… is an old computer term for removing all of the software from the hardware and starting over again. Back when we could rm ‑rf we would occasionally find that a system had got itself into a non-recoverable state and need to be rebuilt from the ground up in order to function again. Or on …
Author Archives: lara
The Books of June
Books I read in June: Cleaning Up New York — Bob Rosenthal (1976) Referred to as a cult classic. I don’t get it. You expect a cleaning memoir to have good stories about clients and the occasional cleaning tip. This one has both but doesn’t manage to make either of them interesting. * I just don’t …
Stinker
Once upon a time there was a little boy who had both a dog and a monster. This boy spent his summer days with the dog traveling out with him in the morning and returning each afternoon in the hottest part of the day to cool in the shade of the back porch with the …
The Books of May
Reviews and musings on: xo Orpheus, Best American Essays 2014, A Manual for Cleaning Women, On the Move, Murder on the Orient Express, and all of Harry Potter
A Ball of String
I think I was a cat for Halloween one year. I have a picture of me in a leotard and tights with a construction paper ears and a tail and my face painted white with black whiskers. It’s not much of a tail and I remember being a little disappointed that I didn’t have a …