864th Friday Blog Roundup
As much as I love Carolyn Hax and advice columns in general, I love the idea of fake letters sent to advice columnists even more. What an art form! “I learned that a good letter is defined by two opposing values: it must be plausible, but it must also be ridiculous.” To write a letter that sounds just this side of real with a heaping tablespoon of “this can’t be real… right?” to boot—and to get 12 out of 25 answered. That is an impressive feat.
This article amused me to no end.
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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.
Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “You’re the Expert” (Infertile Phoenix)
- “Convincing Myself” (Stirrup Queens)—thanks, Jess!
Okay, now my choices this week.
A Half-Baked Life has a post about heavy thoughts and dessert. She unpacks her daughter’s fear about death and about one day losing her mother. She writes, “We did not talk about pregnancy loss, but we’ve talked about it before, and she knows that this is there too, the specter in the background.” It’s a heavy post, made lighter by cake. But yes, it’s hard to keep your brain in the here and now.
Family Building with a Twist processes the feelings that Mondays kick off, that stand in place of all the larger emotions that follow her the rest of the week. She explains about Mondays: “And it includes garbage needing to be dealt with. It sounds silly, but I don’t know…garbage symbolizes so much, and it is a huge pain. Garbage night symbolizes to me one of those tasks that I didn’t have to do previously but now must do now. And I fucking hate it.” It is a raw post (with a scary incident in the water), and the only thing to do is abide.
Hopelessly Infertile and Surrounded by Fertiles writes about daughter and son days on Facebook (who made up these holidays?) and how the posts make her feel. All I can say is that she’s not alone. I bet a lot of other people would raise their hand and say, “Me too.”
Lastly, Kmina’s Blog writes about anxiety and the pandemic. She says, “I keep letting little things ruin my mood. Why? Well, a leaking sink might or might not be a little thing, it all depends – my most favourite answers to most questions.” And I love the wish at the end: “I hope your anxiety is manageable and not giving you too much of a hard time.” Sometimes that is the best we can hope for.
The roundup to the Roundup: Fake letters. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between September 24 – October 1) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
2 comments
I read Hax and Ask Amy regularly and have often wondered if some of the letters they receive are fake because they are so outrageous. (I stopped reading Dear Prudence not long after Lavery took over because I so often disagreed with — and was annoyed by — their advice.) Interesting article!
That article is hilarious! I often wonder if those letters (or the “Am I the Asshole?” posts) are made up. Still, sometimes life is stranger than fiction (such as Tucker Carlson believing the letters).
I’m sure there were great posts this last week – but I don’t have any to add. I have only just read the ones you highlighted – excellent choices, as usual!