21 JUN 2024 · Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, E.B. White. All names I associate with old school writing - but also breakthrough humor. I don't know that ascerbic wit was ever more prevalent than in NYC in the 1920's.  Please enjoy, on this rainy Friday in Vermont, this essay by Robert Benchley. My recent outing to the Algonquin Hotel in New York made me feel right at home and I've been having a wonderful start to summer going through essays from that time. Here is one of my favorites. I've been spending a lot of time in the garden lately and I feel a lot like the guy who is doing the work in this particular scenario - but I aspire to be the guy over the fence! There are pics from our night at the Algonquin at http://mishkennedy.com. There is also a new section for the podcast - and we will be doing an episode by episode guide very soon.  If you are interested in learning more about Robert Benchley, check out the Robert Benchley society at https://www.robertbenchley.org/sob/ If you'd like to contribute a piece to Real Quick, please email it to us at writermisha1313@gmail.com.

20 JUN 2024 · A little humor for a Thursday evening...Episode 15 is out!  "I was God. I fixed it all. I rearranged payments. I moved around due dates. I promised to put notations in their file saying "don't call at 5 p.m." I didn't, but I promised I would.I racked up the most numbers sold on the hardest lists. I got three promotions in three months and a raise with each. I could strut with pride in my former bar as I ordered drinks and bragged about my newfound wealth and profession." Here is the link to the original published essay. The graphic is from 2001 and is kind of disturbing. Be warned!  https://www.salon.com/2002/10/01/sales1/

19 JUN 2024 · This is a tough topic for me to talk about but it is my own abortion story. I have had miscarriages before, including one where I lost a 20 week old baby that I wanted very much. But this occurred many years later when my body was no longer able to handle the stresses of pregnancy and another pregnancy almost cost me my life. More than this episode being about this strange part of my life - it's also about the fact that everyone has a story. Everyone comes to the party with a different bag of chips. Sometimes, it's really important to check out and try what people bring to the party so that you can understand that not everyone has the same tastes...or same experiences.  Everyone has a story. 

18 JUN 2024 · This is the essay that really began my writing career and tells the foundational story of how became, I guess, who I am now and who I was then. Reading this essay again, after so long (It's been 23 years since I wrote it and 27 or so since I lived it) made me laugh in a few places. The prices are insane! $550 for an apartment?? 79 cents for marshmallows? A dollar for juice? Wow. But the other things ring true.  There is a bit of an epilogue at the end of this essay. I do correct a few things that I was embarrassed about in the original telling. Had I known this story would go so far beyond this essay - heck, it was almost a movie - I would have been more honest, I think in that first effort. But it was a hard thing to admit at the time - or at least to put out publicly even though I have always known it was my fault that my daughter was so brutally hurt. While it was my ex who didn't supervise them, the dogs were mine. And I will bear that guilt forever.  This essay and the book that followed, "Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with kids) in America," published by Viking way back in 2005 but shockingly still in print - has been studied and discussed in college classrooms everywhere. I have traveled and spoke at hundreds of homelessness conferences and spoken to many homeless people at this point. What I do know is that it's not getting better.  The National Alliance to End Homelessness has been at the forefront for so long, if you're interested, check them out at https://endhomelessness.org Anyway here's the link to the OG essay:https://www.salon.com/2001/08/28/homeless_mom/ And I hope you enjoy this - the lucky 13th episode - of Real Quick. 

18 JUN 2024 · BONUS episode. No essay today. I opted for a ramble through garden instead. I've been worried about the heat wave coming and with the dry week or two previously, I'm trying to prepare the plants a bit.  This episode includes a little story about my time in Hawaii and the cacao plants we grew.  So listen in, if you like...I'll be reading my Salon.com essay, "Mothering Without a Net," the essay that inspired my book, "Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with kids) In America."

14 JUN 2024 · Fathers. It's a tough topic in my house. But this Father's Day, I wanted to spend a little time remembering my own dad - the king dadisms and plenty of bad jokes. Today's essay is an Ode to My Own Father. He was kick - that's for sure. I miss him sometimes.  Have a dad story or essay you'd like to share - please do! Email me at mailto:writermisha1313@gmail.com.

13 JUN 2024 · We made our 10th episode! Apparently, that's a big deal in the podcasting world. Today's essay is a light one - some humor for this gorgeous (at least here in Vermont) day!  "I love my seed catalogs. Even though you will often find me scrolling my phone through seed catalogs, too, and I will likely even order them online, I still love the printed version of the catalog itself. I still love a good catalog - even now - but when I was a child, catalogs were the windows to other places. "They came from everywhere. I’m not sure if, looking back, I was more excited for Christmas time because of the gifts or because of the anticipation brought forth in every catalog that arrived. The mother of all catalogs when I was a child was: did you guess it fellow gen-xers? Yes. The wish book. From Sears. I pawed through the Sears catalog almost every day but when the Wish Book came? Forget the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The Wish Book heralded in the Christmas season where I was sitting, in a tasteful four bedroom colonial on a budding cul-de-sac in Naperville Illinois, in 1978. I grew up in an episode of Stranger Things - at least the place where everything is right side whatever." Please write in - text - email - smoke signal - whatever and let us know what you think, or submit an essay. We'd love to have you read your own work. writermisha1313@gmail.com

12 JUN 2024 · Exploring my unmotivation as I journey through midlife and menopause. My last kids are leaving the nest and it's feeling more empty than ever before.  This episode's intro also features some info about the Algonquin Hotel. Check out the history of the Round Table at http://algonquinroundtable.org or https://algonquinhotel.com Pictures from our stay at the Algonquin are available on my insta @writermish or on my website mishkennedy.com From this episode: "I went outside one brutally cold January night not long ago in my sweats, a sweater and my socks during a pretty overwhelmingly hell-like hot flash, and I stood at the end of our deck and looked up into the winter sky. Steam poured off my skin for a second as I caught Orion’s belt out of the corner of my eye. Stepping down off the deck and onto the path, I got view of the entire night sky. A brilliant sight in the winter. I don’t know all of the constellations but I know enough to feel like I’m among friends when I’m outside, at night, alone."

7 JUN 2024 · Can you make a living as a freelancer writer? Well...maybe. Today's essay is by me, Michelle, and is about just that. Is freelance writing really the easiest job there is? Maybe. But for me it's been a long road...full of other jobs that often support my writing habit.  If you would like to contribute, comment, or ask a question - please write Michelle at writermisha1313@gmail.com or visit mishkennedy.com.

6 JUN 2024 · Today we contrast yesterday's episode by Joan Didion with the anti-personal essay, essay, "The Decay of the Essay," by Virginia Woolf. Thank you to AnOther Magazine for the background and quotes about Virginia Woolf and thank you to Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com Track: Coffee Jazz by DogisReal https://tunetank.com/track/3764-coffee-jazz/ If you'd like to read your essay on Real Quick - please let me know at writermisha1313@gmail.com or visit mishkennedy.com. I am also available on most social platforms as @writermish