Or Upcycle Them
By Caitlin Hawke
I am no writer, but I know what darlings are. And I know that real writers have to lay waste to a lot of them.
I haven't written enough. So there aren't many darlings lying around. According to my father, my grandfather used to riff on what Blaise Pascal said: I made this long because I didn't have the leisure to make it short.
In brief, it takes time to make it short. And good. But I don't have that much time.
And besides, sometimes it feels good to keep your darlings and write long. Or to round them all up into the same place and see what they are like side by side. Something akin to the way my father has, over the years, printed out large formats of his favorite photos. He places them in a box that sits on a coffee table, gently ignored by sons, daughters, and grandchildren. And yet every once in a while when we have time, we leaf through these darlings of his. Sometimes he puts them into thematic albums. This shot of the Metro Diner appears in his "fronts & sides" album.
The album is sort of like a mixtape. Carefully chosen. Then juxtaposed. Then shared. To give someone else pleasure.
I am no writer, but I know what darlings are. And I know that real writers have to lay waste to a lot of them.
I haven't written enough. So there aren't many darlings lying around. According to my father, my grandfather used to riff on what Blaise Pascal said: I made this long because I didn't have the leisure to make it short.
In brief, it takes time to make it short. And good. But I don't have that much time.
And besides, sometimes it feels good to keep your darlings and write long. Or to round them all up into the same place and see what they are like side by side. Something akin to the way my father has, over the years, printed out large formats of his favorite photos. He places them in a box that sits on a coffee table, gently ignored by sons, daughters, and grandchildren. And yet every once in a while when we have time, we leaf through these darlings of his. Sometimes he puts them into thematic albums. This shot of the Metro Diner appears in his "fronts & sides" album.
The album is sort of like a mixtape. Carefully chosen. Then juxtaposed. Then shared. To give someone else pleasure.
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The blog is a hard place for me to make you a mixtape but it would look as follows if I could. There have been posts that gave me pleasure. Perhaps it was in the writing. Perhaps it was thinking of others who would have a shared appreciation of the topic. Perhaps it was something else. And it changes them to line them all up and play with the order.
Truth is these are my darlings because they remind me that the neighborhood is a wonderful muse. So here they are -- some from the year gone by and some older than that. |
"Metro Diner" by Jerry Hawke
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Think of it not as a few darlings on the cutting room floor, but more as a few darlings upcycled.
To navigate to the post, click on the image or the link.
To navigate to the post, click on the image or the link.
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Sun Chan on My Corner Makes Me Happy
In praise of the "real deal" restaurant, which thankfully is back after a too-long hiatus |
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Roll on, John
Upper West Side thoughts about the loss of John Lennon 36 years after his untimely death. |
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