“To see the worst and make an account of it”
(David Denby on Norman Mailer’s wartime experiences)
Hey, folks. Just a quick periodic round-up of stuff I’ve gotten up to of late…I guess I could use Linktree but I’m still paying for hosting for TN, so: let’s be here!
And let’s start with a commenter update from a decade-old Vine letter!
“Where else are you?” Still on Twitter at tomatonation; everywhere else, either at tomatonation or at sarahdbunting. You can throw the blog onto your RSS reader, too — and I’ll use this space to highlight all my other lunatic projects, like…
Again With This: Our most recent Patreon ep talked about Grant Show in a short-lived “9-1-1 of the ’90s” called True Blue. (You can hear me and Tara on the History of the 90s podcast here, talking about 90210.)
Best Evidence: Paid subscribers got a deep dive on the life and loves of Dorothy Kilgallen last week. This week Eve and I are talking about Death in the Dorms and Surviving R. Kelly‘s last installment.
Exhibit B. Books: Hardcover sale through 1/10! And I soft-launched, for lack of a better term, the “around the genre in 50 states” mini-project as well; not a ton in stock from Alabama, but some real corkers.
Extra Hot Great: Mullendash!
Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs: We recorded the first episode of our new season, Record Of The Year Showdown, yesterday, and we may not be able to finish the season because we can’t stop singing “Volare” melodramatically at/near our spouses and we’re both and each going to get murdered. As we go through the ROTY winners chronologically, I find myself sitting — happily! — with a lot of memories of my mom, and how much of our family’s shared language and communication fabric was woven from, well, changing pop songs to be about butts. Barb must be so proud. Anyway, for more on “Moon River,” follow MASTAS on your preferred pod app; new season drops 1/16/23.
Quaid In Full: Yeah, remember that thing? It’s back in a few weeks. We do have episodes in the can; our schedule’s just…been on one for like a year.
Reading: Raven Rock; a book on counterfeit U.S. coinage that even my dad, a longtime collector, was like, “…good luck I guess”; Weiss’s Double Play is up next. (I’m on Goodreads at sarahdbunting if you want to check out my deranged TBR list.)
Watching: You S02. Not quite as successful credibility-wise as S01 but the performances really take you by the ear.
Tags: books Dorothy Kilgallen Norman Mailer podcasts TV
Hi Sars! Thanks for the update! I miss hanging out with you and the TN here. (Not ready to jump into the cray-cray that is Twitter yet.) I’ll “see” you around the virtual town spots you listed. Looking forward esp to MASTAS — my family does daily to one another what you and Mark are doing with “Volare” (sometimes lyrics, changed or altered, are the only way my mom and I can communicate effectively even now).
Happy New Year to you and Mr. Sars, and the rest of the Tomato Nation!
Well this is a delight, indeed. Feels so homey in here.
It does bring me back to The “Soldier Boy” Wars with my own mom, hee hee.
Missing the update…hope it’s happy, wherever it is!
It would be in the comments!
Thank you for updating here. Thank you also for continuing to pay for hosting, as I often point people to Vine letters as examples.
Within the past few weeks, I pointed someone to a) the lady who had gotten offered her dream job in another country, and when her boyfriend was like, “bye, good luck,” she was shocked to realize that while she thought they were very happy together, he was just passing time with her and could take or leave their relationship; and b) the lady who wanted to up and move her whole family to France — including three kids, three dogs, and three cats — but didn’t have a real plan, didn’t speak the language, didn’t realize what she was in for, and was going to bankrupt them doing so. I came here today in the first place to look for the letter from the lady who couldn’t figure out how to fire her nanny so I can point someone to it.
I was hoping this update would be from the woman who was pregnant and had a chef husband who kept lying to her and staying out all night drinking and not answering his phone, but this was nice too.
Hello Sars!
It’s September of 2023, and I can actually come in to offer ANOTHER update on another Vine letter from long ago. Here’s the column in question (it’s so old you can’t comment on it) – I was the one at the bottom, with the ex I called “Zitbrain”. You were especially pissed off he used the word “Importuning”, and I have to admit that tickled me greatly. https://tomatonation.com/vine/the-vine-may-6-2005/
And you helped me VERY, VERY quickly write him off as “grade-A prime loser”, and I’ve done WAY, WAY better in choices of dating since then; I’m single, but I had way better luck and made way better choices. Periodically I’d think about Zitbrain and groan and say “god, what an asshole” and move on.
Well – just today I was bored enough to wonder about Zitbrain and morbidly curious to see what had happened to him. And that’s how I learned – a month ago, Zitbrain was arrested for soliciting a minor online and was caught by an undercover investigation.
…I’ve been calling my friends and saying “WTF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS” and at some point we started joking about contacting the judge and asking for an additional $30 fine to be added to his sentence. :-)
…holy shitballs!