You phoning it in is better than most peoples' A-game. Good luck with all the Cringe festivities!
P.S. I don't stay on the site and keep hitting refresh. I get Google Reader to do it for me.
Mate, I'm blogging stuff that happened months ago just to justify to myself that i'm achieving something, so don't be beating yourself up. That's our job.
I SO agree with the sighing thing. Or even worse, the people that SAY THINGS OUT LOUD. I get being cute, hell, I do that sometimes. But being pissed off? Out loud? How will that make you friends? Huh? Huh? Get a book indeed.
(Do you hear my hypocrisy? The complaining OUT LOUD in a public forum? God, Abigail, SHUT UP.)
PS So excited for Cringe!
I love Bill Bryson. Since you've been to the UK, you should read Notes from a Small Island. I guess you don' t have to have been to the UK to read it, but it makes more sense that way.
There was once this weird little Indian guy on this plane and he was all sighing and harrrrumping and then he looks at me and says "Can you believe this? And they charge XXX amount of dollars to treat us like cattle!" (It's my own fault, I did not know your eye aversion technique)
I shrugged my shoulders and looked bewildered and said the first few lines of the Hail Mary in broken French mixed with Italian. That is now my standby for the sigh-y people. One day I will be found out, and on that day, I will claim to be Armenian.
NO. DANCE, CLOWN!
Just kidding. See you next week! Or the week after! I should check that!
Apparently I am not alone in loving whatever I get from here. I've read Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, along with, I thought, all of his books -- but hadn't heard of this one. To the bookstore!
I find your dictionary-love unspeakably endearing. Let's do a movie on Thursday - I'll bring the MST3K, you bring the hooch.
You're my favorite, Sarah Brown.
What does this perfect dress look like? Because I am very good at finding hard to find things. Try me.
I could go for being held right now. And if you wear a black dress, just go all-out with cool jewelry and you're all set - your Mighty Goods necklace would rock the whole "I'm hip and edgy and authory, yet demure and little black dressy".
Wow, The Sizzler. Nice. I haven't been to one of those since Moses was a kid. Long time, yo.
Nah, I'm just going to read. You wouldn't happen to have an encyclopedia lying around?
Dude, you want to go to the movies with me? American Teen. A documentary version of The Breakfast Club. Should be awesome.
We can cuddle, but can youse get me a beer first?
Have you read "Lapsing Into a Comma," by Bill Walsh? It's "... a Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them." Awesome!
Yes, let's watch "When Harry Met Sally." Holding optional.
Seriously, you need to be on twitter so I can read this stuff all day long!
But I do refresh! And sigh in the privacy of my own head! I should put you on RSS so I will know the second you update, except it's always exciting when I click and voila -- new QSS! Dictionaries are hot, baby.
Delurking to say, dude, I read dictionaries too! Do you have Brian Garner's Guide to Modern American Usage? Run, do not walk. It has great mini-essays. His entries on class and pronunciation are must reads. Chicken soup for your soul, fo' sho'.
That you treat a dictionary the way some people treat scriptures makes me want to transcend to a higher plane of nerdism.
A movie? Oh, I don't know. I haven't watched Tron since third grade; I could go for that. My kettle corn is pretty good.
A hearty "Hear, hear!" to your second paragraph.
And little black dresses are classic for a reason. :) I'm sure you'll look wonderful--you'll be *glowing* anyway, as it's your book release party! --but if you keep looking, good luck finding an outfit you're excited about. :) What an exciting time for you. :)
I keep buying the same dress over and over also. I spent the entire afternoon shopping for a dress on Monday. When I brought it to show my mother all she said was... it looks like all the other ones you have. Ya, but... it's an inch shorter!
I was in an earthquake, a big one and I was totally trying to draw people into my crazy. Like 'Hey EARTHQUAKE! There was an earthquake. Let's all freak out together.' It was the strangest thing, the eeery silence on the bus. No one wanted to talk about it. I just wanted someone to explain it to me or to tell me I wasn't dreaming or something. It was very odd, everyone in their own world. I guess they were like you.
This is my first time to your site although I saw you speak, wait you didn't have a voice, at BlogHer. I can't believe you have a favorite dictionary. I was just fondling my favorite dictionary yesterday, it is 20 years old and someone gave it to me just before I started college. I use it all the time!
Featured on Good Mom/ Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/5tal58
Have you posted a Cringe Book schedule yet? Did I miss it? Am I sitting on it? Will you be coming to Phoenix, Arizona? Probably not... I don't blame you, it's like 1000 degrees here. But I sure would love to see you on a book tour. Keep the SW in mind!
Not only do I keep a dictionary in my bedside table, I keep two. I once fell off of my bed post-coitus reaching for the dictionary and landed on my glasses, thus breaking them and subsequently knocking the wind out of myself. When my almost husband and I were first dating, I directed him to the top drawer one evening for condoms. "Where are they?," he asked. I said, "Behind the dictionary." His reply was, "which one?" I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one with a nerdy dictionary problem.
My favourite among my big nerdy shelf of dictionaries is the Oxford Etymology Dictionary.
But my favourite dictionary definition is here: http://tinyurl.com/5nykja
I'm that sighing asshole. Seriously. I'm sorry I'm so impatient! *sigh*
Well, I have been refreshing and sighing loudly and I guess you finally heard and updated! I love Bill Bryson and I love his Australia book, it is an amazing book. That's all I got.