i've had a lot of people compare my page to a play, and now that i'm working on a one-woman show based off putting my life online, i'm interested in what stories have been people's favorites. so let me know which ones stand out for you.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 1999

Answers

I have to say that I have 3 entries that stand out as favorites...

The first is Menstrual Girl, I thougt you explained things very well...and now my boyfriend knows that when I start wearing the jeans with the hole in the knee to watch out!!

My second was the explination of Tae-Bo...that entry is the one that convinced me to give Tae-bo a whirl :)

And, one of your latest entries "Being Nosey" had me in stitches!!! your sound effects are awesome, and they add so much character to your stories. (who else could have come up with the spelling for the sound a nose-hair clipper makes?!)

I love your page Pamie...keep up the awesome work :)

-- Anonymous, March 29, 1999

Oh, definitely Menstrual Girl. I've passed that around to everyone. And your birds & the bees story. And the Superbowl primer. And last week's nose hair entry.

Oh, hell, all of them.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 1999

Too many to choose from, but i really like the Valentines Day "how do I love thee" stuff. It was one of the first I read and it still makes me laff!

-- Anonymous, March 29, 1999

All of your sound effects are awesome. And Of those I think the story about your cat's hairballs and the sound HIH! HIH! HIH! makes me snort coffee unbecomingly out my nose every time I read it.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 1999

The nosehair one! Okay, it's gross, but it had my officemate, my husband and me all laughing so hard we were crying!

And Menstrual Girl was the one I used to hook my husband on squishy in the first place.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 1999

The ones I really enjoyed writing (which may be different than enjoying reading...) are:

Why I Can't Keep a Girlfriend (July 28) Menstrual Girl How I Spent USSR (January 15) How to Fake a Football Orgasm the Valentines and the Grammy goes to... possible past stalking freak here's juice in your eye.

It's fun to write when I have a topic. It goes much quicker. And I love it when you guys get just as excited about whatever it is I'm complaining about.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 1999

Hey, when you are famous, am I going to get some of the credit? It seems as though my foibles are widening your audience.

Ha Ha. :-)

-- Anonymous, April 01, 1999

Menstral Girl, the nose hair trimmer, Tae Bo... so many to choose from! The Grammy one was good, but not for the one-woman show. Although a one woman show is a fantastic idea, have you ever thought of having Chuy, Eric, your dad, et al do cameos in the show? (or at least voice overs?) Eric rocks. Any man who will let his love talk publicly about his nose hairs is an inspiration to us all.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 1999

If I have cameos, is it still a one person show? I don't know.

Also, I just want to call it a one man show and I feel all silly saying "person" or "woman."

I find the whole thing a little overwhelming. I'm not sure where to start writing it. It seems so narcissistic. And then I look at my web page and I think, "Well, I guess the whole thing is narcissistic."

This is how I talk myself out of things, so I just can't let myself think this way. It's just a play. I'll look at it that way. A play about some girl who happens to be me. And I'll play her.

Yikes.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 1999

I think it's about charm -- if you can charm the audience, they'll go with you wherever you want to go. Julie Sweeney was charming enough to make "god said 'Ha!'" wonderful. The other route is to do a full show of different characters, which has kinda been done to death. Squishy's proved you have enough good material for a show without turning it into a character-based multi-costume show.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 1999

Hi,

I just wanted to say that I've been looking through the site, and that I am thoroughly impressed with the improvement you've made in your writing since the beginning. I am completely green with jealosy.

I've noticed some patterns in your writing that, if you aren't already aware of, may help you with your play. It seems to me that a lot of your humor comes from the characters' compulsive behavior, like the nosehair entry, your flight from the fight or flight entry, or the cyclical nature of your monthly cycle story.

I don't think this is insignificant. I spent the last month rereading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and I noticed that Twain's "persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished" comments to be misleading.

In "Huck Finn," Twain is most vicious against characters who are cruel: Huck's alcoholic father, those who hunted Jim to collect the bounty on him, the feuding Southern aristocrats, etc. From Huck's perspective, we see that these characters aren't seeking to inflict cruelty, but that this trained behavior is reinforced by fear. Religious fear, fear of losing face (especially to your own child, or a slave), and, in mischievous Tom Sawyer's case, fear of mundane introspection.

Huck himself is going through this fear: he absolutely acccepts that helping Jim escape is wrong. He is horrified to hear Jim talk about stealing back his own wife and children, for Jim's sake, as well as his own. He is never fully commited to helping Jim escape.

The only thing that sets Huck apart from any of the other characters in the book is his decision to change his mind about helping Jim, when Jim is captured. He knows to do so is to invite eternal damnation. But he didn't let his fear reinforce his racism.

Now, I said I reread that book. The first time I read it in high school, "Huck Finn" seemed to jump around too much for me (gee, I can't imagine public education letting me down on a book). Now I see that, even though it seems to jump around, Twain kept an invisible train of thought around his work, whether he did it consciously or subconsciously.

This is a long-winded way of describing my confidence in pamie.com, but you seem to be on your own train of thought. Just keep writing, and you will be able to pick and choose from your wealth of material to say something very entertaining, and deceptively deep.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 1999

I think you should incorporate your fake Alanis Morrisette song. That had me rolling on the floor, and it seems very performable.

The ones I've loved so much I've forced others to read them are the guidelines for the superbowl, the tiny wooden hand and... shit. There were more. I'll go look in the archives.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 1999

Oh, oh! The meercat one about paying off your student loans! That one's my favorite.

Also I love the story about your first date with Eric (I think it's called here's juice in your eye) and the story about your Valentine's dinner with all the high school girls trying to hit on him.

Plus more, you know, but those are my favorites.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 1999

Some of us are a long way from Austin....

Is there any way we will get to experience your show in some form? I'd really like to read it or see it. Maybe you could videotape it?

-- Anonymous, July 01, 1999