A long time ago in school during an analysis of a book (I've forgotten which) – I kept referring to "Marlboro" as a currency as I thought that's what it was, as I didn't know the brand name 😅
Immediately thought of Patrick Bateman from Ellis’ “American Psycho”. Everything is brand names and what’s chic. You got whole chapters where it’s just him neurotically going over the intricate details of a new stereo and such.
Something I completely missed when I read it the first time but some of the clothing combinations that Bateman describes in the book are actually really bizarre and comical.
Don't forget the lengthy neurotic justifications of his musical choices.
Ellis is singular in his attention to detail, and his ability to write relentlessly about those details. His recent book is set pre-Bateman, and is equally impressive with the details of the lives of rich high school kids.
Endless dog poop discussion in my household, the second phase of which involves me being accused of giving the dog anything other than our extra special, super expensive dog food.
Fortunately our dog likes raw string beans, carrots and fruit which are ok in moderation.
I like to think of the characters as splinters of myself and inject some of my hopes, fears, and interests into them. I try to pick something that I have at least a little familiarity with so that it isn't a huge deep dive into research mode. Lucky for me if done a ton of things and collect hobbies like my parents collected mail order catalogs. I also organize everyone I've know into little silos so that this character can be my dad while the villain can be my boss from back working in the emergency room at this rural hospital. The familiarity gives me a believable foundation where I can leap into the fantastical like your stained glass windows.
Maybe it's obvious, but for nurses, it's pills. Google takes some of the memorization out, but identifying oxycodone vs aldactone or lipitor vs Xanax or endless others. Small circular white pills....God there's hundreds. So knowing the markings, sizes...very important. And sometimes the same detective work comes into play when you find a pill on the floor, so you can figure out whose it was or if it's worth just...uh...throwing away.
Oh and nursing notes have little unofficial signatures. Some nurses end their notes with "due care given" or "will continue to monitor/observe" or "call bell in reach" or "care ongoing". These little phrases at the end that are completely meaningless technicality incase you need to prove something in court someday. But typically they become like a little signature, where you can very quickly determine who wrote it. Nurse 'so and so' always ends their note with "due care given. Call bell in reach"
Well nursing notes are a liability legally speaking of an accident happens or an unexpected outcome so the language will include little things like that are basically the nurse saying in technical or polite language that they did their job.
My brother-in-law and I discuss the intricacies and trade-offs of our concealed carry weapons. A .38 is great unless you want to stop the bad guy. A .45 stops him dead in his tracks, but you only get seven rounds in a 1911. 9mm means nearly twice as many, but they'll punch right through. .380 is great if you're a girl.
My cousin and I discuss guitars. He's a die-hard Fender man. His brother-in-law only plays Gibson. They can barely sit at the same dinner table for Thanksgiving. I look down on both of them because I collect Parkers -- I'm up to five now -- but my secret shame is that a $150 Epiphone Les Paul that my buddy gave me out of his collection because he didn't like the way it played is my favorite.
My brother and I discuss books. He's the one that gave me my first copy of Fight Club. I'm the one that gave him Ender's Game when we were in middle school. He rereads the Lord of the Rings every year like it was a religious sacrament, but I get lost in Tolkien's verbose world-building. I have a weak spot for Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police novels, and we were both surprised to discover his daughter picked up the series after his death and has added ten more all of which are highly regarded.
I overheard my wife, mother-in-law, and my mother all discussing various things that annoy them about the staff on their respective nursing units where they work. It used slang and terms and acronyms I didn't recognize but the pattern was the same. The things we know about, we KNOW ABOUT. Don't try to bullshit us.
The 5.7 is a wonderful solution looking for a problem. Higher capacity magazines and even more punch-through/less stopping power. But if slicing the room like you're engaged in CQB as you walk to the kitchen to sneak the leftover pecan pie is your thing, there's nothing finer.
I've always been fascinated by clothing brands and how a brand can command a 1000% increase by logo alone. Alexander McQueen created his first collection using his unemployment paycheck. He cut his hair and added it to the clothing's tag. One of those outfits now cost over 30,000 dollars.
My childhood was defined by the various ways Joe Camel would appear in daily life. Going to the shores of Lake Erie to play in the rocky sand and 71-degree (possibly, probably polluted) water? Here's a beach towel with a giant camel in sunglasses because your stepdad smoked nine packs per week. Need a grubby t-shirt because you're painting in third grade art class? Here's a pocketed tee that used to be white but is now mostly grey, a small camel logo on the pocket (since 1913!), right arm stretched from months of being rolled around pack after pack of smokes. Oh, it's a bit chilly out...slip on this yellow tyvek windbreaker with not one but TWO camels on the back, dressed like the Blues Brothers. Boxers, lighters, hats. Joe Camel was the spirit animal of my youth.
All the cigarette machines I recall were older, not digital. They had those knobs that you pulled to release the cigarettes. I was sent on my bike to fetch cigarettes and coca cola constantly. Theyd call the convenience store and let them know they were sending a 7 year old. No problemo. Thats not an exaggeration. But Im glad I got that kind of independence. Its illegal now. Not the cigs. Children roaming a neighborhood or town without adult supervision gets CPS called. Or even playing in the lawn without an adult.
My father, dead at 58 due to all those cigarettes, would defend his opinions to the point of physical conflict if necessary. Many years after he died I talked to his sister about him. ‘He was a complicated man,’ she said.
One character of mine places importance on his socks. He likes the "pure" white ones, wearing a new pair each day. Sometimes, however, he'll wear colorful socks up to his knee, what he calls, "Triple Striper Vipers."
Graphic designers and typefaces. The cult of Helvetica - a typeface with a whole documentary. There's actually typeface drama, like someone making Baskerville's mistress (and future wife, after some messiness) her own typeface, Garamond having beef with someone - I forget who - and the lead type ending up in a river.
Cooper Black is superior to anything else when you want to convey whimsy. Fight me.
A long time ago in school during an analysis of a book (I've forgotten which) – I kept referring to "Marlboro" as a currency as I thought that's what it was, as I didn't know the brand name 😅
Oh, it’s a currency. In prison.
Immediately thought of Patrick Bateman from Ellis’ “American Psycho”. Everything is brand names and what’s chic. You got whole chapters where it’s just him neurotically going over the intricate details of a new stereo and such.
Something I completely missed when I read it the first time but some of the clothing combinations that Bateman describes in the book are actually really bizarre and comical.
The distinctions about business cards are a perfect example.
“Look at that subtle off-white coloring; the tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark . . .”
There's a typo in the card if you look closely.
Don't forget the lengthy neurotic justifications of his musical choices.
Ellis is singular in his attention to detail, and his ability to write relentlessly about those details. His recent book is set pre-Bateman, and is equally impressive with the details of the lives of rich high school kids.
Endless dog poop discussion in my household, the second phase of which involves me being accused of giving the dog anything other than our extra special, super expensive dog food.
Fortunately our dog likes raw string beans, carrots and fruit which are ok in moderation.
I like to think of the characters as splinters of myself and inject some of my hopes, fears, and interests into them. I try to pick something that I have at least a little familiarity with so that it isn't a huge deep dive into research mode. Lucky for me if done a ton of things and collect hobbies like my parents collected mail order catalogs. I also organize everyone I've know into little silos so that this character can be my dad while the villain can be my boss from back working in the emergency room at this rural hospital. The familiarity gives me a believable foundation where I can leap into the fantastical like your stained glass windows.
Maybe it's obvious, but for nurses, it's pills. Google takes some of the memorization out, but identifying oxycodone vs aldactone or lipitor vs Xanax or endless others. Small circular white pills....God there's hundreds. So knowing the markings, sizes...very important. And sometimes the same detective work comes into play when you find a pill on the floor, so you can figure out whose it was or if it's worth just...uh...throwing away.
Merek manual is pretty good and so is goggle lens
Oh and nursing notes have little unofficial signatures. Some nurses end their notes with "due care given" or "will continue to monitor/observe" or "call bell in reach" or "care ongoing". These little phrases at the end that are completely meaningless technicality incase you need to prove something in court someday. But typically they become like a little signature, where you can very quickly determine who wrote it. Nurse 'so and so' always ends their note with "due care given. Call bell in reach"
Well nursing notes are a liability legally speaking of an accident happens or an unexpected outcome so the language will include little things like that are basically the nurse saying in technical or polite language that they did their job.
That falls apart when they copy and paste the same notes for the same, and even different, patients. All clinicians, not specific to nurses.
Or has the US not yet got electronic health records?
Clearly Mexico and Canada are not part of the USA.
Quite shocking that even in the same city people's health records are scattered and not all electronic.
My brother-in-law and I discuss the intricacies and trade-offs of our concealed carry weapons. A .38 is great unless you want to stop the bad guy. A .45 stops him dead in his tracks, but you only get seven rounds in a 1911. 9mm means nearly twice as many, but they'll punch right through. .380 is great if you're a girl.
My cousin and I discuss guitars. He's a die-hard Fender man. His brother-in-law only plays Gibson. They can barely sit at the same dinner table for Thanksgiving. I look down on both of them because I collect Parkers -- I'm up to five now -- but my secret shame is that a $150 Epiphone Les Paul that my buddy gave me out of his collection because he didn't like the way it played is my favorite.
My brother and I discuss books. He's the one that gave me my first copy of Fight Club. I'm the one that gave him Ender's Game when we were in middle school. He rereads the Lord of the Rings every year like it was a religious sacrament, but I get lost in Tolkien's verbose world-building. I have a weak spot for Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police novels, and we were both surprised to discover his daughter picked up the series after his death and has added ten more all of which are highly regarded.
I overheard my wife, mother-in-law, and my mother all discussing various things that annoy them about the staff on their respective nursing units where they work. It used slang and terms and acronyms I didn't recognize but the pattern was the same. The things we know about, we KNOW ABOUT. Don't try to bullshit us.
Safety off, round in the chamber. Where would you guys rate the good ol five-seven. Super relate to that.
The 5.7 is a wonderful solution looking for a problem. Higher capacity magazines and even more punch-through/less stopping power. But if slicing the room like you're engaged in CQB as you walk to the kitchen to sneak the leftover pecan pie is your thing, there's nothing finer.
Hahaha. Made me laugh.
I've always been fascinated by clothing brands and how a brand can command a 1000% increase by logo alone. Alexander McQueen created his first collection using his unemployment paycheck. He cut his hair and added it to the clothing's tag. One of those outfits now cost over 30,000 dollars.
My childhood was defined by the various ways Joe Camel would appear in daily life. Going to the shores of Lake Erie to play in the rocky sand and 71-degree (possibly, probably polluted) water? Here's a beach towel with a giant camel in sunglasses because your stepdad smoked nine packs per week. Need a grubby t-shirt because you're painting in third grade art class? Here's a pocketed tee that used to be white but is now mostly grey, a small camel logo on the pocket (since 1913!), right arm stretched from months of being rolled around pack after pack of smokes. Oh, it's a bit chilly out...slip on this yellow tyvek windbreaker with not one but TWO camels on the back, dressed like the Blues Brothers. Boxers, lighters, hats. Joe Camel was the spirit animal of my youth.
I collected the "Joe Camel Bucks" from my friend's mom back in middle school and mailed a hundred of them and received a T-Shirt!
All the cigarette machines I recall were older, not digital. They had those knobs that you pulled to release the cigarettes. I was sent on my bike to fetch cigarettes and coca cola constantly. Theyd call the convenience store and let them know they were sending a 7 year old. No problemo. Thats not an exaggeration. But Im glad I got that kind of independence. Its illegal now. Not the cigs. Children roaming a neighborhood or town without adult supervision gets CPS called. Or even playing in the lawn without an adult.
Long before I got into a career in advertising, I smoked Benson & Hedges as a kid because they had the most creative ads.
Same..and then switched to B&H Silver as they had very "cool" ads in the early 2000s. Little symbols hidden in the lid if I remember rightly.
My father, dead at 58 due to all those cigarettes, would defend his opinions to the point of physical conflict if necessary. Many years after he died I talked to his sister about him. ‘He was a complicated man,’ she said.
I was reading this while eating a burrito, then I got to the feces section. Chuck never lets me down.
Point adjacent fun fact: The Pall Mall commercial taught me how to tie a tie: "Over, under, around and through [Pall Mall brings the flavor to you].
One character of mine places importance on his socks. He likes the "pure" white ones, wearing a new pair each day. Sometimes, however, he'll wear colorful socks up to his knee, what he calls, "Triple Striper Vipers."
Graphic designers and typefaces. The cult of Helvetica - a typeface with a whole documentary. There's actually typeface drama, like someone making Baskerville's mistress (and future wife, after some messiness) her own typeface, Garamond having beef with someone - I forget who - and the lead type ending up in a river.
Cooper Black is superior to anything else when you want to convey whimsy. Fight me.
What about poop that never was or hasn’t been (for a few days)? That warrants a call to the vet.