Maggie & Bud

3 min readFeb 13, 2026

Born in Frisco in 1973, author Maggie Nelson went east and earned a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. She writes poetry and non-fiction, nine books so far. I just finished Bluets, published in 2009. The title refers to a flower. The book is a chronicle of her love of the color, spread through 95 pages of the large paperback edition. There are 240 comments, some very brief, others no more than a page. At first I didn’t think I would get through it, assuming I wouldn’t relate to it, but something kept me reading, even though much of it was over my head. Although she is on a much higher intellectual plane, I found her use of language highly accessible. There are several aspects that were more interesting to me than the delving into the color. She frequently mentions a lost love, and a friend completely paralyzed in a car accident, and she speaks of sex frankly in street terms. She quotes other thinkers and artists liberally. I cherry-picked excerpts. DaVinci: “Love is so ugly that the human race would die out if lovers could see what they were doing.” Thoreau: “Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?” Buddhist axiom: “Enlightenment is the ultimate disappointment.” “Please don’t start protesting here that there are no thoughts outside of language…” 1600+ users at Amazon have rated Bluets, forging to a consensus of 4.5 on a scale of five. 16 years after its publication, it is still selling well at Bezos’ behemoth. Nelson has won awards and been given grants and fellowships. She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. She’s a mom of two. Photos from Google Images:

RIP actor Bud Cort, 77, who succumbed to a lengthy illness. Born Walter Edward Cox in New Rochelle, he had a strict Catholic upbringing and education. He began studying acting at 14 and later was an alumnus of the Stella Adler Studio. After high school he did comedy in Manhattan clubs, where he was spotted by Robert Altman, who cast him in M*A*S*H (1970). He hit it big in the May-December romance Harold and Maude (1971). From there he became leery of being typecast and concentrated on theater for five years before returning to film. There are 82 titles under his name at IMDb, screen career spanning 1967–2016. Other films in which he appeared: uncredited in Up the Down Staircase (1967), the star of Brewster McCloud (1970), Dogma (1995), Coyote Ugly (2000), Pollock (2000), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) to name just six. He also did numerous guest shots on popular primetime fare. He has two credits as both a director and writer. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “I was taken to county fairs and painted thousands of portraits every day. But it became too mechanical — I knew I had to express myself more. I dreamed of being an actor but never thought I could be one.” He also sang, fronting a band that played gigs on the west coast. Well done, Sir. Thank you. Photo from GI:

Beautiful day, only a little bit cold for curbside sales. My thanks to the woman who settled her tab, and to Ira, who supplied another bottle of Poland Spring.