qotd, and around it goes
December 20, 2013
"Other immigrant groups -- Greeks, Turks, Poles, Slavs, Jews of every nation -- encountered similar prejudice, of course, and for Asians and America's own blacks prejudice and restrictions were even more imaginatively cruel, but the Italians were widely regarded as something of a special case -- more voluble and temperamental and troublesome than other ethnic groups. Wherever problems arose, Italians seemed to be at the heart of things. The widespread perception of Italians was that if they weren't Fascists or Bolsheviks, the were anarchists or Communists, and if they weren't those, they were involved in organized crime."
-- Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927. What amazes me most about this book is how this country just keeps going round and round and round with exactly the same issues, just with different names. It's all here, from school massacres to media sensations. And Bryson, of course, is a master storyteller.
Looking forward to reading this book.
Posted by: Char Roth | December 20, 2013 at 01:14 PM
My Rx for feeling bluesy is to do something nice for someone else and then keep the sweet secret to myself. I'm on my way to a local shelter for homeless families with a trunkful of gingerbread house supplies, as a matter of fact (hear that bell ring, George?)
You could do something inspiring and wonderful like, say, make a mitten tree.
Posted by: Ann Marie | December 20, 2013 at 01:58 PM
A mitten tree? It'll never work.
Posted by: Adrienne | December 21, 2013 at 09:38 AM