Prologue: I live in Seattle, a town that, despite its growing size, is seriously lacking in the public transportation department. The absurdity of it almost sounds invented: we actually have an underground dug out already (a result of some serious city planning mistakes made a hundred or so years ago). Rumor has it that decades…
My mom called me the other day. She’s down in California, taking care of my Auntie P. She left the day after I got back to Seattle. “I can tell you were here,” my mom said, and I could almost hear her smiling at the other end of the line. “How?” I asked. “I can…
I’m knackered. Completely beat. I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday (as I type this), but I suppose that doesn’t really mean anything. I’ve been in Ocean Beach, San Diego for the last 10 days. Time doesn’t seem to pass at normal intervals down here. I often say that if I had one day left to…
The other day, my friend Kim and I were defending our tendency to wash out and re-use Zip-loc plastic bags. Apparently our hoighty-toighty significant others find it “gouache”. WHICH IT SO IS NOT. Those things are expensive (besides, we’re saving the planet). In middle school, we only had the fold-over closure plastic sandwich bags in…
Recently, I saw a photo of an Alaska Airlines plane with an image of Apolo Ohno emblazoned on the side. Alaska is Apolo’s official sponsor. Since their hub is in Seattle, Apolo has been popping up everywhere. The folks at Alaska are very enthusiastic about him: Personally, I find the whole thing bemusing as hell.…
I’m going to be in San Diego, California for ten days starting on Monday. What could possibly tear me away from the perpetual rain and cold that is Seattle in November, you ask? My dear beloved Auntie P. needs me.
Branding is everything. Whenever anyone disputes this point, my husband brings up Altria. They saw a jump in investors when they stopped calling themselves Philip Morris. Altria sounds new and youthful. Philip Morris sounds like a hacking cough. So while I was impressed with some of the copywriting I saw in the U.K., as well…
Ladies and Gentleman, when I’m not doing a half-assed job of recounting my trips across the world with my husband, I am (removes glasses a la Clark Kent) … A COPYWRITER!!! Okay, fine. So it’s not that exciting. I don’t pop into phonebooths and tear off my clothes at the first sign of trouble ……
Children seem to like me. I don’t understand why. Half of the time, I don’t really know what to do with them. I have zero maternal instinct. I was the youngest in my family, and until Valeria came along when I was six, I was the youngest of all my cousins as well. I was…
Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury
by Geraldine DeRuiter
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