Eggp > Recent Status Updates

38. Clementina, 3 stars. Simple Italian girl learns to rely on the conveniences of middle class America, marries for comfort.
39. Boy in Rome, 2 stars. American teenager in Italy wants to go back to America, but his dumb cow mother is in love with a small time con-artist.
40. A Miscellany of Characters that Will Not Appear, 2 stars. Vignettes about various characters, including our author insert.

35. The Music Teacher, 4 stars. Miserable husband (unwittingly?) learns to play piano in order to drive his wife into submission.
36. A Woman Without a Country, 3 stars. Rich woman goes into self-imposed exile after an ugly custody case gets publicity.
37. The Death of Justina, 3 stars. A beloved elderly cousin dies unexpectedly in couple's home, ridiculous zoning laws make it near-impossible to get her out.

Wiki: "But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia’s Natural Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight."

31. Just Tell Me Who It was, 3 stars. Old man suspects his pretty young wife was unfaithful at a party.
32. Brimmer, 3 stars. Overseas passenger strongly disapproves of his acquaintance's promiscuous behavior.
33. The Golden Age, 3 stars. Television writer has a case of imposter syndrome on a family vacation.
34. The Lowboy, 5 stars. Brother is obsessed with a family heirloom, gets poisoned by dwelling on the past.

Wiki: "He supposed that, seen at a distance, on his battlement, he might have been taken for what he was not — a poet, a seasoned traveler, a friend of Elsa Maxwell’s, a prince or a duke — but this world lying all about him now did not really have the power to elevate and change him."

Wiki: "Are these thy Mother Carey’s chickens, Perth?"

Wiki: "It was the Bottle Conjuror!"

Word: "...and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God."

1. Wealth, riches, possessions. Pomp, splendour, rich array.

2. Welfare, well-being, happiness, prosperity. A source of felicity, or an object of delight.

3. The welfare of a country or community; the general good. Often with defining word, as common, general, public, universal.

Wiki: "There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them."

Wiki: "They believe in entities out in the Oort who manipulate events from a distance, who ride people like the Loa of old were said to do."

Wiki: "The city of Neom today remains mostly the dream of a Saudi prince, a futuristic wonderland backed by a marketing video."

Wiki: "Though Jeremy Bentham’s skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman..."

Wiki: "Nor does Hogarth, in painting the same scene in his own ‘Perseus Descending,’ make out one whit better."

Wiki: "It is Guido’s picture of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea-monster or whale."

Wiki: "...and armed with their keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle at each end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail; and if by any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship."

Wiki: "...why is this phantom more terrible than all the whooping imps of the Blocksburg?"

Wiki: " LASCAR SAILOR: By Brahma! boys, it’ll be douse sail soon."

Wiki: "Is, then, the crown too heavy that I wear? this Iron Crown of Lombardy."

Word: "Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!"

1. trans. To cut down (a ship) to a lower size by reducing the number of decks.

2. fig. To abridge, prune, dock.

07. Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, 4 stars. Man tries to soothe an anxious husband looking for his wife, the missing wife listens from her side of the bed.
08. De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, 3 stars. Teenager lies his way into teaching at a sham drawing school, scares a nun with his creepy letter.
09. Teddy, 4 stars. Little boy is far along his path to enlightenment, tries to prepare his parents for the future.

Wiki: "I bought a complete set of the Harvard Classics — chiefly because Bobby said we didn’t have room for them in our suite — and rather perversely read all fifty volumes."

04. The Laughing Man, 3 stars. Boys look up to their storytelling scout leader, witness the end of his romantic relationship.
05. Down at the Dinghy, 3 stars. Maid is nervous a child will repeat something nasty he overheard her say, mother coaxes it out of him with difficulty.
06. For Esmé—with Love and Squalor, 4 stars. Lonely American soldier talks to two British children, receives a care package from them.

01. A Perfect Day for Bananafish, 4 stars. Everyone is worried about a recently released combat veteran's mental state, except his sunburned wife.
02. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, 4 stars. Two college friends play catch up while getting hammered, neither were particularly lucky in love after the war.
03. Just Before the War with the Eskimos, 3 stars. Girl puts her foot down about being paid back for cab fare.

Word: "Now Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible old hunks, and in his sea-going days, a bitter, hard taskmaster."

1. A term of obloquy for a surly, crusty, cross-grained old person, a ‘bear’; now, usually, a close-fisted, stingy man; a miser. (Generally with close, covetous, niggardly, or other uncomplimentary epithet.)

Word: "There was excellent blood in his veins — royal stuff; though sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he nourished in his untutored youth."

1. trans. To render incomplete, imperfect, or faulty; to impair or spoil.

2. To render corrupt in morals; to deprave in respect of principles or conduct; to lower the moral standard of (persons).

Wiki: "He stood full six feet in height, with noble shoulders, and a chest like a coffer-dam."

Wiki: "Sometimes, if he anticipated waiting, he carted the book-sack with him, which gave him a bumpkin air: Dick Whittington had come to town."

Wiki: "The D-Notice forbidding all reference to these events was there ahead of him."

Wiki: "The Cousins changed the game entirely, said the blimpish fellow: much as he might have deplored power tennis or bodyline bowling."