Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Dirty thongs
Tonight I went and heard Mr. Chuck Palahniuk read from his new book, Haunted. The Union Sq Barnes was jammed w/ NYU kids, a progressive grandpa or two, everyone in between, and I of course arrived too late to see anything beyond the couple making out in front of me. Still, I heard, and when it comes to ol' Chuckie, that's probably enough. Not that I don't appreciate his high-school-English-teacher good looks, the giant foam flowers or the fake-bloodied rubber hands he gifts the audience with during the concluding Q&A session, it's just that all I really need to hear is the exhaustively researched mister's continual assault on anything and everything tasteful. All I really need to hear is a story about a woman who watches unsuspecting hikers slip into flesh-boiling natural springs, the skin on their hands sticking to rock and left behind in the form of intact *gloves*; a description of one Seattle fan's confession involving personally Polaroid-snapped dead folks found slumped over porn store shelves.... And in that resonating, unapologetic voice of his, no less. The guy's a wack-job; I like him.
Toward the end of the reading, tired, I sat down. That was when I noticed the girl in front of me--her shoes, specifically. And no, not because they were particularly fashionable--they were thongs/flip-flops/slippers (like that, Harm?) after all. No, the reason my attn was drawn to the faded pink treads was because of what was on the bottom of them, which was pure grime. Streaked w/ dirt and dotted w/ blackened gum, I found myself captivated by their all-out yuckiness. Then I realized why: my fixation on *unsavory news.* I stared at those ruined things and thought of the state of our effed-up world. A recent story about a 9-yr-old Brooklyn girl taking a knife to her 11-yr-old friend, continued strife in Zimbabwe, more bloodshed in Iraq, everything else our ever-thoughtful media decides to hand us--I tend to fixate on news of this variety, forgetting that hopeful stories like this are played out and reported on daily. Of course, the happy stuff is easily lost amidst headlines of hate and death, but it's there. Damnit, I need a better filter. Either that or I take Ma's advice and disassociate from nat'l news once in awhile.
So Pea and I came up w/ a new expression: Whenever I'm feeling heavy w/ sadness, be it from external or internal causes, I tell myself to "clean off my flip-flops." Here's to hoping that all that dirt doesn't disgust me to the point of initiating a major shoe-buying spree. :)
Friday, May 27, 2005
Cheap labor = me
OK, it's not much, but I wrote it. :) The first of the links is viewable, in full, by subscribers only, so fork over the $50 already! You writer-folk'll benefit, I swear. The How To Pitch column and the Editorial Calendar Guide are esp helpful for would-be $1/word magazine contributors. (Yes, that was a plug--a shameless one.)
http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a4422.asp
http://www.mediabistro.com/content/archives/05/05/27la/
Monday, May 23, 2005
Way too much of a might-have-been-good thing
Let's see… Saturday was lively enough. After a decent night's sleep and a quick run, mea & Pea (cute aside: my grandma, upon reading the blog printouts she gets from my mom, had in her mind that *Pea,* when used in reference to David, was meant to be pronounced pee-uh) headed to Soho where we met my friend from the UWMC days, Tui, for lunch. Meet Tui:
While w/ Tui, a fine miss in town for the NY Hawaiian Film Festival, I polished off a half-pound of rare beef in the form of a very large cheeseburger (onions and mushrooms, hold the pickle please), and I dare say my stomach continues to fight me over it a full two days later. Of course, there's a chance that the tube of cookie dough Pea & I pursued doggedly over the course of the weekend is in itself a force to be reckoned with, but why fret.
Staten Island itself was saved for another day, considering once we reached its soil, we aboutfaced and headed right straight back to The Real Thing. The 20-minute ferry ride north was quite great, though—again, it was the fantastic view. The heart of the city looked surprisingly *clumpy* from a distance—like all the height was saved up for the center, which I know is a trademark of many large cities; it's just that when you're walking around in this one, no matter where you are, every structure seems to have equally large magnitude. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, the late afternoon sun reflecting off all that metal up ahead was stunning—like abalone shells.
It's six o'clock--and I haven't had my Tasti!!
This is a funny little exchange that went down over the course of the last week or so. I submitted yet another nu food revu (I can't seem to get anything else accepted by McS, so it goes), this one on the infamous Tasti. It was initially turned down by this Jordan bloke, but damnit, I knew it was good so I persisted. I asked what he didn't like, and he responded w/: it's too elliptical. Bah, no fun. BUT, since the oddball Tasti demands immortalizing (or whatever), I caved. I revised then sent the result, only to reconsider its merit and send a revised revision. What a pesty little pest I've become. But it paid off--sort of. J ended up accepting the revision--the wrong one, the one I don't so much like. He also chopped a couple of fun introductory sentences (still too elliptical for his taste, I guess), which wasn't my preference, but ah, who cares. The whole thing was kind of amusing.
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 15:48:07 -0500
From: newfood@mcsweeneys.net
To: kje7@myuw.net
Subject: RE: new food submission (fwd)
what? Yes! That was a yes!
jordan (4ever)
------------------------------------------------
On Sun, 22 May 2005 19:31:01 -0700 (PDT), kje7@myuw.net wrote:
Jordan (you still Jordan?),
So what do you think? Is it in line for publishing?
Much thanks,
kristen
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 08:49:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: kje7@myuw.net
To: newfood@mcsweeneys.net
Subject: RE: new food submission (fwd)
It does! It does read like that!
(Is that a yes? Really, you like this one, not the other?)
On Tue, 17 May 2005 newfood@mcsweeneys.net wrote:
Kristen!!!!!
I liked the incorrect version more---I would take it if it read like this:
[insert Jordan's idealized version of my revu]
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Breakfast rec
Uh, yeah. So like, I had NO clue this was up until I read the SWB list minutes ago (suffocating hug to you, Litz!). In the past when they've accepted my goods, they've let me know beforehand (ur, generally the protocol). Guess this doesn't hold true w/ letters.
Anyway.
Encouraged
Thanks, C, for passing this on. (Um, pardon the mis-formatting; I'm lazy.)
> The age of 50 marks authors' peak> Fifty is the perfect age to write a novel, a study of the best-selling authors> of the past 50 years has shown.>> The average age of writers who topped the hardback fiction section of the New> York Times Bestseller List from 1955-2004 was 50.5 years.>> "We wanted to discover the optimum age to write a best-seller," said Bob Young> of Lulu, a website for writers and independent publishers.>> "Unlike scientists or musicians, say, writers tend to mature with age.">> Romantic novelist Judith Krantz and writer Joe Klein, who published political> comedy Primary Colors anonymously, are among the novelists who topped the> best-seller list in their 50th year.>> Of the 350 authors who saw their novels reach the number one spot over the> past 50 years, Francoise Sagan was the youngest with Bonjour Tristesse,> published at the age of 19 in 1955.>> By comparison, Agatha Christie was the oldest author to top the list, with her> novel Sleeping Murder, published shortly after her death at the age of 85.>> The authors who most frequently topped the list were horror writer Stephen> King who has topped the list 27 times, and Danielle Steel who has amassed 26> number ones.>> Nonetheless, authors like JK Rowling and Da Vinci Code writer Dan Brown, who> both achieved global fame in their thirties, appear to be bucking the trend. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4540705.stm
Friday, May 20, 2005
Best ad tag of the day, or more like it, ever: "Nobody looks HOT in a cold sore. Think fast. Think abreva."
Excerpted from http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/media/media.html:
That's a question for KidsPost editor Tracy Grant, who convened last week's skull session and is working on Post teen appeal. "This is not a groundswell, not an initiative, not anything except a vague itch that I'm pursuing and scratching," says Grant.
Eek.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
My best friend craig has this on his list:
Copy Editor/Proofreader
Reply to: see below
Date: 2005-05-20, 2:58PM EDT
Editor:
Days & Hours: Days/Evenings, Some Weekend Day/Evening
Financial news wire seeks mature, high-energy individual - BA preferred - for entry-level editorial position. Candidate must be able to multi-task and work well in a customer-driven environment, under tight deadline pressure. Previous wire service experience desired.
NO WRITING, but excellent proof reading, communication and typing skills required. Must be proficient in MS Word and MS Excel.
Salary mid 30's.
We offer an attractive salary and comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, medical/dental/vision/education/fitness reimbursement program, 401(k), Paid Time Off and commuter/parking assistance. Come join us and work for a company that has a 40+ year track record of success in the news distribution industry!
Note the NO WRITING bit. Much to my surprise, this rep at a temp agency I registered w/ the other day explained to me that sometimes editor-seeking companies are very much NOT interested in candidates w/ a professed writing background. Apparently they realize that writing kicks editing's ass any day and that any writer-editor who takes an editing gig is only fooling themselves and that it won't be long before they see this and that when that moment comes--they'll leave. To write.
Toooooouche.
Wrong. Just wrong.
The noon o'clock hour finds me sitting in a comfortable office situated in a large bldg, trolling the Web while I await more ad copy. See, today is a day I make $$. I'm filling in for a coypeditor (haha, the spelling, funny) at Grey Worldwide--big ad firm--and I'm having a good time of it. Granted, I've only actually edited for an hour or so (workload is unpredictable; sometimes slow, other times flooded), but still. Still. It's neat.
So in the world of ad editing, one looks at proofs (1,2,3) that indicate varying stages of completion. I've come up on mostly 3s, which isn't a whole lotta fun considering any errors were likely caught in the 1/2 stages. Yeah, so copy's generally pretty polished by the third proof. But I did just manage to catch something--text overlapping art, which, ok, was dead obvious, but still. Oh, this was weird: I looked over an ad for Imitrex that included a mini-*quiz* by which one is supposed to be able to determine "hey, that really was a migraine!" or "hmm, so my headaches are just regular; apparently I'm a big baby." It's made up of five questions, most followed by, you know, a [?]. Ah, but *most* isn't enough, see. One's without! So I inserted the [?] with a circle around it, doctored some comma-crazed text further down, and ran the end result by my mentor, Casey (grrreat guy). But... but! Turns out, the ad has already run in a number of mags, including Shape. SO, at this point, the client only cares about major errors like gross misspellings, things like that. [?]s and [,]s? Tssh, small-time.
So there I was, trying to show off my eagle's eye/finely tuned proofread-ery, and whadaya know--no dice. Stupid Imitrex. Sheezus, Casey then showed me this Wellbutrin ad that ran awhile back with BLAtant flaws--like this: "Women who are breastfeeding, (blah blah blah). should consult a physician, blah blah blah." Replace the blahs with the actual text, and that's how it ran. What in tarnation?? I know. Stupid Wellbutrin.
Calling all Augusten Burroughs fans: Just so happens I have a copy of Magical Thinking in my college-kid's backpack (grow up, I know) today. How fitting is this? (Although Dry would have been fitting-er still, hmm?)
Time for an Aetna ad. Hope you're well.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
$$ words
Courtesy of http://www.snappyquick.com/Creating_Killer_Copy_for_Ads_692_13_article.html.
There are certain words that have the power to turn prospects on and motivate them to buy. Some examples are:
Free, love, safe, new, benefits, right, you, alternative, security, sale, now, value, fun, save, gain, money, happy, advice, how to, discover, introduce, easy, your, proven, penetrate, suddenly, proud, healthy, guarantee, natural, fast, precious, secret, solution, magic, and comfortable.
Words to avoid are:
Buy, difficult, death, obligation, wrong, failure, decision, fail, bad, deal, cost, sell, taxes, liability, worry, loss, hard, and contract.
[Uh, I won't say it.]
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Life is random. Enjoy the uncertainty.
OK, so it's an iPod ad, but to continue the Scand thread, it reminds me of one of my favorite Norsk books (OK, the only trade book I've read in true-and-actual Norsk): Naiv Super by Erlend Loe. NS is about a guy aptly named "jeg et" (the I) who's experiencing what's referred to, these days, as *the quarter-life crisis.* He prover aa finne seg selv, alle det. ("He tries to find himself, all that"--but that's SO wrong. Min Norsk sucks now.) I read this book when I was about 23 and it really spoke to me, man. Still sort of does, but not like then. Four years out, I at least (pretend to?) know where I'm headed.
Off to a temp agency interview. :)
Speaking of books, meet (some of) the lovely ladies of SWB--er, I was just reminded of G.L.O.W., not exactly sure why--otherwise known as Seattle Writers Bloc. (You're better than chocolate--Green & Black's, even.) 
Monday, May 16, 2005
Dream catchers & fried oreos
We spent some time in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood over the wkend, and I dare say we fell in love--or, in the least, fell into a crush. As you'll see in the images below, there are many, many trees to enjoy, and not only in the park. And the brownstones have so much charm. (Kept expecting to see Rudy racing up the stairs, just home from school, or maybe Clif stepping out for a breath of fresh air, but no.) Fifth Avenue is where all the great restaurants and boutiques are; Seventh, too, but less so (am I right, CD?). The only thing we found lacking was the bar scene--most looked pretty yup/$$. However, we did stumble across one w/ a most excellent jukebox, real casual, cheap.... where, against all odds, we stumbled upon a Seattle transplant, now living in Boston, who so happened to be in town for the weekend. Wha--? I know. His name is Tom.
Another oddity: Yesterday at a big PS street fair/festival, we saw a crude kiddie-ride, and by that I mean there was a guy manually pushing one of those pirate ship things--although this one was more of a metal cage--that go back and forth, back and forth, higher and higher, some of them actually completing the circle (not sure if this one ever did). It was pretty small, and seriously, he was pushing it w/ his own two hands. Do you need/get a license for that shet? Ohgawd. Regrets: no picture.
But here are some others:
Picture in a giant chair w/ a giant bottle of Cap'n Morgan's in your lap, anyone? Yeah, I passed, too.
I could so live here.
Or here.
Cutest name for a preschool ever.
Out on the town w/ Little Jen and her NJ crewmates.
(not my fingers)
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Great Danes
Ah, makes me yearn for my Scandinavian Area Studies days.... He's so great. http://www.salon.com/books/review/2005/05/13/andersen/index.html
Proud papa
Squeal!
Friday, May 13, 2005
Funny, 'cause I knew this would happen sooner or later
Um, I just got an email from a one *Joe Petrella,* subject of this bit I wrote a little over a year ago. Mr. Petrella, encouraged by a friend, googled himself. And what did Mr. P come up w/? You guessed it--that. Can I say I am positively beSIDE myself?? I am. Mr. P. apologized earnestly and proFUSEly for any and all damage inflicted on my psyche. He introduced me to God, too, which you know, is fine. And should I choose to accept Him as my savior, well then maybe I'll have Mr. P to thank.
I shouldn't be carrying on like this, but it's just too good. I wrote him right back and insisted that he worry not, as the piece--written for a humor zine--was completely tongue-in-cheek. Ok, so I'll be the first to admit that back then--back in freakin' 1990--the whole deal was a source of constant anxiety (what girl didn't want a rack of her own?), but c'mon, I've got bigger fish to fry these days. No hard feelings, none, Mr. P. I hope he believes me; he seemed quite distraught.
Apparently he did some sleuthing around and came up w/ some of my other work, which he complimented.
Well then, we've come a long way, Mr. P.
**Job alert: Thanks to the lovely Mrs. C, I have $-work! Ok, it's for a day (next Fri), but hell, it's copyediting, pays $25/hr, and I love her for it!!
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Down but not out
Apparently I'm cycling through the inevitable. These last few days have had me a bit down, but from what I'm told, it's the protocol. I imagine that once I find some $-work (pardon the fixation), my mood'll lift. This morning's appt, for one, may signal some pending positivity job-wise. See, I spent yesterday morning phoning the human resources depts of magazines and publishing houses with the hope of finding out the temp agencies they use. Of course, the vast majority denied me this. ("We can't give out that information.") Poo on them. BUT, HarperCollins came thru--an esp enthusiastic employee told me right off the bat: "Forrest Edwards." Temporarily inflated, I called 'em up, provided my background and emailed my resume, and bam--I had an appt. Went in this morning, took the requisite MS Office tests, scored pretty alright, nailed (I think) an interview, and there ya have it. Ms. K spoke of assignments w/ New York Magazine, Conde Nast mags, the Post, ad agencies... so we'll see. Now that I'm registered w/ two agencies + one pending confirmation, SOMEthing's got to come my way.
Geez, if only I could secure more freelance work. I just got my Running Times check, which is handsome enough, and I've got a handsome-er one coming from Seattle Woman (check out the July issue--my 'women and chronic apologizing' article'll be in there), but there it ends. If only I could initiate a spree. Of course, to do so would mean writing a hellofa lot more than I currently am, so I spose that's where I should start. Onwards.
On a much more interesting note, it's a beautiful day here in NYC--sunny and 70. I'm seeing green in the community gardens, along w/ an order that was absent when I arrived. And the colors. The city, surprisingly, isn't hurting for flowers--lilacs, tulips, daffies, hyacinth, you name it (er, no, but). It's funny, though: Walking a given block, one can catch a whiff of something floral and something waste-related in a single inhale.
Love it.
And the dwellers never cease to entertain. The other day I was standing in line at Old Navy (it was an $8 tank top, swear), and there was a girl behind me engaged in a phone conversation that went a little something like this: @#%$%$^%&&^$^%$^$#$#@$#$@#@#@!$#$#%#^#@. It was a long conversation--longer than that, but you get the idea. Glancing at my fellow wait-ers, it was the first time I've seen semi-horrified (ok, that's too strong a word, but) looks in response to some external stimulus. Generally, you know, a woman giving birth on the sidewalk wouldn't phase these toughies. So that was fun. Oh, and I saw Kelly Ripa, toddler in tow, en route to mb the other day. She really is a half-pint! She looked tired.
And it goes w/o saying, I love watching the little tykes making up weird kid games in the park. That'll always keep me occupied for a good twenty.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Today's McSweeney's
Three Items at the Supermarket I See in a New Way, Now That I've Read Some Books on Literary Theory.
BY MATTHEW SIMMONS
- - - -
Cultured buttermilk
Post Raisin Bran
Metamucil
Cute.
The writing life
So I wrote my first real piece for Mediabistro. Up until late last week I'd only been copyediting, which frankly is fine by me, but so is changing it up w/ a little writing action. Actually, that's preferable. (Writing, I adore ya.) Yeah, so the piece is part of mb's "How to Pitch" column. Magazine editors are interviewed by us w/ regard to freelancing tips—so, mag background specs, what to pitch (good stories) versus what not to pitch (um, bad stories), other details like query etiquette, pay rate, payment schedule, that sort of thing. All the big markets are tackled and mags like Wired and Cosmo are the order of the day.
So. One of my primary tasks here is to ensure that all posted info is up-to-date, which means that write-ups from 2002 generally call for an overhaul. I email the approp contact, wait it out, then follow up on the 20-odd percent of responses I receive. I schedule a phone interview, ask away, and then comes the fun. My first undertaking just involved some simple revisions, so no drastic altering of existing text (although my name now sits alongside the primary writer's, which ain't half-bad). The fun heightened yesterday when I got to start from scratch, asking the editor of Outside magazine everything from the basic to the specific. I wrote the whole piece on my own merit (er, and the editor's), and soon it'll be up on the site w/ my little linked-to-my-editing-site name plus a bio (bio = perk!). I can already tell I'll like this part of my "job" the most, and if I squeeze my eyes shut hard enough, I can even pretend I'm getting $ for it.
Speaking of, getting paid in this line of work strikes me as terribly lucky—and by that I mean I can't believe people get paid to write the day away! (Note: disbelief applies only to thought-worthy content, ruling out Golf Digest and Big Game Journal.) The deputy editor here earns a durn-respectable salary for dashing out smart narrative on the ever-scintillating world o' media. Of course, I don't deny the rigors of her workaday, but damn. Someday, I tell ya.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Cha-ching
I'm into this book called Reading New York by John Tytell, a guy w/ plenty of connections to the city (born, raised, schooled here; all his favorite writers were NYers at some pt). Tytell writes about his own life experiences and how they paralleled those of Melville, Poe, Whitman, Miller, James, et al, how his life was enriched through reading the works of his literary idols, how he alternately flourished and struggled growing up in the craziness of the city.... It's pretty great.
Because I'm currently zigzagging my way through my new *town* in an attempt to gather some personal perspective, I'm finding that one of the neatest things about this book is how Tytell compares/contrasts the above writers with regard to their take on NY. There was Whitman who glorified the buzzing city and all of its colorful characters, Poe and Melville who resented the greed and materialism they saw as infesting the place, then Henry Miller who was even more vocal in his disgust. This quote by him resonates, prolly because, these days, I've got $ on the brain (as in, ahem, the need to make some):
"To walk in money through the night crowd, protected by money, lulled by money, dulled by money, the crowd itself a money, the breath money, no least single object anywhere that is not money, money, money everywhere and still not enough, and then no money or a little money or less mone or more money, but money, always money, and if you have money or don't have money it is the money that counts and money makes money, but what makes money money?"
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Over the hills, thru the woods...
Yesterday found me in idyllic little Poughkeepsie (which, btw, I continually and purposefully mispronounced for sheer love of its mispronounced form). For $25 I travelled the two hours and back, spending half that length of time in the town. Oh me, oh my, what a respite it was. I took the MTA North, which is a rail system that extends to New Haven, parts of Jersey and other not-so-remote destinations. It was crazy, all the green and blue I saw en route. Lakes and the Hudson, treed hills w/ rich-y houses perched sporadically... I would never have guessed that The City was a fleeting 60 miles south. Of course, it's no Pac NW (the green just isn't as *green*), but compared to the grayness/cement-ness of city living, it felt like fall's Snoqualmie (er, minus the heights). It was nice, quite.
PowKeepsee has bridges + the Hudson:
A (faux) flower shop:
A resident geologist:
A Main Street:
A sculpture park:
And...
signsaysLyleLovettcomingtoPowKeepsee%21.jpg
Friday, May 06, 2005
Digit greed
Courtesy of CNN.com:
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- To a dessert shop customer, the severed fingertip found in a pint of frozen custard could be worth big dollars in a potential lawsuit. To the shop worker who lost it, the value is far more than monetary.
But Clarence Stowers still has the digit, refusing to return the evidence so it could be reattached. And now it's too late for doctors to do anything for 23-year-old Brandon Fizer.
"I'm not saying who has it, but somebody has it," Stowers said this week in a telephone interview, refusing to let on where the fingertip is now.
Soon after Stowers found the finger in a mouthful of chocolate soft-serve he bought Sunday at Kohl's Frozen Custard in Wilmington, he put it in his freezer at home, taking it out only occasionally to show to television cameras.
He refused to give it to the shop's owner, and refused to give it to a doctor who was treating Fizer, who accidentally stuck his hand in a mixing machine and had his right index finger lopped off at the first knuckle.
Medical experts say an attempt to reattach a severed finger can generally be made within six hours.
But according to the shop's management, Stowers wouldn't give it back when he was in the store 30 minutes after the accident.
more: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/06/finger.fight.ap/index.html
Hi-hi-hi-hillary
Tonight, over dinner at Waldorf-Astoria (and no, not on our own dime, but a kindly uncle's), we saw this, only w/ more clothes and a milder expression:
Thursday, May 05, 2005
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/FGM/default.asp
This is tough to read, but I think it's important that the continuation of these and other related practices be acknowledged. Why doesn't Prez Bush focus on addressing these sorts of atrocities? Yeah, it may be culturally normative, but so is stoning in some Middle Eastern countries--and few people would argue the sick inhumanity of that. It is so pathetic, this whole "culture of life" thread, when time and again he continually ignores "quality of existing life" issues worldwide. Don't get me wrong; I'm not suggesting that a single administration can solve the world's woes, or should. But if he insists on interference, at least direct it toward some greater good. He needs to leave.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Mixed emotions
Yay: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-05-03-daily-show-spinoff_x.htm
Boo: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/
articles/2005/05/03/journalisms_fallen_heroes/
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Stylin' Syd?
Wish you were here, S (& N)
Aw, they don' know nothin':
Corn not that good? Idiots!
Everything's coming up fingers
If it's not chili, it's custard.
[titter]
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Everything's comin' up Baby
On April 29 at 10:52 a.m., Sydney Marie Goldsmith, 19 inches long, 6 lbs 13 ounces, was born to Beth and James Goldsmith (Pea's sis and bro-in-law).