Last fall, when everyone was posting this (admittedly horribly true) Onion article, I was pretty irritated about it. I still live here, damn it. And it happened to come at a time when it seemed like everyone I know was leaving me to go do something else with their lives. (Looking at you, Dave.) Just [...]
Archive for the ‘Future’ category
Knitting a muffler
I should have cleaned my bathroom this week. I should have answered work email, gone to the gym, attended a choral boosters meeting at the high school, brought my dog to get her nails trimmed or finished the last of my thank you notes from Christmas. Instead I spent most of my limited free time [...]
Not to be reproduced: New Year’s open thread
Rene Magritte, La Reproduction Interdit / Not to be Reproduced (1937) On January 1, 2011, I was lucky enough to wake up in the home of dear friends, with whom I had joyfully celebrated the night before (at a party complete with bicoastal buddies, disco dancing, and a “gorgeous gateau”). As we eased into the [...]
I’m late! I’m late!
No one who reads here wakes up before 9 anyway, right? Right. I am constantly behind the ball. Or–not “behind” the ball so much as “right at” the ball. I’ve taken on more classes than I’ve ever had before, while writing my thesis and applying for jobs. I probably spend as much of my time [...]
Nude at the airport
Pop quiz: 1. At the airport, would you rather be … (a) felt up by a TSA agent? Or … (b) have your naked self be put on view via an airport scanner? 2. Do you think these types of security measures are: (a) over the top (b) too lax (c) about right 3. If [...]
Make it better now
I can’t get Asher Brown’s face out of my head. The Texas teenager committed suicide last month after years of bullying at school. You probably haven’t heard of him. His story was overshadowed by that of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate secretly recorded him kissing [...]
How to Try
I am missing the arrogance of my stupid youth. When did I get so embarrassed of making a fool of myself? Why wasn’t I ashamed of myself then? The lack of shame usually works for my college students, in that they dare to say and do all kinds of productive things in my classes. It [...]
Our nightmare
What can we say about the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? There are the photos of marshes turned into toxic waste dumps and dying seabirds coated with crude. There’s the scale of the spill, which BP has been hiding (with apparent governmental collusion or acquiescence) the entire time. In any case, [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
