Archive (Page 2) • Emily Gould Can't Complain • Buttondown

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Hi, just a note that I thought I had managed to delete my Substack but somehow had not. Please email me for reimbursement if you have been double-charged and...

THE FLOUNCING OFF OF SUBSTACK EMAIL!!!

Something I don’t talk about much (because I signed an NDA as a condition of my severance) is the job I had from 2013-2014. That was the year that the NYC...

$ · March 11, 2021

Dear subscribers, This morning I was eavesdropping on the kindergarten Zoom as Raffi’s teacher told the class how to write a personal narrative. Your story,...

February 10, 2021

After a hot streak of several great novels, I have somewhat forgotten how to read again. I’m really enjoying reading Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series to...

The acupuncture room where it happens

January 22, 2021

I got acupuncture this morning for the first time in a year. Pre-pandemic I went to the community clinic down the block at least once a month, treating my...

Crise de panique

December 31, 2020

I’ve gotten really over-invested in Le Bureau, a tv show that it’s fair to call French Homeland. It’s a spy show with a lot of feints toward psychological...

Could a depressed person make THIS (list)?

$ · December 14, 2020

I’m going to level with you, beloved subscribers — I’m in a terrible mood today. Last night we had neighbors over for dinner on the roof of our building,...

The Fillyjonk Who Believed In Disasters

December 2, 2020

“The windows were large and solemn, and no lace curtains could give them a friendly look. They weren’t windows for looking out of, they were windows to look...

welcome to the inner sanctum

$ · November 19, 2020

Dear paying subscribers, You are so kind and so patient — I’m sorry this is the first subscriber-only post I’ve done so far! I’m really grateful to have you...

November 9, 2020

Last week I felt ravenously hungry all the time, which was logistically annoying but kind of fun. Usually when I feel anxious my stomach is a mess and I eat...

Cinema studies with Raffi, part 2

October 21, 2020

Can you believe that the first time I wrote about undertaking Cinema Studies with my now 5 1/3 year old son, I hadn’t ever seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate...

What am I going through

October 7, 2020

On Monday night I was “in conversation with” Sigrid Nunez “at” Harvard Bookstore, but actually on Zoom, to discuss her new book What Are You Going Through....

Coffee and TV: Billions

September 23, 2020

“TV drama series all have a limited lifespan, or else become parodies of themselves - normally within three years.” This is something I read recently in a...

September 17, 2020

We needed a toothbrush, bandaids, milk, cans of seltzer, hand soap, and goldfish crackers, so I went to Target. There were no carts available and a pissed-...

yoga with Adriene with Emily

September 11, 2020

“What are you working on lately?” Honestly, I am working on forcing myself to do one brief online yoga class every day. I’m working on other things too but...

Get into the groove

August 20, 2020

Since July we have been living what passes for a charmed life considering we’re still in a global pandemic, meaning primarily that both our kids have been in...

Wordpress and Tumblr, I've seen 'em all

August 10, 2020

Since July the kids have been in camp. I dicked around a lot and then got back to work. Nothing that I’ve been working on is finished yet, except one very...

I'd rather be dry

The week before we went into lockdown I had one of those vertiginous mood plummets that feel otherworldly, as though I’ve been struck down by a curse. I was...

Things that have helped

The things I most want — childcare, a larger and cleaner living space, a functioning federal and/or state government that will reopen the city in a way that...

Cinema Studies with Raffi

Today is the second day of our eighth week of sheltering in place. During this time, Raffi and I have developed a ritual of watching a movie or part of a...

Somehow, I’m in the middle of doing publicity for Perfect Tunes. If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you have heard a lot about this book over the...

Five of pentacles

Two weeks ago I went to New Orleans. A lot of classic New Orleans tourist experiences — beignets, po boys, muffaletta, gumbo — are off limits to me because I...

January 23, 2020

This winter has been a real festival of minor bodily indignities and ailments for me and my children. As I write this I am suffering from a second bout with...

Having your cake

November 27, 2019

In the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election I was working on a short, “fun” essay for a food website about what it’s like to watch The Great...

Halloween grinch

October 30, 2019

Probably my most memorable and best Halloween costume was Courtney Love, because it was part of a couples costume — Kurt and Courtney. My then-boyfriend...

October 17, 2019

On Saturday night I burned all the skin of the pad of my left thumb. It was the kind of banal kitchen mishap that happens all the time, especially when...

Pork chops with plums, two ways

October 2, 2019

The kids had two days off school for Rosh Hashanah. Monday I dropped Raffi off at “break camp” and then took Ilya home and napped during his nap instead of...

August 13, 2019

Years ago Jami Attenberg and I had lunch in Williamsburg at a restaurant that no longer exists and then I pointed out the place where I get my legs waxed,...

I reread Heartburn on the train back from a weekend in NYC. I’ve probably read it 20 or 30 times and it remains nearly perfect, perfect even in its...

It's not the people doing something real

The house we rented in DC belongs to people who are less than a decade older than I am, but perhaps in part because my most recent experience with this kind...

Recommendations for June

If you have to wake up and then go back to sleep multiple times a night for whatever reason, you might be interested in my latest discovery! Instead of...

The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo

My almost-four-year-old son is not yet able to reliably shit in a toilet, but he has cleared a developmental hurdle that I hadn’t even thought to hope for:...

A different lens

Real EG heads know that I have been using my vision problems as a too-on-the-nose metaphor for a long time. There’s an essay in my first collection called...

Those who can't do

February 25, 2019

This semester I’m teaching an undergraduate intermediate fiction workshop and I’m trying to be more like a real teacher, writing things on the board and...

Concealer and chicken

January 4, 2019

As a way to get back in the habit of doing these more regularly (sorry I haven’t posted in a while!*) I am doing another Favorite Things roundup. As you...

November 13, 2018

I’ve told Ilya’s birth story so often by now to friends, family, strangers and medical professionals that it’s become calcified, full of bits of shtick. I...

the platonic ideal of potato salad

Raffi and Keith went to my inlaws’ for the holiday weekend and I stayed home and psychotically organized our apartment to within an inch of its life....

The wind beneath my wings

It’s spring migration at last and this morning I went to Prospect Park with my real-birder friend Nate. Don’t worry: I am not going to describe birds or...

my favorite things

Remember the episode of 30 Rock where Liz takes Comanaprasil on a plane and hallucinates meeting Oprah, who tells her that her current Favorite Things...

Before I had a kid I thought of taking care of my kid and having someone else care for my kid as a binary. Like I would be able to leave my child and then,...