Chelsey Stone

I took the line "printing is the only thing stopping the revolution" from @shengwangtime's standup and applied it to literary and real examples of ways in which oppressors intentionally look the other way so the oppressed can blow off some steam. chelseygrassfieldcom.wordpre…

Really trying to internalize this line from @RyanHoliday's The Daily Stoic for the last few weeks.

4/21 I attended @litrvk w/ Pedro Gunnlaugur Garcia who spoke about his book Lungu & translation: "There’s no joy in writing, in translating maybe. It’s like a game of Tetris. These words fall down and you need to translate them. When you put the blocks together, they disappear."

"The more detailed the grammar... the less likely it is to be of any practical use to most writers and speakers." Chicago Manual of Style. -- Didn't expect to find CMoS so accessible and unstuffy or to find "front matter" so fascinating 📖

Pablo Neruda: "el más fresco de todos / los planetas, / la redonda, suprema y celestial sandía." ("the coolest of all planets / crosses the sky, / the rounded, supreme / and celestial watermelon.) -- Never had I realized just how much a watermelon looks like a planet

“…let them take risks, for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches—that is the right & privilege of any free American.” –Edward Abbey’s vision for national parks visitors (Desert Solitaire). Not sure I could hang.

Martin Meredith in The Fate of Africa talking about Uganda's Idi Amin. If only Watergate were a medical procedure🤣

Desert Solitaire: "I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. (Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!)." —Edward Abbey would not approve of my potted plant collection, though I enjoy greenery in captivity.

Not endorsing the violence of this line, but it best exemplified John Dos Passos depicting accent/dialect in his WWI story: Three Soldiers. Bit of a challenge to understand at times, especially Americanized French when they’re near “the front.”

“Second breakfast”—yes! With waking up so early for runs, what I eat at 5 a.m. has no chance of lasting me until noon, especially with a 12 miler in between. I couldn’t be more excited to try the many tantalizing recipes in @ShalaneFlanagan + @ElyseKopecky’s Rise&Run cookbook.

“The sediment of colonial rule lay deep in African society.” - The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith. Among many issues when establishing systems of gov, democracy was introduced to colonies too late. So, leaders were most familiar w/ officials wielding enormous personal power.

“I did not know what to do when adults cried.… Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.”  —The Ocean at the End of the Lane by @neilhimself. Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, who is still a great source of comfort♥️

“His green eyes shift back and forth as he searches for the right place, his fingers nimble, built for turning pages.” - Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I’d like to think my fingers were built for turning the pages of a book too.

"The winter drove them mad. It drove every man mad who had ever lived through it; there was only ever a question of degree." - The Amazing Adventures by Michael Chabon. Yet another rainy day in Chicago. Though I actually enjoy gloomy weather, I think it's starting to get to me.

“The cake had a book drawn on it, in icing. …the bakery said they had never put a book on a birthday cake before & that mostly for boys it was footballs or spaceships. I was their first book.” - The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman. Know what I want on my 🎂 this year!

The Fate of Africa (Martin Meredith) “[The Congo] began not as a colony but as the personal property of Leopold II, an ambitious, greedy & devious monarch whose lust for territory & wealth was largely responsible for igniting the Scramble for Africa among European powers.” Yikes.

"…better to be a scientist of yourself, asking smaller questions that can actually be tested—which among my various possible selves should I start to explore now? How can I do that?" Range by @DavidEpstein . Testing: Chelsey focused on her love of books. bit.ly/372UtW5

Christina: “Being honest doesn’t mean you say whatever you want, whenever you want. It means that what you choose to say is true.” Rose: “A lie of omission is still a lie.” - Allegiant by Veronica Roth