This is Just to Say

Some time ago, This American Life (“Mistakes Were Made“) had some regular contributors give a rendition of William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say.” Here are our friends:

This Is Just To Say
by
Jonathan Goldstein

This is just to say
I have eaten the Fruit of Knowledge
but nothing happened

not a word
no lightning or volcanoes
not even a drop of rain

So I was just wondering
Are you there?

This Is Just To Say
by
Heather O’Neill

Dear Mom,
This is just to say
I forgive you for eating all the plums
the apples the pears
and even drinking the last of the orange juice

I forgive you for emptying Dad’s bank account
and for painting stars on our station wagon
right before you got in and drove away
I forgive you for leaving us without even saying goodbye

Your plans were always
so sweet, so delicious
and so cold

This is just to say b

At our wedding
I disappeared briefly
To have sex with your sister
Up against the back of the port-o-sans

What can I say
The chardonnay was so fresh and cold
And I so full of love and a sense of family

And I said, I’m sure
One day we’ll laugh about this
Well, by one day
I meant that day
And by we
I meant me
And by laugh
I meant laugh

his is just to say by Starlee Kine
1
I chose the other girl
I’m sorry
It’s not just that I’m more attracted to her
It’s also that she’s more interesting

2
I used your dog as an excuse
To pick up girls at the dog park
Which is especially tacky
Since I am your boyfriend

Please forgive me
I’m really bad at being
In a relationship
But I’m pretty sure
I told you that
When we first got together

This is just to say by Shalom Auslander
1
I’m sorry you’re overweight
And drinking
And feeling like everything
In your life
Is doomed to failure
But this is probably why
Mom said
I was her favorite

2
It sucks, little doe
That I hit you
with my car

But at least
You weren’t alive
To watch the hunters
Shoot your children

3
He was a troublemaker, okay
And didn’t know when
To shut up

Still
We never would have killed him
If we’d known he was the Lord

Guilt and Pleasure

At the end of Private Life; Public Performance JG mentions that the first act was a collaboration between him and Mireille Silcoff and appears in Guilt and Pleasure. For the life of me, I can’t find it but I did find some other delectable goodies:

• Gregor Ehrlich essay: A Life in Chickens
• Jonathan Goldstein: Messiah in a Bottle (print version of the episode Messiah ‘83)
• Jonathan Goldstein: Man Not Superman (as read by Rob Corddry in We Are Not Supermen, also heard on This American Life)
• David Rakoff: Oh The Trouble I’ve Heard
• Shalom Auslander: Plagued
• Gregor Ehrlich: To Life
• Shalom Auslander: Mahmoud, Mom; Mom, Mahmoud
• Mireille Silcoff: Chez l’arabe

Oh and pictures:

I think you should all go to Guilt and Pleasure and read/buy every issue. David Rakoff has a piece in the newest issue, too.

I think this is an all-Jewish publication. Though it doesn’t mention that any where in its about. Maybe it just so happens that all my favorite authors are Canadian Jews.

Guilt & Pleasure is a quarterly magazine that’s making you talk more . Guilt & Pleasure is based on the belief that a good argument – especially on issues of community and identity in America – has become too rare a thing. We hope our magazine and the DIY section of this website will be used as raw material to spark conversation – be it around the dinner table, a coffee shop, or a bar. Guilt & Pleasure encourages you to talk amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: I emailed the magazine seeking the piece, and apparently it doesn’t exist?:

I’m not sure which article you are referring to. Jonathan and Mireille have both written for the magazine (and Mireille was the editor-in-chief) but I don’t believe they ever did an article together. And the hypnotist doesn’t sound familiar to me although I wasn’t working here for the first four issues so I could be wrong. It sounds like it would be in the Magic issue- there is an article about Hitler’s psychic/hypnotist by Mel Gordon in there- could that be what they were talking about?

Hmm, Guess I’ll ask CBC.