To Michael Blum, my husband, the best band of hus for me.
To Erin Malone, literary agent extraordinaire.
To Trish Todd, the superwoman editor, who swept in and carried me off in a time of need.
To Paul Haas, agent of my dreams (none of them nightmares).
To Peter Nelson and Mark Wetzstein, not only lawyers, friends, too.
To Norma Blum, a mother-in-law match made in heaven.
To Joel Blum, a god, who pointed his finger and started a new world.
To Aunt Bonnie, who’s always there to nudge me in the right direction, where would I be without you?
To Jim, lovely, lucky Jim, my last remaining brother.
To Jim Emerson, my first editor of these pieces, my dear friend, my heart.
To Gino Salomone, my true secret bearer, my deepest laugh sharer.
To Aunt Shirley, who keeps me giggling, and lets me know what pure kind interest feels like
To Pam Kasper, the most wonderful associate/assistant/writing dominatrix imaginable.
To Annie Morse, loving, lovely, wise Annie, very helpful second editor of these stories.
To Meg, my dearest sister.
To Nick and Katie and Kaitlyn and Megan Sweeney, my excellent nephew and nieces.
To Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy, for those times when I needed a sounding board most, my favorite comrades in the art of watching.
To Jill Sobule, who got me to tell many of these stories on stage during our Jill & Julia Show.
To Jake Samuels, at Space in Evanston, for allowing me to workshop some of these stories in that most lovely of performance spaces.
To Mary Connors, who helps me figure it all out.
To John Steingart and Jenny Weiner of Ars Nova Theater, thank you for mounting In the Family Way and encouraging me to recount many of the stories that I reconfigure in this book.
To Mark Brokaw, the director of In the Family Way, what a delightful collaboration.
To Chris Anderson and June Cohen of TED, who gave me the chance to tell my stories several times at the TED conference. TED! The mother of all conferences, and when I say “mother” I mean that in only the best possible way.
© LAUREN TOPEL
Julia Sweeney is best known for being a comedienne on Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994, where she had particular popular success with an androgynous character called “Pat.” She also wrote and starred in three acclaimed one-woman shows that have played in theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York: God Said, “Ha!,” which chronicled her brother’s fight with non-Hodgkins lymphoma while Sweeney was simultaneously diagnosed with cervical cancer; In the Family Way; and Letting Go of God, the story of her journey from Catholic believer to secular humanist nonbeliever. The film of God Said, “Ha!” was produced by Quentin Tarantino, and Letting Go of God was filmed for Showtime.
Julia has also worked as a writer on several TV shows, including Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, and has performed for TV and film productions, including the shows Frasier, Mad About You, and Sex and the City and, among many other films, Stuart Saves His Family and Pulp Fiction. Julia will be the voice of Mrs. Squiggles in the upcoming Pixar animated film Monsters University.
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Also by Julia Sweeney
God Said, “Ha!”
It’s Pat! My Life Exposed
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition April 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4516-7404-0
ISBN 978-1-4516-7406-4 (ebook)
If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother Page 19