I love school, I do... but when people start talking about how TV is deadening our souls, I think, oh shut up, I need to get out of here in time to see The Daily Show ...and when they talk about how how they must write because they would otherwise die, I'm thinking, huh, I wonder if there's a good show this weekend and when they go on and on about how they're "obsessed with" or "haunted by" their characters ...I'm thinking, eh, whatever...my characters don't haunt me, these days we're barely on speaking terms -- it's a real dysfunction junction over here.

So maybe then, I'm not really a "Writer" with a capital W? I don't think so if it means acting so stuffy and narcissistically intellectual.

Intellectual interests and pop culture fluff can co-exist...can't they?

Can't you live in a world where it's equally acceptable to skim passionately read US Weekly and watch It's Good to Be Brad & Jen and be interested in Biblical references in Housekeeping?

Or am I just naive?

Anyway, we're reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando and, so far, my favorite quote comes when Woolf describes the the Great Frost of 1608 : "Birds froze in mid-air and fell like stones to the ground."

Not that I have anything against birds, mind you, it's just so simple yet evocative...or maybe it's just that it's hot here today and I like the idea of anything frozen.