Freshly Pressed: Weekly Faves
As Story Wranglers here at WordPress.com, we love getting to spend time every day in the Reader exploring the incredible breadth of topics you’re writing about. Here are three Freshly Pressed posts from this past week that we think are must-reads:
Wiggle Wiggle Pinky Toe!
I do it again, this time to confirm that what I thought I had been seeing could actually be real. “Wiggle little toe, wiggle.” Wiggle wiggle it says, as it dances back and forth, proving to me that for the first time in almost six months, I have regained motor control of a part of my lower body.
Arash started his blog, Arash Recovery, to chronicle his fight to walk again after a fall from a third-floor balcony left him paralyzed from the chest down. In Wiggle Wiggle Pinky Toe!, he experiences a physical breakthrough six months in the making. We were on the edge of our seats, chanting along with him, as the will for his toe to move translated into actual, voluntary movement for the first time. This post is a powerful boost for anyone who finds their motivation flagging.
The Only Thing Worse Than a Disney Princess is a Disney Prince
I mean, yeah, there’s a couple of cool fights, but mostly being a Prince is about being in the right place at the right time with a willing pair of lips. It’s about falling in “love” for no reason. It’s about being a plot point, a blank slate, a projection screen. These men don’t have journeys or emotional arcs (or emotions), they just have thrones, pretty faces, and nothing else to do with their time.
Allisms skewered the portrayal of men in most fairy tales and cartoons, and judging by the hundreds of Likes and comments the post garnered, her critique resonated with many of you. Pointed and witty, her post teased out the not-so-hidden messages sent by the classic depiction of princes and princesses in some classic animated films, and made us think twice about whether The Little Mermaid really did have a happy ending.
Simulacra and Simile: This Post is Really, Like, Super Important
The point is: you don’t need anything to actually happen to you (although it does make events richer). You don’t really need to read Pride & Prejudice to get the zombie version, and you don’t really need to hold a gun to be cynical/sympathetic of war. So, when our state of non-being and non-experiencing bumps in to reality, we swing the pendulum back and must overuse hyperbolic adjectives in order to prove that we actually lived…
As bloggers, we spend a lot of time staring at computer screens, trying to find just the right words to get our points across; needless to say, we’re deeply interested in posts taking a closer look at how we use language (and why). We were fascinated by Eating the Pages‘ take on how we use words like “like” and “really” to convince ourselves that we’re having authentic experiences in a world where so much of what we see, do, and know is secondhand. Thanks to this post, we’ll be more careful about how often these words creep into our speech and what that means.
What were your favorite posts of the week? Did you read something you thought was Freshly Pressed material, but that wasn’t featured? Feel free to leave us a link, or tweet us @freshly_pressed.
For more inspiration, check out our writing challenges, photo challenges, and other blogging tips at The Daily Post; visit our Recommended Blogs; and browse the most popular topics in the Reader. For editorial guidelines for Freshly Pressed, read: So You Want To Be Freshly Pressed.
- January 12, 2013
- Freshly Pressed
WordPress.com News 
Wow! These folks are sooo creative! Arash’s blog, in particular, is truly… yes, really… inspirational. What perseverance! Thanks for sharing!
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Great post. I am a recent subscriber of your blog, and am enjoying it so far. You briefly mentioned the perils of using words such as “like” and “really.” But what about “very?” While reading a friend’s novel I criticized her use of the word “very.” Is it weak writing to use words such as “really” and “very?” Or do they have their occasional place?
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Allisms- one post does not a great blogger make. Didn’t anyone look at the rest of her stuff?
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Freshly Pressed highlights individual posts, not bloggers — a good post is a good post!
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The little mermaid had a terrible ending! Her prince fell in love with another woman. Having to choose between her life and the prince’s (that the whole time didn’t know she existed and that such a choice had to be made!) She chose to die heart broken after suffering great pain (part of the deal she made to get legs in the first place) with the knife that was meant for the prince she comited suicide and turned in to sea foam. The little mermaid isn’t a fairy tale it’s a tragedy originally written for a ballet production by Hans Christian Andersen.
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I read the selected blogs of freshly pressed for the first time. I like the idea of bringing to attention the inspiring out of the frame blogs that will enable understand people and diversity of thoughts and perceptions expressed to share in public.
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I’ll be watching the wiggle , wiggle with great interest. Although my injuries are not nearly so bad I am fighting some issues. I was rear-ended in June leaving me with a partial paralysis in my left hand and in my right leg. I currently exercise while holding on to a rope suspended from the ceiling for balance. I look forward to his progress.
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Reblogged this on an adventurous mind and commented:
What I would love to be doing!
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Reblogged this on Instittute of Modern Computer Technology and commented:
very nice ! latest of the world.
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Reblogged this on jhalladay13 and commented:
Inspiration!
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Really so nice.
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i like picture of Wiggle Wiggle Pinky Toe post, the pose is look like jaipong dance (a traditional dance from indonesia)
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That wiggle wiggle pinky toe is pretty inspiring.
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You never feature enough poetry.
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We’re always on the lookout for great poetry blogs — feel free to point us in the right direction by tweeting your links to @freshly_pressed.
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More poetry, please, It is criminally underrepresented!
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If we’re in the park here — I fell madly in love with Mulan when she was current, but Merida (of ‘Brave’) tops them all. For the equivalent of a prince in that movie it’s a tough call between the genuine ruler (voiced by Billy Connolley, boom-boom!) or that mean old bear …
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