no … Continue reading Kindle vs. iPad: The Decision
We Waddle But We Don’t Fall Down
I unwittingly exposed Emmy, and by extension Jon and myself, to the existential nightmare that is Happy Feet. My intentions were good, I swear it. One cold Saturday morning earlier this year I took Emmy to be tested for the NYC Department of Education Gifted and Talented program (itself a gnawing abyss of parental self-recrimination), and after her test we went out for donuts and … Continue reading We Waddle But We Don’t Fall Down
Other People’s Writing
I’m playing midwife for my friend Terry’s book. Months ago, Terry and I were out to dinner, and she was bemoaning her ongoing unemployment. To try and cheer her up, I started telling tales of awful jobs I’ve had. The third-rate cable channel with the passive-aggressive manager who used to sneak up behind me and announce herself by pretending to knock on the air next … Continue reading Other People’s Writing
Working Without a Net 