Dear Bitter Writer:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Why are writers all so ugly?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Simon<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n Simon:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It’s true, most writers are pretty ugly. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They were just born that way, and no matter how their parents dressed them, they remained ugly.<\/span><\/p>\n A consequence of this ugliness is that they were almost always excluded as children, forced to watch from the sidelines as their more attractive peers lived their happy, little lives. It’s unlikely that any of their glittering peers were mocked, called \u201cGrosslord\u201d and then turned away from the Manor Park Mayfair Kissing Booth, amidst a cacophony of kids pretending to barf, even though the Grosslord in question, who yes, needed dental work at the time, had the money, just like everybody else, that it cost to get a peck from grade eight goddess Mary Appelton. Injustice makes a writer, and ugliness is a great injustice. So the writer, by circumstance rather than by instinct, becomes an observer, hovering darkly on the periphery, always plotting, plotting, plotting, always devising schemes of seduction, conquest and personal elevation, all of which, of course, are doomed to fail.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It’s why so many writers are alcoholic as well as being ugly.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, the writer will become destitute and bitter, unable to do much beyond engage in Twitter wars about Canadian poetry. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n However, I would be remiss if I were to say that all writers are ugly, for this is not true. Tyra Banks, the author of Modelland, is world-renowned beauty.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n And of course, Samuel Beckett:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Dear Bitter Writer:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Like most people, I was disgusted and heartbroken when I heard about the mass murder in Orlando. I wrote down some of my feelings on the matter, and I was wondering if you could tell me where the best place might be to publish my Think Piece? I was considering Medium, any advice?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Brad<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n Brad:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best advice I can give you is to never, ever publish anything that is referred to as a Think Piece. Think Pieces are the equivalent of drunken phone messages left for an Ex. Lost, wandering and self-absorbed, they exist only to make the author look enlightened rather than to actually share some sort of enlightenment. Truth be told, I can’t read the words Think Piece without wanting to punch whomever coined the phrase in the face. It sounds remdial, like something you’d do in kindergarten.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n