What really great activities, exercises or lessons do you remember from your undergrad-level writing or composition courses?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by yersinia at 10:59 AM on January 17, 2014 (11 comments)

Listen to a conversation between legendary American crime novelist Raymond Chandler and James Bond inventor Ian Fleming recorded by the BBC in 1958. The talk ranges from Mafia hits to the nature of villainy to the difference between English and American thriller.
posted to MetaFilter by Bookhouse at 12:38 PM on June 12, 2011 (25 comments)

Help a freshman comp teacher out! I need a fun writing exercise to fill 70 minutes of class time.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by toomuchkatherine at 2:08 PM on September 10, 2008 (16 comments)

I'm tutoring a teen girl who loves Maya Angelou and writing her own poetry and I want to make her a book of poems to encourage/inspire her. What poems should I include?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by grokfest at 8:05 PM on November 7, 2012 (21 comments)

Hey, I've been experiencing some extremely long load times and a few load failures on the site all afternoon. Chat seems to be normal, but other folks in chat are also reporting the site being slow. What's up?
posted to MetaTalk by KathrynT at 2:43 PM on August 22, 2014 (58 comments)

I know next to nothing about 20th and 21st century literature. What are some recommendations for "essential" novels that I can start with?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by vanitas at 3:33 PM on February 21, 2014 (52 comments)

We've built a small secret room in our house for our children to discover. One of the features in the room is a bookshelf where we're putting secret room themed books.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by MarkAnd at 7:05 AM on July 30, 2013 (107 comments)

What elements are needed to write a frighteningly plausible post-apocalyptic story?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Doleful Creature at 4:25 PM on January 7, 2013 (24 comments)

Give your best examples of the SF/ Survivalist/ Wish Fullfillment sub-genre "libertarian engineers do everything better" or "objectivist superman saves history". More specifically ones where someone is the last man on earth/sendt back in time and constructs a free market utopia through sheer smarts and rationality ( with himself on the top of it, of course).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by The Whelk at 10:36 AM on June 9, 2011 (28 comments)

Feed my TV!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by New England Cultist at 3:29 PM on October 27, 2011 (40 comments)

My boyfriend and I are sick of watching tv at night. Board game suggestions for two players only?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pintapicasso at 10:27 AM on September 16, 2011 (45 comments)

What are the must watch movies on Netflix Instant? Any era, any genre.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Ad hominem at 11:12 PM on September 9, 2011 (36 comments)

Pulp Filter: I'm looking for books (fiction or non) that read like the recent Bond films: dark, thrilling, brutal, and glamorous.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by roger ackroyd at 9:53 AM on November 6, 2009 (25 comments)

Ever wanted to start smoking a tobacco pipe? Begin by selecting from the many types of pipes available. Next, choose a tobacco type and flavor. Pipe smoking has a long and storied history- many a famous man, woman, or fictional character would not be parted from his or her pipe (link slightly NSFW). Pipes in art. Books about pipes. And of course, there is widely varying opinion on just how healthy pipe smoking isn't.
posted to MetaFilter by nzero at 2:41 PM on December 1, 2010 (110 comments)

Mr. Rogers Dead. Fred Rogers of "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" died of stomach cancer at age 74. To be honest, his was never my personal favorite PBS kid's show growing up (I preferred off-brand shows like "Zoom" and "3-2-1 Contact"). But my appreciation for him when I was an adult was pretty high. Anyway, it's a sad day in the neighborhood.
posted to MetaFilter by jscalzi at 2:17 AM on February 27, 2003 (129 comments)

What cool/useful/fun items do I want to have at a cabin with no electricity?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ian1977 at 8:05 PM on April 18, 2011 (73 comments)

I just lost my virginity and took a Plan B pill. I need birth control pills asap and cannot afford to wait for the next available appointment with my ob/gyn. So, I will be going to Planned Parenthood. I've never been to Planned Parenthood, never been on any form of birth control (except the Plan B pill I just took) and have no idea what to expect. Did you go to PP for birth control pills, and how satisfied were you with the level of care? Generally speaking, have you consulted with both a Certified Nurse-Midwife and an OB/GYN? Which one did you prefer, and why?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 8:29 PM on April 11, 2011 (33 comments)

best-cookie-recipe-ever-filter: I need your best, most impressive, most "wowing" when someone puts it in his/her mouth cookie recipe that you've got. Yes, I know there's a bazillion cookie recipes lurking in this AskMe/Metafilter machine. Which is part of the problem. Taste over looks.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by atomicstone at 2:24 PM on November 28, 2010 (46 comments)

Just bought a bunch of cables on the cheap online, and so now I'm of course wondering -- what are other kinds of products that are generally wildly overpriced at retail stores but actually can be purchased cheaply online? And which online stores are best for these products.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Deathalicious at 12:01 AM on November 28, 2010 (41 comments)

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant; that's just the name of the song, and that's why I call the song Alice's Restaurant.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 10:32 PM on November 24, 2010 (159 comments)

I want to perk up my popcorn. What toppings that are probably sitting around the house, or are easily found at a typical grocery store, do you all find the yummiest? Wet, dry, shake, stir, good-for-you, bad-for-you (real butter!!), I don't care, just suggest anything that tastes good and is readily available.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by luvmywife at 10:55 AM on April 20, 2010 (103 comments)

Thanksgiving with a twist: I'm looking for recipes that contain "Thanksgiving-y" and "Christmas-y" ingredients (turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin, pecans, etc.) but that aren't traditionally "Thanksgiving-y", as a whole. Perfect example: sweet potato salsa
posted to Ask MetaFilter by chara at 2:02 PM on November 4, 2010 (27 comments)

Potatoes are cheap, nutritious and versatile, but I need more recipe ideas for this incredible food resource.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Mutant at 3:50 AM on October 31, 2010 (57 comments)

What in life did it take you a surprisingly long time to realize you've been doing wrong all along?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by colinmarshall at 1:58 PM on July 6, 2010 (915 comments)

Coroner's reports 1896-1935 Monroe County, Indiana. Strange, spare and haunting. The economy of description here makes each death a condensed, mysterious story; it's an addictive glimpse into an America with different expectations of life and death reminiscent, to me, of Wisconsin Death Trip as seen on a previous thread.
posted to MetaFilter by fullofragerie at 5:26 AM on January 19, 2010 (110 comments)

Modern novels of youth [20s-30s] and figuring out life?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mattsweaters at 2:49 PM on November 14, 2009 (38 comments)

Tell me about peasant foods from around the world that I need to cook.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by voronoi at 1:10 PM on October 10, 2009 (27 comments)

Let's pretend I am not too far away from completing a feature-length screenplay on spec. I live far from LA with no connections to Hollywood, and I've got very little money squared away. Once the script itself is done, how would I most effectively pimp out my product to a studio?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 5:12 AM on August 25, 2008 (15 comments)

In praise of the sci-fi corridor -- a geeky look at that staple of sci-fi movie sets - the corridor.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 5:01 PM on September 3, 2009 (67 comments)

I'm a pretty dedicated reader, but one of the genres I haven't explored much is classic crime/noir fiction. (I do love James Ellroy, but that's about all I've read.) I know that the big guns are Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson. Any suggestions as to which titles to start with (The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and The Grifters all come to mind first, of course, because of the films), as well as other authors to consider? I'd also be happy to entertain suggestions of really high quality true crime, though my hunch is that In Cold Blood is probably unbeatable.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by scody at 11:42 PM on March 30, 2005 (42 comments)

Land's End: Photographer and writer Christopher Grabowski documents the fading industrial towns of the British Columbia coast. Interview, and some of his other Photo Essays at Geist Magazine.
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 1:48 PM on August 18, 2009 (11 comments)

The University of Washington Library's Early Advertising of the West, 1867-1918.
posted to MetaFilter by mudpuppie at 1:14 PM on August 12, 2009 (22 comments)

He is a man with one name. He is a thief and a killer, and the protagonist of 24 hard boiled novels written by prolific author Donald Westlake (previously) under the pseudonym Richard Stark. He is Parker, and he is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
posted to MetaFilter by dortmunder at 10:59 AM on June 30, 2009 (39 comments)

Mr LyzzyBee and I have been living together for a good few years. I feel we spend too much time apart on our separate hobbies. He thinks no-one spends that much time together these days, apart from watching TV etc. I think we should come away from the telly and do something where we're interacting with each other. And I don't mean intimate stuff, I mean things to do, fully dressed, downstairs or outside. So - what do established couples, no kids, actually *do* in the weekday evenings?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by LyzzyBee at 3:35 AM on May 14, 2009 (46 comments)

We have turned into my parents: What do housebound couples do for kicks in the evening, besides the obvious?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by lottie at 7:57 PM on May 5, 2009 (30 comments)

I have reached the end of the Internet. Well, my Internet, anyway. Please recommend some sites that will refresh my surfing experience.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cloudsandstars at 6:26 PM on April 26, 2009 (37 comments)

Can you recommend some books to me similar to the sociology-of-a-subculture style of Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels, Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader for a Day and Bill Buford's Among the Thugs?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Ufez Jones at 6:02 PM on March 15, 2009 (26 comments)

Feeling the pinch? Ninety-something Clara Cannucciari can teach you how to survive the lean times. In a series of YouTube videos directed by her great grandson, Clara reminisces about the Great Depression ("I had to quit high school because I couldn't afford socks!"), and provides cooking tips on such Depression-era fare as Pasta with Peas (6:32), Egg Drop Soup (6:52), Poorman's Meal (6:50), Peppers and Eggs (Part 1, 5:41; Part 2, 5:47), Bread (4:08), and Depression Breakfast (6:13).
posted to MetaFilter by mudpuppie at 3:04 PM on February 19, 2009 (26 comments)

A cry went up. The Audacity had pulled astern of us, and dropped anchor, and pinned us with her swivel guns. I heard a snap of cording, and a thump, and then the man Obama stood on our deck, still gripping the rope he had swung over on.
posted to MetaFilter by Biblio at 10:35 AM on October 17, 2008 (45 comments)

What other sad, angsty, folksy stuff can you recommend in the vein of Bruce Springsteen's totally awesome "Nebraska" and maybe to a lesser degree Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago"?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by xmutex at 12:46 PM on January 20, 2009 (39 comments)

Anyone knows a friendly forum where writers hang out discussing their craft?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ilike at 4:59 AM on January 22, 2009 (9 comments)

What are some delicious things to do with wonton wrappers?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by changeling at 4:07 PM on January 14, 2009 (36 comments)

What's your favorite two-person game?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by c:\awesome at 10:40 AM on January 14, 2009 (63 comments)

How does one sell a (mystery) novel?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 5:08 PM on January 13, 2009 (7 comments)

There is something indescribable about the Growing Up Star Wars (1977 - 1985) Flickr pool. I think it's the fact that the nostalgia for a commercial product actually is pretty moving. Okay, some are creepy, but in general I'm happy this exists. It's strange to see your childhood and realize how old it looks.
posted to MetaFilter by one_bean at 2:21 PM on January 9, 2009 (33 comments)

Help me identify progressive, funky towns and small cities in this Good Ol' U S of A.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by letahl at 10:36 AM on January 1, 2009 (80 comments)

Can you suggest some replacements for standard, everyday household items that are far superior in terms of usefulness, luxuriousness and quality?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Balonious Assault at 9:03 PM on December 2, 2008 (100 comments)

Can I use viral marketing techniques to get my first novel published?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by letahl at 10:32 AM on November 29, 2008 (38 comments)

What item do you use all the time and wonder how you ever lived with without it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by HotPatatta at 1:51 PM on August 4, 2008 (104 comments)

Society In Decline Project: Intrastate Commerce
posted to MetaFilter by Dave Faris at 3:59 PM on August 18, 2008 (15 comments)