Margaret Crandall
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family photos/awards
June 5, 2025
My great-grandfather’s tobacco shed Apologies for slacking on this email thing. I have two legitimate excuses, one of which follows in story form. I’ll save...
on the universe rebalancing itself
May 1, 2025
You can stay on a 100-year-old boat in Edinburgh. My room, at the end of the boat, was called The Bitter End. Two quick stories about the universe kind of…...
postcard from Scotland
April 3, 2025
this is somehow a real place Hello from The Middle of Nowhere (TMON for short), aka the southwestern coast of Scotland. The closest major city is Belfast,...
fire in Ward 3
March 6, 2025
I just discovered the Live Auctioneers website. Someone confiscate my credit card. Monday afternoon, a friend called me. “Marjorie Cranberry! Are you home...
New hobby, new metaphor
February 20, 2025
She’s 40 years old, sometimes 50. And she’s exhausted. After spending the best years of her life quietly serving other people, she was dumped for a cheaper,...
they say DC is hollywood for ugly people
February 6, 2025
But we have some impressive buildings? I went to the protest outside the Treasury Department last night. A few people have asked me about it, so here’s my...
crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious
January 23, 2025
I’ve named him R2D2 Are you watching the TikTok videos of all the people in New Orleans having fun in the snow? I’ve seen Mardi Gras snowmen, sledding on air...
snow days and cough medicine
January 9, 2025
“Jesus Laughing,” as seen at a thrift store last week. I got carded for Robitussin at Target. I looked at the sales clerk like, “are you serious?” and she...
how not to cope
December 5, 2024
I’d hoped like hell that Harris would win. I thought she had a chance, however small, to beat someone so blatantly immoral, corrupt, evil. That I might...
Old clothes as distraction
October 31, 2024
Some donations waiting to be sorted If you have anxiety about the upcoming election, how are you handling it? Instead of going to Harris rallies downtown,...
baby books and writing through it
October 24, 2024
I need more midcentury owl art like I need a hole in the head, but damn this is perfect. Do you ever start looking for one thing, only to discover something...
personal essay Mad Libs
October 10, 2024
The opposite of what I looked like during colonoscopy prep a few days ago I signed up for this online writing class at Narratively. Every day the instructor...
performance v. practice
September 19, 2024
DC small world story #1 A few months ago, chatting with other volunteers sorting clothing donations, I learned that “Jane” also went to my tiny high school;...
Donation feedback
August 29, 2024
There’s some really fun vintage art on the internet A regular volunteer shift at A Wider Circle is supposed to be two hours. I recently spent six hours...
very mindful, very demure
August 15, 2024
10-year-old me on Christmas morning “She saved everything. There are mailing envelopes with everyone’s names on them. They’re filled with cards.” My aunt is...
Big Bertha speaks
August 1, 2024
How I got most of the way to Poland TO: Olivier Krueger, Lufthansa CMO FR: Big Bertha, Airbus A380 RE: Improvements to our ad campaigns As you may be aware,...
a final grandmother post
July 11, 2024
My grandmother, in 1991 or 1992, standing on a chair so she could be taller than me. My grandmother died two Fridays ago. Peacefully and at home. She was...
pattern recognition
June 20, 2024
I almost bid on this. A couple weeks ago, my aunt called me. I did not answer because I was driving. I waited until I got to my destination to call her back....
dignity condition and brain wiring
June 6, 2024
Pa'lante is Spanish slang for ‘forward’ Back in 1990, when I first started taking anti-depressants, talking about clinical depression and meds outside of a...
playlists and padded shorts
May 16, 2024
Literal leopard print It’s been so long since I wrote anything, I’m guessing this will end up in your junk mail. Excuse #1 Two weeks of planning — and then...
generational change, and links
April 25, 2024
DC azaleas are going crazy right now A couple weeks ago I wrote about the 4B movement, and wondered aloud what a man could add to my life besides chaos and...
on stigma and opting out
April 10, 2024
The perfect beach towel Over the last week I have spent hours on TikTok watching videos about the 4B movement. (Service 95) This is a movement where straight...
vanity, filters, links
April 4, 2024
Art by Gürbüz Dogan Eksioglu (click image for more) On a scale of 1-10, where are you on the vanity spectrum? How much time do you spend looking at yourself...
errands as distraction
March 28, 2024
One of my favorite Jacob photos Two weeks ago, I wrote about my nephew’s Make-A-Wish bus ride. (Buttondown) Thanks for all the kind responses. Emailing and...
celebrations and grief
March 14, 2024
Cookies by @cookiechica I'm too drained and tired to proofread. Apologies for any typos. My youngest nephew, Jacob, is dying. He has terminal cancer. Today...
just a bunch of links
March 7, 2024
Someone in Dayton, OH has unearthed a ton of 70s prints. My niece won her election for third grade class president. (There are serious recess issues that...
bad crochet and worse men
February 21, 2024
Ruth Asawa sculptures at the Glenstone Museum At some point in 2020 or 2021, when it still didn't feel safe to be outside and/or around other people, I...
not a love letter
February 14, 2024
Genius and, unfortunately, sold out. Herpes Kill Switch is my new band name Dear Apple, Who is in charge of your email product, that iCloud, me- or mac-dot-...
Lithium Receipt is my new band name
February 1, 2024
I want to buy this and hang it over my toilet. Dry January surprises My first serious Dry January effort ended last night at Blues Alley in Georgetown. I'm...
how - or if - to store other people's memories
January 25, 2024
We got snow! Wheeee! Somewhere on the internet there is a clip of Denzel Washington saying "You'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse." Meaning, you can't...
links with a side of hormones and catholics
January 11, 2024
My feeds tell me today is Quitting Day, or the day when most people give up enforcing/practicing their New Year's resolutions. I guess that means the bars...
angels, owls, and the bare minimum
January 4, 2024
"Three Eyes," a print by Kaoru Kawano My neighbor, I will call him Sam, is from Iran. He's an immigration lawyer for a large respected immigrant aid...
diapers, shoes, and saying no
December 21, 2023
Me as a Disney villain, according to a TikTok filter. Be grateful I'm not showing you what I look like with the Justin Bieber filter. This is a long one....
running away and making pound cake
December 7, 2023
Last weekend I went to this place in Bethesda, MD called The Writer's Center for a celebration/launch of a new book called Already Gone. The book is a...
nightmares, language barriers, and shopping
November 30, 2023
Kistchy prayer candles make great holiday gifts, right? No deep thoughts this week, just a couple quick stories. I had a dog here for six nights. His name is...
chopper dubstep
November 23, 2023
Chopper, the 2-year-old Border Collie/Cocker Spaniel mix who is staying with me over Thanksgiving while his people go to Florida. In the spirit of...
long-term decisions
November 9, 2023
Simone Leigh's "Bisi" sculpture, currently at DC's Hirshhorn museum Unpleasant planning When I turned 40, I walked into a lawyer's office on my lunch break...
one's gotta go
October 25, 2023
One of the dresses at the Brooklyn Museum's African fashion exhibit One's gotta go Seven years ago, Shonda Rhimes published Year of Yes (Bookshop). From what...
semantic hairsplitting
October 11, 2023
Is anyone else's calendar exploding like it's mid-December, with back-to-back appointments, commitments, and even social things? Is this what life was like...
Honk and mistakes
October 5, 2023
Mistakes and washing machines I just finished this book called I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You (Publisher's site). I was looking for Toni Morrison...
middle-aged skazine column
September 28, 2023
Mini Midwest ska reunion with Damon from the Eclectics (L) and Ryan from the Exceptions (R) Prelude A lightly edited transcript of a text conversation with a...
tiny ducks and paying it forward
September 13, 2023
What the duck?? Hello from my sick bed, where I am battling my third consecutive case of Covid. If there are typos in here, it's Nyquil's fault. The timing...
a-to-z experiment
August 31, 2023
"A is for absolutely the fuck not," starts Ohshestatted. (TikTok) She works her way through the entire alphabet, one letter at a time, and a good 40% of it...
taking notes
August 24, 2023
In the span of just two weeks I've managed to prolong an old woman’s extreme suffering, hurt someone I care about, and come down with Covid. Quite the...
postmortem therapy session
August 16, 2023
Step into my office. Where shall we begin? He lovebombed me. And I let it happen. Oh absolutely. He chased you like a greyhound going after a rabbit. You...
"Way to be there"
August 3, 2023
My rental car has more than 111,000 miles on it, reeks of cigarette and marijuana smoke, and is filthy inside and out. There is enough brake dust on the...
disgust and gratitude
July 20, 2023
(Outside the store at Black Shed, a place in the middle of nowhere, NJ. For SF readers, imagine Flora Grubb, but 20 times bigger and more interesting. Thanks...
on overthinking and getting out of your own way
July 6, 2023
Hi from the Delaware River Valley, where I'm taking care of Winston (Buttonwdown) again while his people are on vacation. He seems a lot less fearful this...
"The notes are familiar to my ears. Vaguely."
June 15, 2023
(Eastern Standard Time last weekend backing Monty Neysmith of Simaryp.) It's been so long since I've done one of these. Hello, it's nice to see your junk...
sappy top 40 lyrics
June 1, 2023
High school music U2's The Joshua Tree came out in 1987, when I was in 10th grade. For younger readers, it's impossible to describe how huge that record was...
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