Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
I had simply been too busy to think about myself.
Jay Rubin • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel (Vintage International)
One day you’re a chirpy, hot-shot teenager with a thunderclap serve, who wears a baseball cap on a tennis court before that becomes a thing, and then one day you’re not good enough anymore, because inevitably nobody is. In between, you go to the top of a sport that doesn’t love chirpy te... See more
Andy Roddick, the U.S. Open’s last American male champion, sees himself a tennis schlub
John often said if he slowed down he’d fall apart. Part of him wanted the speed, wanted the mayhem. As he matured, he probably would have grown past this. But for now, he was so used to getting himself out of scrapes and close calls, he found it necessary to feel the thin edge between thrill and destruction to lessen the weight of that which had be
... See moreElizabeth Beller • Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
Jimmy Van Heusen was a decadent womanizer, an Olympian boozer, a war hero, a daredevil pilot, and one of America’s best songwriters. Bogart may have been Sinatra’s role model for style, but for lifestyle, it was Van Heusen “All the Way,” the Oscar-winning song Van Heusen wrote with his lyricist Sammy Cahn. Sinatra called Van Heusen “Chester,” after
... See moreGeorge Jacobs • Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra
Billy Joel is also not cool in the kitschy, campy, “he’s so uncool he’s cool” sense, which also happens to be the most tired designation in popular culture. He has no intrinsic coolness, and he has no extrinsic coolness. If cool was a color, it would be black—and Billy Joel would be sort of burnt orange.
Chuck Klosterman • Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
In 2019 the Emilia Report (named after England’s first published female poet, Emilia Bassano) analysed coverage of male and female writers and found that women were twice as likely to have their ages referenced – or, in the case of Sally Rooney, her appearance, ‘like a startled deer with sensuous lips’, according to one Swiss critic.
Louise Willder • Blurb Your Enthusiasm: A Cracking Compendium of Book Blurbs, Writing Tips, Literary Folklore and Publishing Secrets
