Every once in a while I come across a group of words that make me a better writer. I store these poems, articles, links, and quotes in a file under the nebulous Area 51-ish name "The Warehouse".
I don't remember when I filed "The Peekaboo Paradox" by Gene Weingarten, but it originally appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday, January 22, 2006.
The Great Zucchini arrived early, as he is apt to do, and began to make demands, as is his custom. He was too warm, so he wanted the thermostat adjusted. It was. He declared the basement family room adequate for his needs, but there was a problem with the room next door. Something had to be done about it.
The room next door was emblematic of the extraordinary life and times of the Great Zucchini, Washington's No. 1 preschool entertainer. The homeowners, Allison and Donald Cox Jr., are in their late thirties, with two young children -- Lauren, who is 5, and Donald III, who goes by Trey, and whose third birthday was being celebrated that day.
Key point: Do not stop reading after the first page. You will think that you know what this story is about. You don't. Trust me.
For more from Gene Weingarten: Below the Beltway. No matter how you feel about his politics, reading his writing is an education in putting words together.
And on the subject of good art...
You have to visit Alex Itin's extraordinary website at The Future of the Book. (And visit his blog "on which my brain is displayed.")
About Alex:
I am the son of an abstract painter and graphic designer from Basel, Switzerland and an actress/fiber artist teacher from Long Island. I have always felt that I have one foot in the old world and one in the new. In some very real way my work and life have been an attempt to make a synthesis of the dialectic that is my parents both as people and artists.
Illustration above is "Peekaboo" by Alex Itin.
Comments