Merrill Markoe's Blog, page 21

Raw

The question has arisen about whether to feed my dogs raw food. That is the fashion these days. Current wisdom now tells us that it is better for dogs to eat raw food because their systems are built to digest it. That is what they would eat in the wild.  And the wild knows best.
Of course this comes after decades of Everyone telling me that kibble was the best thing for them. Much much better than canned "wet" food because "it cleans their teeth" . It was supposed to be chock full of all kinds of

Sneak Preview: My Corporate Brand

I have been thinking a lot about the idea of branding, which at this point is omnipresent. For quite a while now I have been interested in corporate image and the montages they use to advertise some vague notion of what they represent and why you should trust them with your business. These montages are all similar enough to one another that I sometimes play a game with myself when they air to see if I can guess what they are supposedly selling. Is it Wells Fargo bank? AT&T? HBO? Kraft? G.E? B of

Shave him.

I’m building  some new closets. And by “I”, I mean Terry, the guy who builds stuff for me. Terry is a guy who has rebuilt so much of my home that I based a character on him. (Gil in my most recent book,  Nose Down Eyes Up.)The new closets are bigger than the old closets by half and they look great. But they just serve to point out that it wasn’t actually the square footage of the previous closets that was the problem. It is the square footage of my brain . I save too much stuff. And I don’t mean

When Tukun met Burulkan.

In honor of June, month of romance and weddings for mainly heterosexuals (except in a few forward thinking states,) I would like to share some words of wisdom about marriage that I have gleaned from my research. (And I share them as the odd member of the heterosexual sector who has never been married even though I am in love and not only permitted to get married, but encouraged and even urged to get married . But unlike gay couples everywhere, who seem to be lusting and praying for marriage, I a

Official Winner: Most annoying new word in the world

As decided by me. Just now.

Trouble with writing part 2

A bad break through.

I have been reading a lot of magazines from the late 1920’s and early thirties to get a kind of grasp of the differences and similarities socially between the last economic collapse and this one.  There are many of each. But here is one reason that, no matter how bad things may get, it can never be quite as bad this time as it was last time. At least for women.

I Know What to Do About Kim Jong Il

It may not surprise you to hear that I have very little experience negotiating international policy. While this wouldn’t have held me back from a prominent advisor position during the Bush years, I am afraid that it disqualifies me from stepping up to the plate in the current administration. But I have stumbled on a unique rarely mentioned negotiation strategy that I feel compelled to share . After reading one despairing editorial after another about what, if anything, can be done about Kim Jong

Horrible marriage circa 1929.

I have been reading a lot of womens magazines from the ’20s and ’30s. They are mainly filled with the most hilarious kind of grandiose over views of domestic life. Everything was happy and under control, or on its way to both. And then I came upon this one piece in an April 1929 edition of Woman’s Home Companion entitled “I Married the Wrong Man” that kind of took my breath away , maybe because I wasn’t expecting such a  relentlessly grim treatment of  marital bliss in the midst of a magazine th

Recovering List Idiot

I compulsively read all those articles that boast “Ten new foods that burn belly fat .” I guess lots of people do and that’s why they make up so many new lists every month. Sometimes I think  its the same  bunch who  fabricate the belly flab lists and the “101 new ways to turn him on” lists that sell Women’s magazines. (As if  the 101 ways offered in the last issue  was just skimming the surface. Because, as anyone with a good sex life will tell you,  you quickly run through hundreds and hundred