self help - Gawker

posts about #selfhelp more →
Chicken Piss On Your Soul
Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
Shoes, Self-Help & Catfights: What Women Want In Movies
Dr. Berry Is Ready To Diagnosis You And You And You
What Has Not Getting Laid Done For Dawn Eden Lately?
A Kaavya Viswanathan for the Self Help Set. Just Without All the Plagiarism and Stuff.

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BadUncle
09/14/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
So, this must mean Tony Robbins is our poet laureate.
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psybab
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
For the secret of the woman who wrote "The Secret," please see the Lady Gaga article above.
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Foster Kamer
09/13/09

@psybab: ZOMG. Everyone has a peen these days. It's crazy.
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psybab
09/13/09

@Foster Kamer: I had one way before it became fashionable, though.
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TRexstasy
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
For a sad, desperate six months I worked at Borders and we used to joke about what edition of these books the customers were there to buy: "Chicken Soup for the Serial Killer's Soul", "Chicken Soup for the Junkie Child Molester's Soul", "Chicken Soup for the Uptight, Bleach Blonde Head of the Co-Op Committee's Soul".

You should try it, sometime. It's fun.
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snugbug
09/13/09

@TRexstasy: "Chicken Soup for Barely Employed Journalists whose Truer Unpaid Job is Commenting on Gawker."
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snugbug
09/13/09

@TRexstasy: Wait, one more: "Chicken Soup for Aforesaid Journalists who Obsessively Watch Food Network Programs and are Currently Contemplating a Career Shift to Cookery."
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ms_priestypants
09/13/09

@snugbug: "Chicken Soup for the Clergy Person Who is Pulling her Hair Out Trying to Undo all the Horrible Pie-in-the-Sky Psycho-theology in These Chicken Soup Books Which People Also Give Her Regularly As Gifts".
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snugbug promoted this comment Edited by ms_priestypants at 09/13/09 7:53 PM ms_priestypants was starred ms_priestypants was unstarred

My_Latest_Incarnation
09/14/09

@TRexstasy: "Chicken Soup For The Self-Help Mogul's Soul, And By Soup We Mean Masseuse, And By Masseuse We Mean Hooker, Not Massage Therapist"
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superconnected (is it time to leave?)
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
In Beth Lisick's comedic memoir from a few years ago, Everybody Into the Pool, there's a scene (or two, can't recall) with this guy. I can't remember if she dates/fucks him or the guy in this guy's band .... but yeah. If you want this story a bit more fleshed out/insight on his character, check it out. And no, I am not Beth Lisick, nor do I know her. (Although I did want to BE her when I was sixteen...)
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shag_carpet_bomb
09/13/09

@superconnected (is it time to leave?): I knew them in SF. Her husband played in a band with Oren, who was a trainwreck, (drugs) but an incredible musician. He played about 10 instruments that I knew of. I hope he stays clean, too much talent to waste.
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txori
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
this article title is golden.
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RandomLunatic
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
I once worked at a TV station where I had the pleasure of watching H. Jackson Brown, of "Life's Little Instruction Books" fame, have an absolute shitfit from hell because his IFB (in-ear headphone that let him hear his interviewers) was fucking up. Dude cussed everyone in the studio, got up and stormed out live. Good times.
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johnny_carsick
09/13/09

@RandomLunatic: WE'LL DO IT...WE'LL DO IT LIVE! FUCK IT!
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Edited by johnny_carsick at 09/13/09 2:40 PM johnny_carsick was starred johnny_carsick was unstarred

RandomLunatic
09/13/09

@johnny_carsick: Jeez. Now that you mention it, it was a lot like that. Seriously.
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Tremonius
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
The very greatest commentary on comestibles and consciousness-raising was delivered on the old Dick Cavett show by one "Jerome I. Rodale, the publisher of (among other things) Today’s Health Magazine." Besides offering a concotion of asparugus boiled in urine, a notable quote from the evening by Mr Rodale: ""I’ve decided to live to be a hundred." He famously did not last to the next commercial.

[cavett.blogs.nytimes.com]
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pony_express
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Actually, I believe there are some very good self-help books out there, especially the ones that delve into psychobiology, written by therapists and are based on actual research. The tripe is easy to spot, they all claim happiness can be achieved by one, over-arching, simple technique. The Secret, for example, galls me no end. I live in LA and cannot tell you how many people I've met who have quoted The Secret, grrrr.
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valet_of_the_dolls promoted this comment Edited by pony_express at 09/13/09 2:08 PM pony_express was starred pony_express was unstarred

PaisleyPajamas
09/13/09

@pony_express: Interestingly, Jack Canfield is featured in the video for "The Secret." He tells a very candid story about how he was really broke and "decided" he was going to make $100K. According to the story, this was the beginning of the Chicken Soup books.
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snugbug
09/13/09

In reply to Chicken Piss On Your Soul
"Do as the priest says, not as the priest does" phenom.

Now by the love of G_d, do NOT tell me that author/pastor Robert Fulghum, he of the enormous early '90s inspirational bestseller "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things" is also a crook-douche. I sorta learned English by reading that book.
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MissTicklebritches
09/13/09

@snugbug: Fulghum was the commencement speaker when I graduated from Smith eons ago. Oh, the irony.
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snugbug
09/13/09

@MissTicklebritches: Oy, we is old, my friend. I've resisted revisiting that book. I suspect my cynical now-self would find it ridiculous; and I just want to preserve my 14-year-old memory that it's a cordial and inspiring bit of confessional lit.
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La Mareada
09/13/09

@MissTicklebritches: I'd post a shout out to our class, but we really don't need to reveal our age. We had Fulghum in person, but every other commencement that year had the speaker cribbing from his book.
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PaisleyPajamas
09/13/09

@snugbug: Everything I needed to know, I learned from cats: If you can get a gig where they feed you, clean up after you, let you nap all day, and all you have to do is chase a fake mouse around for their amusement a few minutes a day--TAKE IT!
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snugbug
09/13/09

@La Mareada: Oh eff it. Mid-30s here person here. Yeah, bi*tches: I was born in the fashion-challenged decade they call "the '70s," and my first conscious memory is my dad--in pink shirt with a ginormous collar--bouncing me up and down against the skies and imitating bird-twitter to amuse me.
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CountFosco
09/13/09

@snugbug: Fulghum gave me herpes.
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snugbug
09/13/09

@CountFosco: Fulghum gave me tween-age enlightenment. Unlike you, I used a condom.
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La Mareada
09/13/09

@snugbug: Easy to say when your still mid 30s! I don't care about revealing my age, but there's at least two of us ladies of certain age on this thread. I wouldn't presume to speak for Miss Ticklebritches.(Maybe she was that extremely precocious 11 year old in the class.)
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Maulleigh
04/01/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
Cutrone wants young women (or reinvented old ladies) to do is chuck out that old Rules or He's Just Not That Into You bullshit.

I will never because those books changed my life!
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SeaBassTian
03/31/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
Anybody in public life willing to lead the smackdown on the absurd fantasy of Sex And The City is OK in my book.
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Peter Feld
03/31/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
I remember reading that Observer profile, and getting to the part where it says "If your head isn't spinning yet, get this," and thinking, actually, no. My head isn't spinning.
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Wrapitup
03/31/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
Fine, but will it answer pressing questions like who's gonna drive you home tonight, and who's gonna pay attention to your dreams?
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BookishLookish
03/31/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
I am kind of dying to see what Kelly will come up with. She's a broad, and I mean that in the best way.
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blogissuchanuglyword
03/31/09

In reply to Fearsome Kelly Cutrone to Write Scariest Self-Help Book Ever
Do people really need this kind of advice? Oh, I knew I needed an apartment, to like live in and stuff, and I saw all these ads for apartments and like brokers who could like totally help you get to living in them, but I could just never put it all together until I read this book.
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sakade
03/31/09

@blogissuchanuglyword: You'd be surprised how many people lack basic common sense. Those people will buy this book.
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tudobem
03/31/09

@sakade: EXACTLY my point above (or below). Do you know how many times I have had someone call me to ask for a phone number that was readily available via Google. People are dumb, dumb, dumb.
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sakade
03/31/09

@tudobem: Haha, yes, it's times like those when I use "Let Me Google That For You" i.e. the best website on the planet: [lmgtfy.com]
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