• Home
  • Laurentide
    • Farm
    • Cool Women
    • Family
    • Interiors
    • Lessons
    • Procrastination
    • Reviews
    • Travel
    • Vintage Finds
  • Videos
  • Resources
    • Message Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • Subscribe
  • Search
  • Archive
Menu

The Bubble Joy

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
"In folly's cup still laughs the bubble joy." Alexander Pope

Your Custom Text Here

The Bubble Joy

  • Home
  • Laurentide
  • Blog
    • Farm
    • Cool Women
    • Family
    • Interiors
    • Lessons
    • Procrastination
    • Reviews
    • Travel
    • Vintage Finds
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • Contact
    • Message Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • Subscribe
  • Search
  • Archive

Mrs. Matthiessen is Right

October 9, 2014 mithra ballesteros

This week my camera, video camera, and laptop all went haywire and torpedoed my plans to post about a Halloween prank. Boo. Hiss. And to make matters worse, by openly sharing my technology woes, I just broke a cardinal rule of blogging. Which is this. Never make excuses to your readers. Don't apologize. Just shut up and write good stuff. 

Because no one cares if your hard drive is shattered or B&H didn't deliver your light meter. It is boring. Unprofessional. Annoying too. 

On a walk yesterday to ease my equipment frustrations, I listened to a podcast featuring a young woman, Sarah, and her mother who taught her that certain topics of conversation are absolutely off limits. The mother, Maria Matthiessen, makes Dame Maggie Smith sound like a fishmonger and she recites precisely seven conversational topics which must be avoided: your last night's sleep, your last night's dreams, your aches and pains, your period, your money, your diet, and most tiresome of all, your travel route. These topics are dull and uninteresting to all. (Apparently Robert Redford once came to visit Mrs. Matthiessen which sent her household into a tizzy. It took him two hours to drive from New York to Long Island and when he arrived, he spent two hours describing the interstate he drove, the gas station he patronized, the towns he passed through. He blew his status as the Sundance Kid, and revealed himself to be boring old Bob.)

The podcast develops into a contest to see if the daughter can dig up stories on these banal topics that will entertain her mother, thus proving that Mrs. Matthiessen's rules are passé and that perhaps dear Mrs. Matthiessen herself is old-fashioned and tiresome. 

I don't want to give away who wins but I rooted for the upper crust mother. As is often the tendency with mothers passing out advice, Mrs. Matthiessen initially sounds unnecessarily rigid. Gradually, the listener can't help but see the wisdom of her stance. Keep in mind that Mrs. Matthiessen is up against a daughter who is a producer for This American Life and who brings to the game all the scouting resources and storytelling finesse that Ira Glass and his minions employ. For example, the story offered up to Mrs. Matthiessen under the category 'your period' should be a Tina Fey film project and it made me scare some crows I laughed so hard. Mrs. Matthiessen laughed too and her daughter won that point. 

I decided to google Mrs. Matthiessen. She is the widow of the recently deceased Peter Matthiessen who was a prolific author, co-founder of The Paris Review, former CIA agent, buddies with John Irving and George Plimpton. At her dinner table, she would be crazy not to ban those seven topics.  

For the rest of us though, Mrs. Matthiessen's rules are hard to live by. I wish I could dream up an interesting way to end this post but my head hurts, I've got cramps, and no one is paying me for my work, so really it's time to pack away the computer and climb the stairs, thirteen of them, the third one is creaky, which lead to my bedroom and my bed.

P.S. The cookie cutters I used for BOO HISS are available here. 



In Lessons Tags seven things you're not supposed to talk about, This American Life, Maria Matthiessen, Sarah Koenig
← My Birkin Bag Smells Like WeedQueen of Halloween! →

Mithra B096 copy.jpg

Welcome! I'm Mithra (pronounced Mee-thra). I'm an interior stylist and a writer. I'm also a vintage and antiques lover. I have an online shop, Finder Not Keeper, where I sell my best finds. (That's a white lie. I keep the best finds.) Read more about me and the blog here. 


FIND ME IN YOUR INBOX


CATEGORIES

Cool-Women_png.png
Family_png.png
Interiors_png.png
Procrastinate_png.png
Reviews_png.png
Travel_png.png
Vintage_png.png
Lessons_png.png

Instagram posts

A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.
A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.
Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio
Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio
Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.
Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.
Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down  and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?
Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?
Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.
Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.
First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)
First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)
Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.
Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.
This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.
This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.
On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.
On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.
On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teac
On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teach a grizzly bear how to be grumpy. It’s a new world for the two of us, farming together, and can you guess how it’s going??

OLD POSTS

Archive
  • October 2021 1
  • July 2021 1
  • June 2021 1
  • May 2021 2
  • April 2021 3
  • March 2021 1
  • February 2021 2
  • January 2021 2
  • December 2020 2
  • November 2020 1
  • October 2020 2
  • September 2020 1
  • August 2020 5
  • July 2020 7
  • June 2020 6
  • May 2020 9
  • April 2020 8
  • March 2020 4
  • February 2020 3
  • January 2020 5
  • December 2019 1
  • November 2019 4
  • October 2019 3
  • September 2019 3
  • August 2019 4
  • July 2019 7
  • June 2019 5
  • May 2019 8
  • April 2019 8
  • March 2019 8
  • February 2019 7
  • January 2019 7
  • December 2018 8
  • November 2018 9
  • October 2018 8
  • September 2018 7
  • August 2018 9
  • July 2018 6
  • June 2018 7
  • May 2018 7
  • April 2018 5
  • March 2018 4
  • February 2018 4
  • January 2018 4
  • December 2017 1
  • November 2017 3
  • October 2017 3
  • September 2017 4
  • August 2017 4
  • July 2017 4
  • June 2017 5
  • May 2017 3
  • April 2017 5
  • March 2017 3
  • February 2017 2
  • January 2017 4
  • December 2016 5
  • November 2016 4
  • October 2016 3
  • September 2016 5
  • August 2016 4
  • July 2016 5
  • June 2016 4
  • May 2016 4
  • April 2016 4
  • March 2016 5
  • February 2016 8
  • January 2016 8
  • December 2015 6
  • November 2015 9
  • October 2015 9
  • September 2015 8
  • August 2015 8
  • July 2015 5
  • June 2015 4
  • May 2015 5
  • April 2015 4
  • March 2015 4
  • February 2015 4
  • January 2015 5
  • December 2014 4
  • November 2014 4
  • October 2014 6
  • September 2014 2
  • August 2014 3
  • July 2014 5
  • June 2014 3
  • May 2014 3
  • April 2014 4
  • March 2014 6
  • February 2014 5
  • January 2014 4

Powered by Squarespace

Contact: mithra@thebubblejoy.com