many things make a post
April 26, 2011
* This makes me sad. And is further proof that journalism still matters.
* Jesse Fox Mayshark on Ayn Rand.
* Now that is good advice.
* In which a meteorologist describes this spring's weather as "wacky."
* What we forget when we talk about the past.
* New Karen Joy Fowler: "Younger Women." It is yummy.
* There is no lovelier sound that Yo Yo Ma at the cello. It's only made better with dancing.
* For the tennis fans only, I suspect; I find Donald Young's story fascinating on a number of levels. This most recent chapter only deepens my fascination. (I also really like Bruce Jenkins' work - but that's another story.)
* Endurance is the only cure for morning sickness, in my opinion.
* I will tattoo this on each of my students the next time I teach Freshman composition. (Particularly #4, although if more students followed this rule I wouldn't have students writing about the theater's "perineum stage.")
* I want this painting.
* The story of my husband's life...
"Git 'aht!"
I usually think about Pittsburghers' famed politeness like this: there is an extraordinary tolerance for eccentricity. Cuz we sure have a lot of eccentrics around here.
Posted by: Trish | April 26, 2011 at 01:24 PM
I'm from Niagara Falls, where we are pretty nice, and I have a Canadian mother (VERY nice) and a sister-in-law from the 'burgh, so I get partial credit, don't I? On the minus side, I lived for a long time in suburban NJ, commuting district to NYCity.
When my oldest when off to college, at a small, vaguely church related school in the Midwest, he told me how he knew he was getting close to school: "I stopped at a highway rest-stop, Mom, and three total strangers smiled and made eye contact!"
There is a huge difference.... it's too bad we can't all be Mid-Westerners..... although I love their style, I have a serious problem with some of the politics.
Barbara M.
Posted by: Barbara M. | April 26, 2011 at 02:02 PM
When I used to go back to L.A. from NH I'd always feel like such an idiot because I'd babble away at all the people I met. I had to remember to shut up.
That Lepore OpEd is brilliant. I hope people read it and learn from it.
Atlas Shrugged review great too. I remember being unable to make it all the way through Rand when I was a teenager. And if you can't do it then, when will you every be able to do it?
Posted by: Anna | April 26, 2011 at 07:40 PM
I am from Tennessee and when I went to NYC for the first time during college, I couldn't figure out why all these creepy guys were coming up to me in the subway but leaving my friends alone. I finally realized it was because I was making eye contact and smiling at people without even thinking about it.
I remember giving up on Atlas Shrugged when I was 17 and in van with my family on a very long drive to a family reunion in Kansas. I knew if I was that bored and didn't want to finish it, it was never going to happen.
Posted by: Kathy | April 27, 2011 at 01:50 AM