M. G. Lord is a cultural critic and writer, and a contributor to the anthology Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not To Have Kids. Before participating in a discussion about why people choose not to become parents, she explained in the Zócalo green room that while she loves burrata, the cheese she most resembles is a hard, brittle cheese—so perhaps it’s simply that opposites attract?
Q. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
A. It’s probably something really embarrassing. I remember posting about it on Facebook, because someone had mentioned this obscure song I hadn’t thought about in years. But you know, elderly people don’t remember things …
Q. What’s your favorite under-the-radar spot in L.A.?
A. I don’t know how under-the-radar any of these spots are now, but I love my neighborhood. I live in the Biscuit Company Lofts [in downtown’s Arts District]. I moved in in April 2007. When I moved in, everything in that neighborhood was under the radar. People made facetious comments about “going down” to 7th and Mateo. Then Church & State opened. Then the Daily Dose. And likewise Little Bear down the street, and I think I go there once a week. I teach at USC, but I like to have my students meet me at the Daily Dose because it feels like we’re real writers, sitting on the cobblestones having coffee. My off-the-radar is on the radar.
Q. What cheese best describes you?
A. I’m a big cheese fan actually. I don’t know if it best describes me, but I will say there is in this world one obstacle to me becoming a vegan, and that obstacle is burrata. I don’t know if I myself was ever burrata. I think I would probably be some sort of hard, brittle cheese with absolutely no lactose. But burrata is my weakness. I guess we hard, brittle cheeses are attracted to opposites.
Q. What word or phrase do you use most often?
A. I try not to be redundant actually. When I teach, the first thing I make students read is William Zinsser’s essay on clutter.
Q. What’s the strangest thing in your medicine cabinet?
A. Probably various expensive and arcane medications for my two cats, on whom I spend enormous amounts of money.
Q. What’s your dream L.A. celebrity sighting?
A. My last book was about Elizabeth Taylor, and the celebrities that no longer interest me are no longer alive, so it really would be a dream sighting.
Q. When is the last time you went swimming?
A. This morning. Twice. I was under a lot of stress.
Q. What’s your worst habit?
A. It’s actually sort of embarrassing. I think I may be addicted—it’s so Westside, it really repels me—but I may be addicted to arugula. Sometimes when I’m stressed I eat whole handfuls of dry arugula like some sort of rodent.
Q. What did you eat for lunch today?
A. You mean along with the handfuls of dry arugula? I had a spinach and arugula salad with a little radicchio that I made myself, and all from Urban Radish. I sound like a downtown real estate agent. I’m not! I gain nothing from this.
Q. What fictional character do you identify with?
A. Sandy, who’s the central character in what is probably my favorite book, Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The character Sandy writes a book called The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, and honestly, if I were asked not by this wonderful entity [Zócalo] but a really pretentious publication, what I aspired to in my writing I’d say the transfiguration of the commonplace. And it’s a really pretentious answer, but if you don’t aim high, you’re not going to get high.
