About Writer P Segal
P Segal, neé Roberta Pizzimenti, started reading mystery novels when she was 7, and has never stopped. Her obsession with the genre flagged only during grad school, and during the years of absorption with Proust. P Segal has led a fantastically varied life, but one thing has never changed: her fascination with the darkest sides of human motivation, and the cleverness of those who can unravel their secrets. Perhaps that’s why she became a therapist.
She got a degree in screen writing from UCLA, and after a brief tour of the Hollywood job market, she started freelancing as a journalist instead. She has done every sort of work that involves the written word, other than advertising, and entertains herself with the writing of novels. She is currently finishing a murder mystery set in San Francisco, where she was born and raised, and currently resides.
In the late 1980s, Segal fell in with The San Francisco Cacophony Society, a loose band of “free spirits dedicated to experiences beyond the pale.” Cacophonists came up with an extraordinary variety of things to do for fun. One Cacophony lark, called Zone Trip #4, was the first year of Burning Man at the Nevada Desert. The first three years of this annual adventure were organized in the mahogany back parlor of Segal’s crumbling Edwardian flat. Segal worked on the Burning Man project for ten years, and opened the Central Camp Café.
P Segal’s own Cacophony event was The Marcel Proust Support Group, which brought together discouraged readers to plow through Proust together, at the rate of ten pages a day for eleven months. Upon completion of the magnum opus, Segal was inspired to create the magazine Proust Said That, which became the first journal of the World Wide Web. For five years, it was the only thing about Proust online. The magazine addressed topics that Proust wrote about, and so it was a general interest publication; every article referenced Proust’s commentary on the subject, as well as her own, and the zany exploits of The Marcel Proust Support Group, like the annual Proust Wake. Utne Reader called it Segal’s “nascent autobiography.”
After years of supporting her varied entertaining obsessions as a caterer, Segal opened her first restaurant, Caffe Proust, specializing in Italian fare, with culinary nods to the Italophile Parisian namesake, such as steak frites and the obligatory madeleines. The restaurant interior was designed and executed by artists, including decoupage tables inlaid with quotes from Proust; it also had a menu magazine insert, literary events, live music ranging from jazz to string quartets, and after-hours activities like the Proust Wake. Although the restaurant was written about lovingly and internationally, it could not survive the economic devastation of 9/11. P Segal went back to reading mysteries, and eventually got a Master’s in psychology. Some day she may open another restaurant.
P Segal’s other occupations, sandwiched in among the reading time, included owning an art gallery, private investigation, fund raising, research, and editing graduate theses and dissertations. This site, a new labor of love, offers a running commentary on the mysteries recently read and loved, with the desire to pass along her pleasure to other fans of the genre.
Hi out there, it was with great pleasure to read about P. I met her in 1993 for the first time and unfortunately we lost contact in the middle of the 90s. It would be great to get in touch with P again. Could you please supply an e-mail address? Allow one sentence about myself: I lived and worked as a musicologist in East Berlin until 2007. Meanwhile I am in Kristiansand/Norway where I have a professorship at the University of Agder. Thank you very much. Best regards, Michael
Comment by Michael Rauhut — October 24, 2009 @ 1:54 am
Ah, P! You’re still around SF. I first met you when you worked at SF Weekly and then again at Cafe Proust. But we really don’t know each other. However, we have a ton of friends in common. I’m not sure what possessed me to look you up this morning, but, well, that’s what happened.
Comment by David Kaye — December 8, 2009 @ 3:26 am
Hello, David– How nice of you to think of me. Proust said that we think some people think of us all the time, and they scarcely do, whereas we are thought about by those we can’t imagine. I guess that’s true. Clearly we need to meet again.
Cheers,
P
Comment by MissP — January 11, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
You are SO sweet. It must have been a constant stream of overhead feet and blah blah. Is that your astrology page I saw when I clicked on your name?
Comment by MissP — January 11, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
Dear Miss P.,
I am so happy to see your new blog. I had the pleasure to be your official French translator of the PST a long time ago.
Please send me an email and we’ll talk about Paris and Lacan.
Alf
Comment by chris — February 3, 2010 @ 11:26 am
What a lovely thing to say!
P
Comment by MissP — February 27, 2010 @ 5:47 pm
MWkPJ0 Excellent article, I will take note. Many thanks for the story!
Comment by Cialis — March 7, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
yahoo good post !
Comment by PedaPanipkafe — March 10, 2010 @ 12:39 pm
Dear P,
I left a comment a coupe of days ago but I don’t know if it ever got sent or not. Anyway, here’s another: Femme Noire, sans doute! Please drop me a line to the email address above. xxx F.
Comment by Francis — March 11, 2010 @ 7:12 am
About the YouTube project? I don’t know– lots of things end up in spam, and I don’t check that often. Thanks for writing!
Comment by MissP — March 15, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
Sweet P,
Hope the link worked. There’s another hour or so that precedes it. Let me know if you had any problem. To see how the ravages of time and how too much good food have taken their toll, you can also find me on Facebook. Such a good detective you are, but I had to go looking for you! xx F.
Comment by Francis — March 15, 2010 @ 9:49 pm
I have been looking around blog.femmenoir.org and actually am impressed by the terrific content material here. I work the nightshift at my job and it really gets boring. I’ve been coming here for the previous couple nights and reading. I simply wanted to let you know that I’ve been enjoying what I’ve seen and I look ahead to reading more.
Comment by Fendi Borsa — April 6, 2010 @ 12:00 am
What does the guest room reservation list look like for Oct. 17-21? xx
Comment by Francis — August 22, 2010 @ 8:57 am
It’s yours! The day after your birthday, I seem to recall.
That’s fabulous.
Comment by MissP — August 25, 2010 @ 12:36 am
P – I have lost your number again! Please call me as I have someone interested in your tabletop, but they would like you to sign it, I also forgot your asking price! Also, I am moving out of state, to Oregon. Currently I live in Santa Rosa, hopefully we can get together in the next week. 707-304-6328
Comment by Lori Sullivan — September 19, 2010 @ 4:06 pm
Dear P. Segal,
I have tried to e-mail you about the back issues of Proust Said That but received a mail delivery failure message. Has your e-mail address changed? I would like to get in tocuh with you. Please contact me by e-mail if you can: oykucu6@hotmail.com
Best Wishes,
Oyku Tekten
Comment by Oyku Tekten — October 4, 2010 @ 3:03 pm
Did you get my email? I sent it directly, and not through this site. Thanks for remembering my last beloved project, and please let me know what you’d like to have.
P
Comment by MissP — October 13, 2010 @ 8:00 pm
Hello. We’re Melville House, a small indie book publisher with an exciting new international crime series. We’re trying to forge contacts with the crime blog community. Sorry to contact you through a comment! Do you accept submissions? If so, we’d love to get your email address. You can contact us at: melvilleintern(AT)mhpbooks(DOT)com
Thanks!
Comment by Melville House — May 24, 2011 @ 11:24 am
Wonderful to see and read about your progress… hope to catchup sometime soon… I’m up in Salem, Oregon these days… have some pics from the old days to share… stay well dear and be in touch when you can… yours in peace and hope… Burton (as you called me back then)
Comment by Randall Burton (ya, its that Burton) — July 29, 2011 @ 10:26 pm
Hi P,
I am collaborating with a Proust scholar in Los Angeles. We meet to discuss Proust and LA. Aside from the Madeleine smell-installation at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, and Man Ray’s picture of Proust on his deathbed stored at the Getty, can you think of any other Proust-related places out here to visit? The idea is to uncover secret links between Proust and LA…I would love to hear any of your thoughts about this project. You are a real inspiration!
Thanks,
Jon
Comment by Jon — December 6, 2011 @ 1:50 pm
Well, isn’t that interesting food for thought! I was reading your message and imagining Proust writing about Los Angeles, a commentary that would have taken another 3,000 pages. I’m sure that there are things there, and one person I might ask is a professor at UC San Diego who wrote an article for Proust Said That about translations. Give me a few days to mull this over and see if I can get in touch with him. I will definitely get back to you. How lovely to think I inspired someone.
Comment by MissP — December 7, 2011 @ 3:42 am
Thank you! Here is my email: JonBernad@gmail.com. I can send you updates, if you like, regarding our discoveries. Especially useful if you will be visiting the area!
Take care,
Jon
Comment by Jon — December 15, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
Hi! I read your “purroust” story with the picture of the cat… 18 years later, it is still funny… good writing doesn’t get old while we… I hope your health is still good and your tablet computer is reading Proust for you – just joking. I also liked your list of Proust translation troubles. I finished “Gay Proust” some time ago, and found strange instances too: “Like a dying duck in a thunderstorm!” for Proust’s prosaic une poule mouillée and many others. Thanks and greetings, Martin Frank.
Comment by Martin Frank — March 18, 2012 @ 2:39 pm
How delightful to hear that people still find and read Proust Said That! Thanks, Martin.
-P
Comment by MissP — March 19, 2012 @ 1:47 am