Dear Reader,
Please welcome today's guest author, Merrill Markoe.
About the Author info:
Merrill began her writing career in television in the 1980s. She was the original head writer for the "David Letterman" show and received five Emmys for her work. After leaving the show in the late 80's, Merrill received a Writer's Guild Award for her work as a writer/performer on HBO's "Not Necessarily the News." She then worked as a columnist for various magazines, and a humorous on-camera correspondent for local news.
In Feb 2020 Merrill was the recipient of The Paddy Chayevsky Laurel Award from The Writers Guild West for her work in television. In 2019 she co-authored on Audible original, with Megan Koester "The Indignities of Being a Woman." Merrill has published 11 books, and In October 2020, she released her first graphic novel: We Saw Scenery.
Please welcome Merrill Markoe to the book club. She is graciously giving away 5 copies of We Saw Scenery to lucky book club winners. Email [email protected]
Since childhood I have been an orthodox disciple of The Religion of Super Human Wellness. I became a vegetarian in the sixth grade, refusing to eat anything which would have caused me to emit the sound 'AWWW'. This simple but effective system served me well until I realized I'd begun to say AWWW at the sight of miniature potatoes and carrots.
By high school, I was frequenting health food stores, pouring over books with unsettling titles like The Mucusless Diet, whose cover was memorably adorned with a black and white photograph of the author, glowering behind his meticulously waxed handlebar mustache and goatee. I obediently followed his edicts, purchasing wheat germ and apple cider vinegar, trying not to imagine his facial hair before he got his mucus problem under control.
By college I was such a devotee of all things organic that when offered a choice between a delicious sugary dessert and a sad plate of marinated tofu, I would choose the tofu one hundred percent of the time. When Nautilus equipment arrived in the 80's, I joined a gym to add definition to muscle groups I would never see. In the 90's I did power yoga seven days a week.
As the years marched on, the internet made my religion easier to practice. I became a vegan and a day rarely passed where I didn't succumb to a slide show of eight (or twelve or thirty) important superfoods to add to my meals. Resolutely, I charged past quinoa, onward to amaranth and kamut. Anti-oxidants? Unsure what my grudge was against oxidants, nevertheless I fought them valiantly.
I was definitely on the fast track to immortality when I had to go to the emergency room. Two days later I had to get my gallbladder removed.
In the hospital, the surgeon said to me "What have you been eating...besides a lot of hot dogs and pizza?" I stared at him, my jaw hanging open.
Then I ordered a big plate of chocolate fudge cake for dinner my first night after surgery. Sure, there were sauteed vegetables on the menu, but they had their chance and, they blew it.
When I got home, I was so disillusioned I had every intention of switching over to junk food. But it turns out good habits are as hard to break as bad ones.
So I'm stuck eating "healthy" tho I'm no longer sure how 'healthy' it really is.
My current thinking is this: Be flexible. We're only here for a short while. Eat more cookies, less kamut. No more suffering through rubbery tasteless health food candy bars if a 'poisonous' but delicious one is available.
-- Merrill Markoe
Merrill is graciously giving away 5 copies of We Saw Scenery to lucky book club winners. Email [email protected]
Need a good laugh? We've posted two of Merrill's comics on our Facebook page: "5 Things I Learned During Quarantine" and "How to Meditate."
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* There's still time to enter this week's special two-book giveaway: a copy of Wanda E. Brunstetter's Amish Friends From Scratch Cookbook and a copy of The Blended Quilt. To enter, click here.
AUTHORBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
This month's Penguin Classics book is The Cancer Journals, by Audre Lorde, with a foreword by Tracy K. Smith. I have a copy to share with you, so start reading and enter today.
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