Remember Robin Nagle? The anthropologist-in-residence at the NYC Department of Sanitation? Well, here is a long interview with her! And it's awesome: "Every single thing you see is future trash. Everything. So we are surrounded by ephemera, but we can't acknowledge that, because it's kind of scary, because I think ultimately it points to our own temporariness, to thoughts that we're all going to die."
"The department's many benevolent societies make up another set of subcultures. These are organized around religion (the Holy Name, for example, serves the department's Roman Catholics) and ethnicity (like the Afro-American Benevolent Society, the Emerald Society and the Columbian Society, among others). One of the newest of these is the United Women of Sanitation Association." -I've been waiting for this all week! So fascinating!
Awl friend (and contributor) suggests that you consider the National Enquirer and its methodologies, in light of, oh, John Edwards, George Steinbrenner, O.J. Simpson, A-Rod, Joe Biden and Vicki Iseman. (Remember that name? If you do, it's only because of the tabloid Times!)
