Welcome to the ninth issue of the Lists of Note newsletter: each Sunday, a new (old) list.
Nora Ephron had many strings to her bow, but most notably she wrote the screenplays for, and in some cases directed, many widely-adored films—When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail to name but three. Sadly, in June of 2012, Ephron died from pneumonia, brought on by the cancer she had lived with for six years. She was 71. A couple of years before her death, she wrote the following lists — of things she would and wouldn’t miss—and used them to close her final book, I Remember Nothing and other reflections.
What I Won’t Miss
Dry skin
Bad dinners like the one we went to last night
Technology in general
My closet
Washing my hair
Bras
Funerals
Illness everywhere
Polls that show that 32 percent of the American people believe in creationism
Polls
Fox TV
The collapse of the dollar
Bar mitzvahs
Mammograms
Dead flowers
The sound of the vacuum cleaner
Bills
E-mail. I know I already said it, but I want to emphasize it.
Small print
Panels on Women in Film
Taking off makeup every night
What I Will Miss
My kids
Nick
Spring
Fall
Waffles
The concept of waffles
Bacon
A walk in the park
The idea of a walk in the park
The park
Shakespeare in the Park
The bed
Reading in bed
Fireworks
Laughs
The view out the window
Twinkle lights
Butter
Dinner at home just the two of us
Dinner with friends
Dinner with friends in cities where none of us lives
Paris
Next year in Istanbul
Pride and Prejudice
The Christmas tree
Thanksgiving dinner
One for the table
The dogwood
Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie