Month: October 2010

I just heard that Nancy Lewis died on Saturday, October 23rd. I knew Nancy from the Interactive Telecommunication Program at NYU (a graduate program we both went to) and from the Scifi Channel (back when it was called that). Echo and the SciFi Channel did an interactive tv experiment together.

Nancy was also a member of Echo. When people log in for the first time they’re asked to write an online bio. Here’s what she wrote. I wish I remembered what year this was but I don’t.

“If life is a bowl of cherries look at it upsidedown and you’ve got life as a cherries’ helmet. I don’t know what that means, but heh, that’s life.

“I’m a children’s book writer aspiring to be published. I’ve been making a living as a computer consultant (mainframes). I just finished my first year in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.”

I like the cherries helmet. Damnit. Nancy really was funny and everyone who knew her will tell you she had a good heart. This news just sucks. She was 54, and I don’t know what the cause of death was yet. In case other old friends of hers read this, there’s a memorial tomorrow, October 27 at 6:30pm at:

Metro Baptist Church
410 W 40th St (between 9th and 10th)

Some friends of mine have a book coming out next month called Read This Next. It’s suggestions for great books you might have missed. These two people are the funniest people I know (I’m so jealous). They’re also doing this incredible and very funny thing to promote it. (I have to go scream now. Except I plan to copy them when my next book comes out, so thanks for the idea.)

They’ve invented these two twitter characters Barrington Hewcott and his talking vicuna, Caritas.  If you have a twitter account you can follow Barrington and Caritas (it only takes seconds to sign up on twitter if you don’t ).  I advise going to their twitter pages and reading the earlier tweets to get the whole back story. There’s not a lot, I swear, and it’s amazing what you can communicate in so few words (an entertaining lesson, really).

Also, our friend Marianne Petit made a bookfomercial which is hysterical and worth watching.

I took this the other day, when it was so gorgeous out even this ordinary view up Seventh Avenue was beautiful.

Every year there’s a party in the West Village for the kids, and all the stores give out candy. I asked one place if they’d gotten a lot of kids and the guy said, “We spent $50 to fill up this basket and we ran out in an hour! We had to go run out and get a lot more.”

This was Cynthia Rowley’s. They were getting a steady stream of children. (P.S. I want that dress in the window on the left.)

I guess there were horse rides earlier. These guys were hanging out on 11th Street. Pretty.

This is walking west on Grove Street. Marie’s Crisis was named for Thomas Paine, who died in a different building on this spot in 1809. Paine is the guy who wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls,” and that’s from a series of pamphlets he distributed called The Crisis. Oh sad. Just read his Wikipedia entry. I’d learned all this before but had forgotten. He was one of the earliest fighters against slavery, argued against organized or revealed religion, although he believed in God. He argued for something called deism, which is very interesting (reading the Wikipedia entry on deism now).

From Paine, “the account of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of salvation, by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dishonorable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty.” Seriously. Why on earth would torturing and murdering a guy in this way become the path to salvation? It makes no sense. Anyway, for all these perfectly reasonable views he was hated, and only a handful of people attended his funeral.

Marie’s Crisis is a bar where people drink and sing, mostly show tunes. I used to go there when I first moved to the Village in the early 80’s. I haven’t been inside since then. I’m guessing it looks exactly the same.

I broke down and bought a new comforter the day before yesterday. I’ve been hating the one I have, but I didn’t feel like I could afford a new one. The hated one was a down alternative that was awful. Whatever the alternative was bunched up and hardened into clumps in the squares and wasn’t warm.

But when Finney threw up on it I said, “That’s it. I’m not paying one more time to have this cleaned.” I went over to Bed, Bath and Beyond, bought a new one, a different down alternative, and took it home.

It was $163 and I freaked and freaked about spending that much, but by the next morning I was happy. It was so comfortable.

The next day (yesterday) Finney threw up on it.

It happened while I was out so the throw-up had hours and hours to set and stain. I cried. But after a million round of Oxy Clean (which really doesn’t work, I’ve decided) and the laundry, I think it looks like almost new again. (It’s only three days old!)

Finney of course jumps right back into it. I’ve got my eye on you.