10 Comments

So glad to see this, not-Charlie. I’m not sure anything I’ve written could be classed as an essay either. Solidarity!

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Yes! Haha thanks, Claire!

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Call me Charlie, "Call me Ishmael". I've never read Moby Dick, but it's thanks to you, Charlie, that I now understand something of the beauty of that famous opening line. I had to get a copy of Todd and Kidder's Good Prose after your podcast and recent post about it. What a great read!

Another great read was your Post-COVID Supermarket Fantasy. I LOL'd when you started talking about how the pandemic deprived you of your greatest skill – being an ingredient detective – and how you performed due diligence on various jars of creamy and chunky peanut butter.

Most of all, I really enjoyed your podcast episode on Caroline Knapp's memoir. I came across Mark Forsyth's book after listening to David Perrell's conversation with him. It's SO good. And I really enjoyed listening to you point out examples of some of his rhetorical formulas in Caroline's book.

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Ah Simon! Love the Moby Dick reference (I've never read it either, but that's cool!) I'm so glad you liked Good Prose. I agree, it's a great, fun, and informative read.

And lol the supermarket fantasy. Are you an ingredient detective, too??

Taking the elements of eloquence and applying them to a specific book made it so much easier for me to learn them. Thanks for reading and listening!

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I wouldn’t say I was an ingredient detective (perhaps an ingredient deputy), but one of my superpowers is to lose hours in a supermarket. I just can’t shop in a normal amount of time.

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Haha I love that this is your superpower.

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I’m going to call you Charl (for short), and book some time with you 😊

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Charl lolol.

Camilo you better! We need to catch up. (Seriously, though, I was going to email you but a Zoom call will be better.) :)

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I like the new name!

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Thanks, Chrissy!

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