Archive (Page 2) • Margaret Crandall • Buttondown

attachment styles any my phone

Attachment styles There’s a guy on TikTok who likes to offer dating advice while chopping vegetables. He went viral with a video where he says something...

old songs and bad metaphors

Old songs and bad metaphors Mid 1990s, in my maternal grandmother’s living room in Connecticut Grama is sitting on the rattan armchair with the yellow...

Push it along Next week is the 4-year anniversary of my mother's death. My mother died 4 years ago, as of next week. My mother has been dead for almost 4...

linguistic confusion

Glamour-dot-com has a semi-regular feature called "I Can't Stop Thinking About _____" where the writer (or AI tool) barfs out 500 words of SEO nonsense about...

chatting with TikTok

TikTok knows me better than I know myself. Almost. Me: Hey. I'm bored. Entertain me. TikTok: Cool, here are 500 very short videos. Have at it. Me: (Loses the...

parade inside my city

Three stories about men who don't suck If you are “very online,” obsessively read the news, use any of the dating apps, are a member of an “Are we dating the...

nightmare, reality

Birthday nightmare I am hosting a party. It is a party I don’t want to be hosting. There is palpable family pressure on me to be a good host. I am trying to...

Potential A couple weeks ago, I found this photo of my mother, probably from before I was born. I’d never seen it before. I stared at it for half an hour....

you can't be serious

February 23, 2023

Dear Irene Today is the first day of this year's #The100DayProject. I have set up this Instagram account to track it. I have so many photos to scan, and just...

let's do the fork in the garbage disposal

February 16, 2023

My proofreader is on vacation. Possible typos ahead. My car is 10 years old. It has a CD player, but no port or jack to connect my iPhone. So when I’m...

all of the above

February 9, 2023

Multiple choice This newsletter tool uses some newfangled computer language that does not support lettered lists. There are ways around it, but I never...

can't stop won't stop

February 2, 2023

(Two yard signs that caught my eye this week.) About last week It is late afternoon, on a Wednesday. A middle-aged woman, alone, hunches over a large...

the room of shame in Building D

January 19, 2023

The migrant respite center where I volunteer is quiet right now, thanks to fewer buses arriving from Texas and Arizona (this week, anyway), and some critical...

puzzles and metaphors

January 12, 2023

Buttondown finally added an alt text field inside the photos so I don't have to explain what each photo is. (But that's the hilarious puppy I'm taking care...

radically candid

January 5, 2023

[Alt text: A jigsaw puzzle box. The cover image shows a variety of colorful vintage neckties.] After complaining last week about all the junk email I've been...

junky mailboxes

December 29, 2022

[Alt text: A white mailbox that looks like it's being humped by a giant blue dolphin. In Florida, of course.] Brief holiday redux: Most of my family lives...

Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

December 22, 2022

[Alt text: Black and white illustration of the 2-Tone guy shedding tears. Image via Chema Skandal.) My feeds are full of year-end lists. Bests and worsts. I...

December 16, 2022

[Alt text: A decorative object resembling a silver pig with disco ball material boots and a pink felt Santa hat.] I had every intention of getting back to a...

there's a cream for that

December 9, 2022

[Alt text: A tree ornament that looks like a Dr. Martens boot] Last week, my doctor suggested I start using vaginal estrogen. Because I'm a dried up old maid...

imaginary interview

December 1, 2022

[Alt text: A pile of 50+ tangled hangers on a parquet floor.] Yesterday or the day before, Vanity Fair released their annual interview (YouTube) with Billie...

open tabs, empty cart

November 18, 2022

[Alt text: A painting of people on a subway car in the 1930s, in which people are chatting, reading, sleeping, applying lipstick, and otherwise not staring...

Friday link dump, partially annotated

November 12, 2022

what's another story?

October 27, 2022

[Alt text: A pair of oversized red and orange sunglasses frames I spotted in a store window in Barcelona.] When kids are around 4, I think, they like to ask...

postcard from Barcelona

October 20, 2022

[Alt text: The inside of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, possibly the biggest church in the world. If you think the Vatican is ostentatious and obscene, Sagrada is...

postcard from Barcelona

October 20, 2022

[Alt text: The inside of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, possibly the biggest church in the world. If you think the Vatican is ostentatious and obscene, Sagrada is...

Negroni. Sbagliato. With prosecco in it.

October 13, 2022

[Alt text: Three TikTok screenshots of Emma D'Arcy with short hair, wearing a pink diagonally striped oxford shirt with a matching pink tie. The captions say...

mistakes and your mom

October 6, 2022

[Alt text: Vlisco wax print fabric, in various shades of purple, with repeating patterns of vintage Vespa scooters and motorcycles.] Last week I wrote about...

incomplete asylum application

September 30, 2022

[Alt text: A flyer on a door that says "PRO SE MEANS: ON YOUR OWN"] Yesterday, I spent about 8 hours at a Pro Se Asylum Workshop, working on an application...

September 23, 2022

[Alt text: A large Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture decorated with polka dots in a room with polka dot walls and floors.] In a few weeks I'm going to Spain for...

more dogs, less wine

September 15, 2022

[Alt text: My neighbor's dog, who I finally got to take care of over the weekend, lying in my bed with his head wedged between two pillows.] A month ago, I...

howling anxiety

September 7, 2022

[Alt text: An 8-foot tall sculpture of a faceless Black woman, with her hands on her hips, in a raffia skirt.] There's a dog right across the hall from me...

September 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/HarvF/status/1563708422805233666 [Alt text: A tweet showing a photo of a group of people posing with Dr. Oz, holding his campaign sign so...

covid virginity

August 25, 2022

[Alt text: A negative at-home covid test on a hot pink bag.] The whole time I was traveling I was practically chanting to myself, "Please don't let me get...

August 18, 2022

[Alt text: A large black sculpture of a mythical creature, possibly a wolf head, with big fangs, four eyes, a skull emerging from the top of its head, and...

amazon robots and hells angels

Hi from San Francisco, where I am back in my old neighborhood, taking care of two of my favorite dogs while their people are on a much-needed vacation, a few...

dog report card

[Alt text: A brown and black dog — a Very Good Boy — lying on the ground with his front paws crossed, smiling at the camera.] Dear Mary Ellen, We don't know...

[Alt text: A big window overlooking a meadow or field, with a stream, trees, and railroad tracks in the distance.] Hi from the Delaware River Valley, where...

dna tests and family secrets

[Alt text: A screenshot of Jeremy Allen White in Hulu's The Bear, where he looks haggard and annoyed, in a t-shirt and apron, in a restaurant's back office....

emotional damage?

[Alt text: A Margaret Keane painting of a blonde girl in a yellow dress shedding tears and holding a black cat in her arms.] Late last week, Lifehacker...

books, merch, and migrants

[Alt text: A 19th century stone house with a big grassy lawn in front and trees on the sides] Above is a photo of the Peirce-Klingle mansion, which is a very...

confidence and fireflies

[Alt text: A small part of Bisa Butler's quilt, "Don’t Tread On Me, God Damn, Let’s Go! — The Harlem Hellfighters" that shows a Black WWI soldier squatting...

[Alt text: A Converse "pride" sneaker with a big and jagged rainbow sole] If you see a speed limit sign in DC with the words "photo enforced," that means in...

rethining the to-do list

The news is extra terrible this week. I can't even imagine what it's like for parents of school children. There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been...

me myself and four cats

[Alt text: A gold necklace with a giant gold praying mantis] Hi from a couch in Westchester County, where I am babysitting four cats whose people are on a...

towels, Mormons, and 911

[Alt text: Yellow tshirt with Holiday Inn logo above the word Cambodia.] Towels I've been helping my sister-in-law clean out and organize various closets and...

proceed to the route

[Alt text: A long iPhone alert message telling me I may have been exposed to Covid] Monday night, while scrolling through TikTok, my phone sent me the above...

ready for reattitude*

[Alt text: The Washington DC area Mormon temple, which looks like the Disney castle, at sunset] The way it worked out, schedule-wise, my first personal...

hormones and links

[Alt text: A screenshot of an Instagram post from @overhearddistrict, that says DC has 12 seasons, and August/September is accurately described as Hell's...

"put your gucci watch on, synchronize the time, and let's rock"

[Alt text: A boy golden retriever sitting and smiling. This is my aunt and uncle's dog who I took for a long walk over the weekend.] Thanks for all the nice...

[Alt text: A photo of Meryl Streep and someone else in nun-like costumes, from a movie I know I've seen but can't remember the title of, with the caption...