But Call Me Betsy

I had lunch with a co-worker the other day who is also an avid fiction reader and we were talking about teaching the Philadelphia Stories ' fiction workshop. He asked me what stories we would be reading for class and I listed off a few of the ones I love to assign, including Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried," by Amy Hemple, "Love is Not a Pie," by Amy Bloom,  Lorrie Moore's "Terrific Mother," and pretty much anything by Raymond Carver. My friend then told me that there had been all this controversy about Carver's work--that much of the final story was the work of significant edits and cuts by his editor, Gordon Lish. He sent me this link to the New Yorker article, "Rough Crossings: The Cutting of Raymond Carver." Basically, the article describes how Lish slashed huge chunks of Carver's writing, paring it down into the sparse prose that's been compared to...

Having a little trouble getting out of the house this morning though it appears to be a nice day and I have all of these new/old songs on my i-pod so can anticipate a long walk to the same places I always go--Circle Thrift, Rittenhouse Square, the Whole Foods where I expect to be banned at any moment, since I show up to graze the free food at least twice a week (I always buy something, but it's usually inexpensive like an all-natural, non tortured muffin). I could also stay home and clean because my house is a mess. I mean, it's picked up, but it's not clean. So much cat hair blowing around like tumbleweeds plus star-shaped splashes of spilled coffee on the linoleum and various decorative items wearing a layer of dust. If I suddenly inherited a ton of money, I would hire a house cleaner. That would be my dream; someone else who would come in and get this place in ship shape. And also a cook, just a slightly talented chef who could prepare the occasional meal that doesn'...