Literary Marshmallows

I'm sorry that I didn't act on this while I had the issues of these magazines still in the house, but you'll have to bear with me because I can't get this strange factoid out of my head.

I think it was two weeks ago that I got in the mail the latest issue of the New Yorker and the Atlantic, one right after the other. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual, it seems to me, is that each magazine used the word "marshmallow" in a featured article. I know this doesn't sound particularly interesting but what are the odds of a word like that, which has, usually, no place in magazine writing (that is, non-foodie magazine writing), appearing in both the New Yorker and the Atlantic in the same week?

In one case (and determined readers can find the articles online, I'm sure, if they wish -- Miss Edith is too lazy to hunt, herself), there was a piece discussing a psychological test given to kids which involved self-restraint and eating marshmallows. And in the other case, a man was being described as looking like a marshmallow.

In the meantime, Miss Edith will start daydreaming about s'mores.

John Updike: A Very Special Sitcom

Miss Edith has spent time fantasizing about all sorts of odd things but never once did it occur to me that there was a sitcom based on a work by John Updike in the offing.

Saints preserve us.

Well, here it is, folks. Today's New York Times let me know that there's going to be a sitcom based on The Witches of Eastwick, entitled Eastwick. A more media-savvy person would have known this some months ago, but me, I rely on the Times for my television news (which is pathetic and sad, but there it is).

I had wondered if maybe this was all coming about only because Updike was finally dead and someone could get away with this, but apparently it's been in the works a long time, so, so much for that piece of cynicism.

But it's just so weird.

Eastwick. Starring a whole bunch of people I don't care about. Tune in, everybody...