True Prep

Been busy with family stuff and hadn’t put the blog on my new To Do list. * I think I’ll show you what I’m using for a To Do List:  this is a first for me, because I usually use the back of envelopes.    

And by the way, a lot of the items on my list will never get done.  I know that. Don’t presume for one second I don’t know this.  And so does my friend Ted Harrington of Terrapin Stationers, who designed this pad for Bookmarc (the Marc Jacobs Bookstores — in NYC and L.A.).  You can find the rest of Terrapin’s beautiful engraved stationery at his Etsy store:  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TerrapinStationers?ref=seller_info

I was just thinking that thanks to Twitter, I bet it won’t be too long before we do away with apostrophes. (#HashtagsWontRecognizeThem.)  As you might imagine, I like apostrophes, commas, and most punctuation.  I’m crazy about semi-colons; they are so useful!  (See what I did there?)

But I am focused now more on periods, or “full stops”, as my second-child-but-first-daughter, known to you as “Exhibit B” is graduating from high school next week.  This day was far far off in the future, and now it’s here.  It’s an ending.  And it’s an emotional time for all of us.  I’ve been pre-crying for months.  I miss her already (even when I’m trying to pry her out of bed in the mornings).

Her going away to college will, however, allow for a totally new dynamic, that of being home alone with Exhibit C for the first time.  We don’t know what that will be like:  will we confide more in one another?  Will she still wear headphones in the house?  Will she force me to watch “Dr. Who”?  (And yes, there is always the possibility of adding a canine roommate.)

So it’s busy in the life of my family, and busy too as various writing projects ratchet up.

I’ll let you know what’s coming up.  I think we (and by we I mean I) will have a few cool announcements to make in the near-future.  

Remember to punctuate.  

Love,

Lisa

I’ve been busy.  And I am defensive.

But not too busy to ignore two petitions that came my way today — one in an email, and one on Facebook.  And I realize we’re now becoming a generation (or two) that cares enough about issues to sign online petitions, but maybe nothing more.

George Plimpton’s book about his experience with the Detroit Lions was called “Paper Lion.”  We’re even less than paper— we’re acting on fumes or cybersmoke.

Hello.  My name is Lisa, and I’m an online activist.

I work, I try to raise (lower?) my children, and I volunteer at school.  But when it comes to activism, in 2012 it’s all online.

What about you?

xxL.

Another inspirational photograph of books.

This arrangement, in the apartment of publisher Jane Friedman, is organized by branch: biographies here, fiction there, and so on.

Feel free to add any great book pictures or book as object pictures for the rest of us.

Thanks,

L.

It all began with this picture I poached from Facebook.  Of course I had to repost it.  The image speaks volumes (sorry) about the superiority of books to the wondrous digital gizmos, as well as the advisability of core strength.

But I’ve noticed most of my postings are bookish.  

I had dinner with Chip Kidd.  He told me about his then upcoming talk at the TED conference about books.  

You can watch his performance at the TED site.  (Spoil Alert:  Books are here to stay.)

At a screening at the Crosby Street Hotel, I came across this animal.  He needs books too.

Then Vintage Magazine asked me to write a piece for its upcoming design issue.  I suggested I write about living with books, and books as objects.  I think it will be out towards the end of June.  (www.vintagezine.com.  It’s a beautiful magazine, incidentally.)

And it’s clear from your reactions, that loving books is something we have in common.

Loving books is not exactly the same as loving to read.  We read all day long, on our computers and on our thingies.  Some of you listen to books on your commutes and while you’re running.  There’s the onslaught of information and even a kind of information pollution as you have to look hard to find quiet.  (While you’re watching something on t.v. a promo for something else starts to intrude from the lower part of your screen.  Our screens get interrupted by other screens.) It’s not easy to find space.  To go somewhere where there are no advertisements.  (Not a bus, not a taxi, not a highway, etc.)

I find I pay much more attention to what is printed.  On a page.  Of paper.  I don’t worry about scrolling, or rewinding.  I can read at different paces, according to how I’m feeling.  It’s just the message and me without distractions. 

Maybe in a few generations, through adaptation, the human brain will be rewired differently, and no one will have a deep attention span that will be rewarded by a wonderful narrative that drives us towards a dictionary, and even forces us to think.

So for now, let’s enjoy our mutual bibliophilia together.  It sounds almost… naughty.

Love,

Lisa

Yes, darling Exhibit.

This one is easy, so for extra credit, you must identify these doppelgängers.  
(I gave up subtlety for Lent and Passover.)

Have a great weekend.

Lisa 

I was fantasizing about a beach vacation:  Balmy weather, welcoming surf, inconspicuous waiters offering mixed rum drinks to me while stretched out beneath a palm tree.  The smell of sun screen.  My paperbacks getting just a bit sandy….

I’d go on, but you got the picture:  

(That’s Bora Bora beckoning above.)

It’s a LAGOON.

What’s missing from this hallucination?  Why, a hammock, of course!  

I love the beach.     

Love the sound of the waves.  Love the way the sun dapples through the leaves, and the sounds of breezes through the trees.  

What do I wear for these pleasures?  A maillot de bain, of course.  

The maillot is the fashion designer’s name for a woman’s one-piece swimsuit, also called a tank suit.

I forgot we used to call them “tank suits.”  I can so vividly remember shopping with my mother for a tank.  (Hers.)  

Notice the model is standing before the phosphorescent waters (of a pool).

The winning word was HAMMOCK.  

I made you read to the end.

Exhibit B., just returned from her own Caribbean idyll, thinks Word of the Week is silly.  Do you?  I’ll keep blogging, but I can leave out the vocabulary game, a vestige of my former radio show.

Let me know, won’t you?

Lisa

Hi Malke,

I think this is a valid topic for a paper.  The American Preppy predated the Sloane Ranger, but American style originated in England (in the 17th century).  We cover some of this in True Prep, and I’m thinking of writing about preppy from a global perspective again.

Thanks,

Lisa

Not to get too personal, but for the first time, both my daughters are going away on their own Spring Break trips without me!  Exhibit C left for the West Coast on her Glee Club Spring Tour, and Exhibit B is going on a classic senior year vacation to the Carribbean — with friends and no adults.  So, I’m thinking about holidays, and my four words this week are a reflection thereof.

HAMMOCK. LAGOON.  PHOSPHERESCENT.  MAILLOT.

Vote as often as you like.

My thought:  (It’s actually not mine, but belongs to my goddaughter, Emma.)  Emma just had a little trouble convincing the clerk at her local AT&T store that she wanted to exchange her  iPhone to a thingy that was just …. a phone.  She no longer wanted to to be emailed or tempted to email or read her Facebook or whatever when she’s out of the house.  The clerk kept using the word downgrade.  Emma says her life has only improved since she downgraded her thingy.  She is much more in control of her time, and how she uses it.  I’m considering doing the same.  It sounds like an intriguing experiment, in any case.

Your thoughts on this, dear friends?

I will enjoy the quiet while my wholly-owned subsidiaries are away, though I miss them like crazy.

Lisa

First, there was the word, and the word was Omniscient.  (This is what Google offers by way of its images.  Icky, but it’ll do.)

Then for most of the week, the strongest contender was :

MULCH.  It was something on a lot of minds as one must get ready for summer and winter at the same time.  (Will we remember the winter of 2012 as an oddity?  Time can only tell. We may look back on this winter as the last normal winter.)  What did the Mayans say?

Then, to my utter disappointment, I practically had to beg for votes.  (The difference between begging and “practically begging” is academic.  Unseemly for a preppy like me.)

BUT YOU DELIVERED!  Boy did you.  It was neck and neck and neck for the last 24 hours.  Really.  

Now you’ve already guessed the winner.  (It’s Courtney.)   I present this week’s winner with many sugarplums and calories:  

By the way, a patissier (or more properly, le patissier) is the actual pastry chef, not the pastry.  Some of you may have commented on how you would like to eat a patissier, but I think — in your enthusiasm — you meant to say a patisserie, which is the pastry itself.  

Does wearing a toque make a pastry taste better?

Bien sur!  (I wish I had a clue where the circumflexes were on my thingy.)

A bientôt!  (How did it know?)