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Continue readingAuthor: Lilian Nattel
Lilian Nattel's Journal: Red Shoes
From my new blog: On a youngish woman riding the subway. She wore a winter coat, and blue leggings, and had a suitcase on wheels. Her shoes were so red and shiny, and the pointed toes–didn’t they squish hers? I wondered how she’d react if I asked to take a
Continue readingLilian Nattel's Journal: How To Take Back Facebook & Defeat Trolls
I just read an interview with tech people who founded the internet & social media. They were appalled at how their idealism and naivite has shaped up into a nightmare. But one thing stood out for me: how algorithms have changed. Timelines used to to emphasize likes (remember the days
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: What Mark Zuckerberg Didn’t Tell You
FaceBook tracks you across the internet on any website that has a FB button, whether or not you are signed into FaceBook and even if you don’t have an account. Is that creepy or what? There is a solution, and at the end of the post I’ll provide it, so
Continue readingLilian Nattel's Journal: Now blogging at https://liliannattel.com
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Continue readingLilian Nattel's Blog: On Embarrassment
Being bipedal animals with consciousness, humans have this propensity for remembering and obsessing, but other animals get embarrassed, too. I had a housemate, once, with a mean cat. At the start of every summer, she’d have her cat shaved so he wouldn’t overheat. I always had to watch out for
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Unlikely Saints
It’s been about a year since I went to emergency with my hockey playing concussed daughter. At the time, all that concerned me was her head, but I instinctively sat between her and the homeless man. Beside him, on the other side, was an old man and a middle-aged woman,
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: The Gentle-Hearted Computer Scammer
Sometimes I like to toy with the scammers on the phone. It’s an exercise in quick thinking, saying whatever comes into my head, messing with them until they hang up in an outraged huff. This time it was the Microsoft scam. You know, they call and say that they’re from
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: The Oldest Woman’s Secret
The reporter sits across from me and asks very nicely if he can record our conversation. Video, he says. I know what video is, I tell him. My voice doesn’t sound like my voice. I’m 115 years old. I used to be the second oldest person in the world. Since
Continue readingLilian Nattel's Old Blog: Found Art
Filed under: Photography
Continue readingLilian Nattel's Old Blog: Moving!
I am now self-hosting my blog! If you’re following me here, please subscribe there! At one time, believe it or not, I had half a dozen different blogs. Life is too short, simplification is my new by-word. (PS Eventually, for…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Reflects: Midnight Romeo
He pulled his fedora lower over his brow to shield his eyes from rain. Someone was watching him from the balcony, a woman, he thought. Dark robe. A hint of pale leg. A photo posted by Lilian Nattel (@a.writers.eye) on…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Reflects: Found Art
I was walking along Dupont Street, a formerly semi-industrial street nearby, now in process of change and unsure of its identity. It features construction companies, expensive car dealerships, a barbershop, a sandwich shop, bull-dozer rental. I came across this installation…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Reflects: A Girl In Hitler Youth
The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood by Ursula Mahlendorf My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ursula Mahlendorf was born the same year as my mother. They were kids during WW2, teenagers by the end of it. While…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Reflects: Room Service Surprise
“Room Service!” I knocked again. No answer. No sound from within. There was no “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. I checked my instructions. Nothing about leaving the service outside the door. I checked my phone. Five minutes until my…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Reflects: Part III
I’ve finished the first scene of the last section of my new novel, unless, of course, there turns out to be more. That’s the strangeness of writing the way I do. I always wanted to be the sort of writer…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Live: 2016 in Abstract
On New Year’s Eve around midnight, my two girls and I stuck our heads out the window that’s missing a screen so we could watch the fireworks, and then someone had the idea of taking pictures of the city from…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel's Blog: Cold Hard Cash
Finding a birthday present for my mother is never easy. After all, she can make anything she wants. My sister always comes up with something inventive. She’s like that. For example, on Mother’s 125th, Maggie gave her a dozen rubies that turned into roses, which threw off a fragrance of an Italian spring, and then […]
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: What Else Can You Wish For?
It’s my birthday. I invited all my friends, but nobody came. I don’t mind. I am still having the party. A decorator came and decorated my penthouse apartment. I wish my friends had come. They would see how pretty it is. They’ve never come to see my apartment. My lawyer warned me that lots of…
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Missing Eyephone
“The victim tried to write something as he was dying,” she said. “And how do you figure that?” I asked. “The scratch marks. I see an “A” and a “B”. He must have realized there was blood under his nails.” “So you think that he was writing the alphabet?” The
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