How to Make a Pigeon Cry
“Take the goose, pull off the feathers, make a fire about her, not too close for smoke to choke her, or burn her too soon, not too far off so she may escape. Put small cups of water with salt and honey … also dishes apple sauce. Baste goose with butter. She will drunk water […]
How to Rise Up Like New Bread
“Sometimes when you … smell the honest exciting smell of real bread baking, you remember a part of your childhood, and feel a child’s helplessness before the fact of a whole nation’s cautious acceptance of its own simplicity.” —M.F.K. Fisher My neighbor, a kite-maker, sewed my first mask. Sturdy black cotton printed with a […]
How to Lure the Wolf
The first time a man chased me I was jogging. I was a senior in college and ran the campus perimeter at night after I finished working on my thesis. The sidewalks were well-lighted and the campus security guy waved to me from his car on his evening cruise around the neighborhood. This was a […]
How to Be Cheerful Though Starving
After college, I packed my car and moved across the country to go be in love in Ohio. Six weeks later, I called my mom and asked her to come get me. She flew out and we drove home. On the road, I ate almost nothing. For the first time in memory, I had no […]
How to Keep Alive
“Appetite, a universal wolf.” — Shakespeare(Epigraph to “How to Keep Alive” by M.F.K. Fisher.) “Joy’s soul lies in the doing.” — Shakespeare(Epigraph to The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker.) My junior year of college, I moved off-campus with my boyfriend and two classmates into a house on a dirt road. The […]
Industry Journal: The Liar (Part VIII)
The Liar had left his house open both weeks he was in Sacramento. The first week, I fed his cats. Monday evening of the second week, I fled, and that was the final time I set foot in his house. The next morning, he departed for California; technically I was still his girlfriend. The back […]
Industry Journal: The Liar (Part VII)
Tuesday night, sitting on the edge of my bed, I called the Girlfriend. “I’m going to end things with the Liar in the morning, now that he’s back in Sacramento,” I said. “Really?!” She said. “Wow. Good.”“There’s no point in dragging this out any longer. I feel disgusting. It’s unhealthy.”“I get it,” she said. “He’s […]
Industry Journal: The Liar (Part VI)
The next morning, I laid awake in my bed, remembering back a full week, to the day the Liar had left for his first trip to California; embarking on what would end up being a very long drive. I had invited a friend, a gorgeous young pastry chef, to a prix-fixe pop-up that night. Between […]
Industry Journal: The Liar (Part V)
As soon as I saw her message, I closed my laptop quietly and slid it quickly into my bag. The chair creaked as I stood. I froze, listening for his voice upstairs. He was still talking. What else had I brought? Just my bag. Laptop, keys, phone. I hadn’t taken off my shoes. My kindle […]
Industry Journal: The Liar (Part IV)
When the Girlfriend and I got off the phone Sunday night, I called my sweetheart. He sounded very tired.“I’m going to take tomorrow afternoon off. I need some extra time with you before I go back to California,” he said. I stood in the blue dim of my kitchen, the sun had set unnoticed some […]