Thirteen: Baa

"Grote is our best merchant: He could sell sheep shit to shepherds."
David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Twelve: For Adam's (Belated) Birthday

"But what is the difference between literature and journalism?...

Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all."
Oscar Wilde, 1891

Oscar Wilde cleared up our literature vs. journalism debate long before we were born.

Eleven: Overheard in Starbucks

"I don’t even know how many poke wars im in right now."

Apparently the poke button is still being used by high school-aged girls in Astoria.

Ten: Farmers Market Fear

"I'm scared of farmers markets."

Overheard in Prospect Park Farmers Market last Saturday, August 21st

Nine: That's a Big Salad

"Eat the world, leaf by leaf." 

After her divorce (1913), author Edith Wharton wrote to a friend that she planned to "eat the world, leaf by leaf."Talk about turning over a new leaf!

Eight: Authors are funnier than aurors.

"Your Doxin can play Twister on it" - Author Gary Shteyngart commenting on the cover of his new novel, Super Sad True Love Story.

Seven: Life-challenged Buds

"I just realized zombieism is just cannibalism in virus form" - Brick Heck, The Middle (T.V. Program)

(Thanks for creating the title and uploading this last-minute blog post, Adam Reichardt!)

Six: Black and Brown

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." - Oscar Wilde

Five: Alphabetizing is Fun

"Next Author: Tupac Shakur"

Earlier this morning I was googling Shakespeare quotations, and thought it was amusing that the alphabetized website had a preview of the next author to come. I picture these two waiting for an audition or interview.  The person working then enters the room with a clipboard to call "Next, Tupac Shakur!"

Four: Lonely Ghost

"You're as lonely as a ghost on Halloween."

Today's quotation comes from the Deer Tick song "The Ghost." A friend of mine plays in the band and I saw them Friday night, so I thought I'd illustrate a lyric. Friday also happened to be the 13th, so ghosts it is!

Three: From the Brain of a 3-Year-Old

"Mermaids are bigger than mummies and stronger than bicycles!"

Recently, the three-year-old boy I babysit looked up at me and declared this as if everyone knows it. We weren't talking about mermaids, mummies, or bicycles, but regardless, he made me laugh. Enjoy your weekend!

Two: Sad or Sweet?

"I resent the fact that I found someone who I actually love."

Last week, I shared a bench in Union Square with two elderly men. Attempting to read but side-tracked by their loud conversation and the abundance of cigarette smoke wafting my way, I couldn't help but eavesdrop. The more haggard of the two strangers admitted to his friend that it would just be easier to live alone as an alcoholic rather than improve his health. When he first uttered the above sentence, I found it strikingly sad, but then, after writing it down and thinking about its implications, I realized his confession was actually quite sweet. An investment in true love rather than survival will keep this man sober.

One

"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."

For the first Sentence Scribble, I thought it only appropriate to use my favorite opening line from any novel written in English. Though some may think this quotation from Samuel Beckett's Murphy is a depressing way to begin, I see it as refreshingly honest motivation. The sun is shining, comme d'habitude, over this too-hot city, but I'm going to do something new anyway! 

Explanation

Each post in Sentence Scribble will include a single sentence and my drawn interpretation of it. The quotations will come from a variety of places, such as literature, film, music, snippets of overheard conversations, friends, children, and my own musings (sparingly, for your sake).