Quinn Cummings's Blog

I know.

I know.

I promised I'd write about Italy but within minutes of getting there it stopped making sense to write. First, Italy isn't a writing-about kind of place, it's a looking-at kind of place. It's also an eating-gelato kind of place but that's hard to convey with the current limitations of the Internet. So I took tons of pictures and put them up on Instagram (I'm QuinnCummings over

(Signed up for Xirkl yet? Do so! It's free and you'll get early-adopter credit! If you haven't read it yet, here is the story of how my daughter created it.)  



“So, Quinn, you’ve known you were going on a three-week long
trip Italy for…how long now?”



“Four months.”



“And since you didn’t speak a word of Italian, I’m assuming
you’ve spent that time with a tutor, rushing to get up to speed

Before I delve into my totally reasonable response
to air travel, something completely different. About three months ago, my
daughter did a Kickstarter for a new social media idea, Xirkl. If you haven’t
checked it out, please do. I might be a little prejudiced but I think she did a
good job. Quite a few other people did as well; she hit the magic fundraising
number and has spent the past couple

Let me explain why I haven't been writing:

Because nothing actually changed.

I mean yes, the Kid has gotten taller and older. In fact, she is now three inches taller than I am and even tried patting me on the head once; let me assure you that will happen exactly once. On the whole, however, my life has had a certain marvelous sameness. I still have two cats and a dog. I'm still reading. I'm 

There’s a reason I stay away from
the entertainment industry. The reason I stay away from the entertainment
industry is because I have a working memory. I love the bit between “Action”
and “Cut,” but other 99.87% of that life doesn’t suit me at all. For me, the
life of an actor has always been the bad boyfriend, the lout with the great hair
who gave you the most delightful weekend of your life

Hello and welcome! If you’re here, it’s because you just
asked me a question that probably has something to do with my having been a
former child actor.  No offense but after
thirty years of answering these questions one at a time, I’m kind of over it.



I’m really pleased my weird childhood hobby pleased you, but
I’d love to talk about anything else at this point and that includes why one of

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I really, really don't want to be the Person Who Keeps Talking About Vaccinations, if for no other reason that I have sat next to these people, on both sides of the coin, at dinner parties and I'd sooner eat an oyster than be that person and oysters make me vomit.

And yet a couple of items slipped under the door today and I felt as if I should give them attention, which is another way of saying

Called Los Angeles Unified School District for homeschooling housekeeping question.

Me: I wonder what standardized tests you recognize besides the ones taken in the classroom.

Person on Phone: No.

I actually laughed.

Me: You do realize "No" isn't an answer to that question, right?

Oh, LAUSD, you overworked behemoth, never change. Right, you won't.

(Written in response to this article.)

 For the last few years, I've added "...and vaccinating" to the end of "In polite company, never talk about sex, politics or religion" adage because, honestly, I'm no better educated than Jenny McCarthy and who needs another marginally-public figure running their mouth? Also, I know I've got readers who believe deeply in certain things and if the following