Patrick Cooper: Greetings from Evanston, Ill.

The Emily Dickinson death panel

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:22:02 +0000

The suggested reading list for national education standards is out, and Emily Dickinson dominates. She gets five entries, far more than anyone else. Shakespeare gets three entries. Frost gets two. The entry every broadcast is gonna mention? Mr. Popper's Penguins. Too fun not to say. But, kids, you know what's not as fun as penguins? Death. [...]

Maybe everyone has a different favorite part of this interview

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:28:19 +0000

There are lots of good parts of this NYT interview with Phoenix. Friend Casey had two, one he blogged and one he tweeted. My favorite part: Q. Do you think of your own music as romantic? MR. BRANCOWITZ Actually, yes. I think there’s maybe one theme in our music, and it’s something like romantic abandon. We call that teenage [...]

I want to start a grad school just for you

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:52:07 +0000

To the guy who writes the firmuhment blog, I want to start a school just for you. Every few weeks you post a rejection letter from a MFA program or creative writing grad school, and I want to type a letter, find an envelope that isn't work stationary (this is big as I'm having trouble [...]

Tell the bartender I think I'm falling in love

Patrick Cooper — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:18:22 +0000

My favorite chorus of 2010, so far. Thanks to friend Casey for posting a link to the new album from Ted Leo, whom I've never listened to much but maybe should. Beyond this album, he once sang his song Colleen in karaoke with my friend Colleen. In this particular new song, I love that chorus, [...]

'The radiance of the sky in spring'

Patrick Cooper — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:58:19 +0000

Such is the title of the first scene of Prokofiev's opera of War and Peace, pausing so briefly at the Kennedy Center and becoming my first opera. Four hours in length, more than 400 actors and musicians and then… In an operation that involved a container ship, 2 cranes, 6 weeks on the open seas, 17 trucks, 57 [...]

'They're not going to know what hit them'

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:31:10 +0000

That's Mr. Dan Neil talking to Southern California Public Radio about his departure for the Wall Street Journal. As of this mid-February interview, he'd packed the family onto a plane and was wrapping up work around the house. At this point, I guess we can welcome Dan back to Carolina — and wonder when his [...]

When will Patrick Coopers return to their rightful Web order?

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:47:59 +0000

Fast Company names WhatDoYouSuggest.Net an infographic of the day. I can't argue. The site transforms Google's search suggestions into an attractive and telling visual form. But it's too bad to enter my name and find our Birmingham friend still dominating the results: But I'm a little thrilled to see the Patrick Cooper rap make the cut. Meanwhile, [...]

What happened to T.M. Shine?

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:11:18 +0000

This kid here was looking forward to more T.M. Shine. The most unlikely awesome writer of recent years had arrived in the Post pages, thanks to a slow influx of Miami Herald feature refugees. Then he disappeared. Last year brought no new work from Shine, and this year I got curious. Turns out he's writing a [...]

10 common lessons for digital newsies and Navy helicopter pilots

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:51:31 +0000

Had a great time hanging out with friend Megan last night, seeing her amazingly for the first time in seven years. The last time we saw each other, she was wrapping up at the Naval Academy; I was in Atlanta at CNN; and we both were watching the lead-up to the second Iraq War. Now, Megan's [...]

Auto-tune the news, think of the children

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:22:35 +0000

My favorite quote of the week, via the Times: When a video trailer for “Freaknik: The Musical” was linked to by a blog at the Web site of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January, the post drew dozens of angry comments. “One lady was like, ‘What if my 7-year-old would have watched that?’ ” T-Pain said. “Like, Ma’am, first [...]

The former prosecutor and the exonerated man

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:13:09 +0000

In today's Post: Emotion fractured Harrington's voice as he talked about the exonerated man. Harrington now keeps a photo of Gates that he downloaded from the Internet in a frame over his desk. Also on the desk is a letter he received from Gates after he was released. It reads: "Rev. Harrington, I forgive you. I forgave [...]

His kids could teach you a thing or two, Johnny

Patrick Cooper — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:11:49 +0000

The greatest math movie of all-time, as anyone knows, is Donald (Duck) in Mathmagic Land. The second greatest math movie of all-time is Stand and Deliver. (I wish to apologize personally to Jennifer Connelly for not ranking A Beautiful Mind in these top spots. Jen, call me.) If you agree, maybe because Stand and Deliver [...]

Lightbulb terrarium

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:09:15 +0000

It came inside a little box stuffed with packing peanuts inside a bigger box stuffed with packing peanuts and covered with red FRAGILE labels. Inside, foam strips filled the bulb and ended in "Pull with care" stickers. I unplugged the bulb's penny-topped stopper and the green arrived.

My favorite 10 rules from the '10 rules for writing fiction' lists

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:07:42 +0000

"Inspired by Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don'ts," the Guardian says. Their answers come in two parts, both worth reading and both stuffed with thoughts applicable to all writing (beyond fiction) and, in some ways, to life. Leonard's starter list is good. At #4, we get: "Never [...]

Can you identify these mystery buildings?

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:24:37 +0000

The sky was so clear Saturday morning that I could see buildings I'd never seen before in the distance. The Cathedral, at right below, was already a long ways from Courthouse, but the new buildings sat even further. Were they on the hills of Connecticut Avenue? Or Silver Spring even, just past D.C. height restrictions? [...]

Quicker

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:18:28 +0000

I have this friend who loves words, and she knows how to carry them. They aren't the annoying 10-centers. They fit fantastically upon arrival. They roll off her tongue, jump unannounced into sentences and never apologize as they fly across the street. I talk with her, and I feel I'm a step behind and have [...]

The neighborhood video store dies

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:56:25 +0000

"Lucas!" "Joe!" "Where's the money?" "Joe, the money is gone." "Yeah, I know it's gone… but where's it gone to?" "Atlantic City." "Atlantic City? … Is it coming back from Atlantic City?" "Oh, I don't think so, Joe." "What's it doing in Atlantic City, Lucas?" "Recirculating." Photos from a Saturday night discovery:

Thought-starter of the week: Getting to zero

Patrick Cooper — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:35:42 +0000

From the terrific Times profile of new Xerox CEO Ursula Burns comes a different idea. What do you owe a company as your career develops? And if you ask her for a new assignment, a promotion into a new role, you’re likely to hear the speech she first heard long ago from Mr. Hicks about “getting [...]

A little cousin's baptism

Patrick Cooper — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:00:39 +0000

We begin… As only brothers can pose. Cousins, just before the picture. A second later, the picture! We conclude, baptized… Then, afterward, pictures in the gown my grandmother was baptized in more than a century ago and onto cousin Kate and Stefan's house for so much good food (I ran the table on the desserts), me running out of battery, [...]

Transcendental burger

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:30:58 +0000

Yesterday brought trip #4 to Ray's Hell Burger and my third burger off the house-special list, The Dogcatcher. A description is short but clearly hard-driving: "Roasted Bone Marrow, Persillade, Lettuce and Tomato." Persillade is just seasoning, Google tells me. Bone marrow, Wikipedia says, "has fallen out of favor as a food in the United States." The [...]