Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 41

Vive la France

Fine, you are superior. I was going to post the scene from Casablanca again (must be plenty of people doing that today) but remembered a similar scene from perhaps a greater film, Renoir’s Grand Illusion. In a German camp, the French prisoners of war are putting on a show when they get news of a […]

The Stoic Guide to Happiness

The Death of Seneca. Rubens Seneca is the classical philosopher of this moment—hardly a week goes by that the leading Stoic is not quoted in my newsfeeds. Seneca was a Roman writer and politician. He was an adviser to the Emperor Nero, enabled the monster, went out with dignity and killed himself. Doesn’t seem the […]

State of My Household, Summer 2017

Saffy Safin-Sprungli had a check-up and a manicure this weekend. The vet says she is very healthy. She turns 17 in June. I went looking for wet cat food (she’s had several teeth taken out) for senior cats and couldn’t find any. Then again we should probably stick to the same routine and let her […]

A totally unnecessary review of the extremely amusing Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2

Yes, it’s a blast, almost strenuously cheerful. 1. It’s funny and the opposite of self-serious. 2. There are unexpectedly affecting moments, most of them having to do with father-son relationships. Gamora’s relationship with Nebula also gets some attention. Captain America is all about politics, Spider-Man is about adolescence, X-Men is about nerds and Guardians is […]

Clear your head by cleaning your house

Migraine illustration by Dave Cutler I spent all of Sunday in bed with a migraine, and on Monday my head still felt like an egg in danger of cracking, but I managed to go to the bank then to lunch, to buy the week’s supply of cat food, and to record my Trippies voice-overs despite […]

Houellebecq’s Submission is distressing, essential reading for these apocalyptic times

English translation by Lorin Stein. Available at National Bookstores, Php715. While reading this insightful, disturbing piece about the French election on Sunday, I remembered that I had a copy of Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission gathering dust on a shelf. You’ve heard of Submission—the book and its author were on the cover of Charlie Hebdo the […]

Calculated misery: How airlines turn your discomfort and aggravation into profits

Some airlines make the experience of flying so awful that you would pay extra to avoid the awfulness. In the words of the law professor who coined the term “calculated misery”: …in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be […]

Back-to-work links: Jerusalem cats, the Pope’s laundry, Salter, trashy movies, old book smells, and Prince’s death anniversary

Holy Cats! Jerusalem’s strays and their unsung guardian The Pope sponsors a free laundromat for the homeless A brief history of the short story: James Salter “Movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them.” – Pauline Kael How many of […]

Dinner with Isak Dinesen, Marilyn Monroe, and Carson McCullers

With Marilyn’s then-husband, Arthur Miller. Read The Feminine Heroic in The Paris Review. There’s a play in here.

Drogon is 5! This week he is The Oracle.

It’s Drogon’s birthday! (I assigned the date because I don’t know exactly when he was born—it’s also the birthday of Koosi, the first cat who adopted me.) Drogon likes sitting at windows and watching the outside world. Unlike our eldest cat Saffy who is antisocial, he enjoys visiting his human’s friends on their movie nights. […]