Nora Ephron (right) in conversation with Robin Swicord (photo by Jessica Donath)

To guests at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday evening, the title must have seemed unfitting. They listened to an upbeat Ephron in conversation with fellow screenwriter Robin Swicord as part of the Writer’s Bloc series, as both women reminisced about many things from Ephron’s past, including her teenage years in Los Angeles and various cooking recipes. 

Ephron said she was tired of meeting people the same age and talking about “who got sick this week and how did their doctors misdiagnose them?” Accordingly, the two successful women from the same generation spent very little time talking about disease, but more on the things Ephron listed as items she will miss and won’t miss after she dies at the end of the book.

Among the things she holds dear are family members, various food-related pastimes such as bacon, waffles, dinners with friends, dinners at home and pie. The things she will not miss, which are strategically placed preceding the list of things she will miss, are grouped around disease, politics and technology, with e-mail being listed twice and serving as the super villain in Ephron’s world. 

Through out the light-hearted back and forth between Ephron and Swicord, politics, writing and how everything relates to food were exemplified with anecdotes from the book and Ephron’s rich and eventful life. 

“If I could find a way to monetize cooking for friends I would much rather be doing that,” award-winning writer said. Two other things important things Ephron would take care of if she ruled the world are “reproductive choice and beautiful stamps.“

The audience also learned that Ephron attributes her writing success partially to the particular skills set she learned as a journalist at the New York Post. “I learned instinctively about beginning, middle and end.” 

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