Format Magazine

Hi/hallo! I’m Isabella, a third-year journalism & philosophy B.A. student at DePaul University. My double major keeps me trained on pursuing truth by asking fundamental questions about our common human experience. I am also pursuing a certificate in translation studies. I was born and raised in Chicago by a German mom and a Jersey dad, and I work at my family's bar, The Local Option. Currently, I’m the assistant copy editor for The DePaulia, and I cover weekly student government meetings.

Hieroglyphics are comments that tell you a story as to what is going on. This particular set of symbols is telling you about the dog. The image is five thousand years old. Tim-Barrus canis-familiaris Tim-Barrus-Dogs Tim-Barrus-Blue-Heelers Egyptian-Hieroglyphics Commentary Hieroglyphics-are-comments history-of-dogs dog-landing dog-landing-novel Tim-Barrus-books tim-barrus-city-wide-reads tim-barrus-new-york-times

Michelle Goldberg, Thank you for writing with more clarity than anyone I have read this past few weeks. You did not get bogged down by introduction. That is an indication that the writer feels some contempt for his audience who are less because they can't even read. Poor stupid us. We do read. A lot. We have entered (not by accident), a darkness Homo sapiens have played with, but now they know how it tastes. The smell of it is death. A long laundry list.

Great writers never gatekeep. Gatekeeping is for the developmentally delayed. This little ditty by Nitsuh Abebe at NYT Magazine – who is a gatekeeper himself – was created from a place of big chips on little shoulders. A gatekeeper who loves gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are writers who cannot make it as writers and publishing always picks these lone wolves to be editors. The gatekeeper cops. A screed by an editor. Spare me the sadomasochism.

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS SOCIAL MEDIA Tim Barrus I have forbid the New York Times from reviewing any more of my books. Their book reviewers are amateurs with agendas. Of course, a writer is going to say that. Amateurs. The lot of them. Name me one writer who has ever said that. One. Just one. I do not believe for one minute the book numbers NYT publishes as best sellers. I do not trust them not to do the bidding of anyone with five bucks.

This morning, gas in San Francisco is over six dollars a gallon. This will hit all social services not unlike a tsunami. What is there to prepare for when you have nothing to lose. I lived in the Tenderloin for 20 years. I have seen it all times ten. The little one room I rented for 500 a month, is now 3,500 a month. Now, 4 people live in that same room. I got on my dirt bike and left. Tech controls this town, and the problem is tech. It’s not poop in the streets, and it’s not addiction, either.

As a teenager with autism, I went to work in a piano cabaret bar. I lied about my age. At first, I’m the barback. Barbacks help a busy bar run smoothly. Barbacks go from bar station to bar station, stocking liquors, refilling garnishes, polishing glasses, stacking napkins, hauling kegs, bringing glassware back from the dishwasher, helping punch orders into the bar POS, and chatting with customers who have questions.