As a child, I had a series of Ladybird children’s books with fairytales such as Snow White and Rose Red and Beauty and the Beast. The illustration style was a 60s mainstream version of archaic, as if it were a series of oil paintings with the stories set in some ill-defined period between the middle [...]
Archive for the ‘Commerce’ category
My life on the C-list; or, The ones that got away
The first time, I am incredibly nervous. We exchange a polite email before I call to set up the appointment at her house. Driving into an unfamiliar neighborhood, cash bulging from my wallet, I wonder: what’s the etiquette? Do I ask her last name? Do I try to make small talk? How long should I [...]
Facebook vs. the blogosphere
It’s been a long day, so I didn’t feel up to writing the post I was planning about socialism, anarchism, and capitalism. I figured I’d post a few cat videos, like this one that I saw on Facebook (I forget who posted it) of a cat playing with an iPad: Or this one, which I [...]
Closing time
(Part One here.) My friends, I have joined a secret society. It hides in plain sight. Some of you are members already. Some of you aspire to be. Others remain proudly free of the constant demands, financial obligations, and emotional binds the society exacts from its members. To the latter of you, I say: congratulations. [...]
An American year
Meaning that there is a holiday — federal, religious, cultural, or celebratory — about every two weeks. This is not so elsewhere. It struck me this week as I walked home from work in my green suit in a sea of people decked out in emeralds, limes, and spring greens. I know several of these [...]
La maison, c’est moi
My family religiously observed the tradition of Sunday dinner (literally, since, as many readers know, family time is a Mormon fetish). Every other week we gathered for the whole evening⎯the grandparents, the siblings, and us, the first cousins. To say the teenaged me took these get-togethers for granted would be a huge understatement, but I [...]
Businesses I wish I’d started
The creator of the Frisbee died last week, age 90, a wealthy man for having adapted a popcorn tin lid into a toy. How great would that be – to invent an object beloved by millions and retire off it? Whenever I read stories about the people who become zillionaires by inventing cool stuff, I [...]
Inconspicuous consumption
Welcome to Black Friday, Whatsiters. I hope you are curled up in a post-Thanksgiving haze, browsing your favorite news sites, sipping coffee, and giving a second round of thanks that you are not battling crowds at the mall. In October, I went to the Washington City Paper’s Crafty Bastards craft fair, which turned out to [...]
Reefer Madness!
As it turns out, before he was able to shut down Guantanamo, and before he was able to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and before the right to universal health care was extended to every American, Barack Obama put an end to the Federal suppression of states’ rights to legalize and regulate the sale and [...]
Stella investigates: the death of the newspaper and the future of journalism
Stella sat down with a nationally-acclaimed journalist to talk about the decline of the newspaper industry and the future of the craft. I cancelled my subscription to The Washington Post earlier this year. That makes me feel disappointed. What are you reading? I get the Post. I read less than I used to because I [...]
