Welcome, new subscribers. Hello, old-timers. Let’s not waste time…
Some will recall in the early days of The Letter I had an obsession with typos. I feared them. I loathed them. I worried what you’d think of me if you found them (and found them, you did).
Time does heal.
Over the 50-some weeks we’ve been together, I’ve become so comfortable and careless that Issue 48 was littered with at least three—one being “Shakespeare”—and god knows how many prior to Issue 48. Perhaps you’re keeping a tally, though I know you’re not. And if you were, we need to talk.
But, since we’re admitting wrong-doings, I referred to Issue 50 (50? Can you believe it?) as Issue 49, and therefore skipped the due celebration I desperately deserve for keeping this baby alive for 50 straight weeks.
🎉 Join me in celebrating 50 issues of The Letter: a smattering of random yet enjoyable, wise, and witty prose by Simone Silverstein.
Hit reply and RSVP. No gifts, please.
I’m proud of my streak. Next week, we hit 52, our first anniversary together. Invite coming soon. Gifts, please.
My Birth Day
🎉 On September 22, only a few days ago, I turned 46 years old. This photo of me (and my doesn’t-age Dad) is from 4.5 years ago. I don’t have a more recent one to share—or maybe I just like this one better.
I’ll let you imagine me today. My hair is longer, my weight is more, and I don’t drink alcohol. If you’re picturing Sally O’Malley—you’re not far off.
PS: The day I miss my mom the very most is on my birthday. She hasn’t called the last two years because she passed away in April 2021. I miss her voice celebrating the day she gave birth to me. Some things feel all wrong and this is one of them.❤️
A Pediatric Pedicure
When life gives you a teen boy going through tough stuff, you make him get a pedicure. The parenting books won’t tell you to do it. The boys themselves will fight it. But you must persist—this is how you show a kid self-care—you force him into the pedi chair.
Now that we’re done, he keeps admiring his feet and that makes us both smile.
Keep It Clean Shot
I only just purchased this product so I haven’t had a chance to enjoy it yet. However, two brilliant people I work with rave about it. Therefore, I’m sold.
I only took the plunge minutes ago to brag about it to you. How could I recommend something I didn’t, myself, own? Oh, right, I did that a few newsletters ago, multiple times.
Anyway, if your computer’s desktop looks like this, you’re a mess. I mean, I’m a mess. Your desktop is a mirror of your mind and mine is littered with screenshots.
Enter Clean Shot X—screenshots on steroids. If you’re so inclined to drop $29 on a sophisticated screenshot system, it just may save your life (and at the very least, streamline your mind). So far, I like it.
The Most Enjoyable Words
Will you allow me to rave about the children’s book series Lemony Snicket once again? They are so beautifully written I could cry.
By beautiful, I don’t mean poetic or painterly, but also I do. Listen to this excerpt about almost nothing, from one of the books. His punctuation and run-on sentences are genius. Lemony, the narrator, often uses big words and phrases and weaves their meaning into the prose brilliantly. He does this a lot:
…when the middle Baudelaire child did not want to think about his circumstances, he began to read.
It is now necessary for me to use the rather hackneyed phrase “meanwhile, back at the ranch.” The word “hackneyed” here means “used by so, so many writers that by the time Lemony Snicket uses it, it is a tiresome cliche.” “Meanwhile, back at the ranch” is a phrase used to link what is going on in one part of the story to what is going on in another part of the story, and it has nothig to do with cows or with horses or with any people work in rural areas where ranches are, or even with ranch dressing, which is creamy and put on salads…
Do you see what I mean? It’s both random and rambling, yet flows like a brook. It’s silly and irreverent, yet he effortlessly sneaks in vocabulary. Even crazier, almost nothing good happens throughout. How are they so lovely and endearing?
Each book has a disclaimer that makes them even more irresistible:
Dear Reader,
I’m sorry to say the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe… (he goes on).
For years I wished to find books that I wanted to read to my kids. Like, books I could stand listening to myself speak out loud. I’ve found them. Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series is on Netflix, as well, and it’s very good there, too.
Happy belated birthday, Simone!
Happy Birthday!! <3