On Wal-Mart Is Weird
Scocca's favorite sentence, from an article about an over-the-top renovation, is indeed perfection: "François suggested making a virtue of the mill wheel."
But how to recognize an entire article filled with such sublimities? On behalf of Norman the Nutria, Little Houdini and the Sylvesters three, I hereby nominate Miguel Bustillo for a "Millstone de Francois". Following the ceremony, hood dancing and free drinks at the Waffle House (milk & Coke, no beer). BYOWTOTS!*
*wallet teeth or toilet seat
0
On Alleged DSK Rape Victim Knows Bad People and Also Drinks!
Can this be the juncture in the "narrative" where we start pointing fingers at really expensive lawyering?
0
On Each Reader is an Author, A Maker of Meaning
I don't think the author killed the Expert; she highlighted the obvious: Today's technologies allow more people to contribute to Expertise, a development with pros and cons.
One pro (heh heh)is the down-grading (not zeroing out) of over-influence by certain Experts. In every field, there's at least one guy who, by shouting loudest & longest, wields undue weight. Freud, obviously; but less so, in "Good Calories, Bad Calories", Gary Taubes convincingly blames much of the mess that is today's nutritional science on a few early & erroneous loudmouths.
To do graduate work in my field back in the day, you had to choose a Side: Two warring Experts developed different values for an Important Number, and refused to validate the other's result. Students had to set their course of study based on which Number they decided was 'right'. In time, both Experts turned out to be wrong, yet a generation of scientists was taught just one version of a now-meaningless dogma. Clearly, crowd-sourcing would have been better here.
Experts play a critical role in determining Expertise, but especially in science, the result is ultimately more important than the finder.
0
On Each Reader is an Author, A Maker of Meaning
0
On The First Time a Young Man Feels Old
19, 28, 41... All disconcerting in their own way....
But you are "old" when you know -- I mean *really* know -- that this leaky bag of water, your own body, so grievously mistreated over the years, is the unreliable vesicle in which you shall float out your remaining days. Happy Birthday!
The good news is that true compassion arrives at the same time, with the realization that everyone else is in the same boat.
0
On Going On Rooftops Is Apparently A Thing Now
Back in the day, to "do the towers," tourists to NYC's WTC would take a rickety elevator up to an open-air viewing platform on top of WTC2, then go back down, cross the plaza, and do the same at WTC1, perhaps staying to eat at the famed restaurant Windows on the World.
Oddly, at WOTW, you had to *request* a window table. But once seated at one, you had a clear view of the WTC2 rooftop, with its waist-high railing and no apparent safety devices (unlike, say, the maximum security prison at the viewing area of the Empire State Building). And you had an equally clear view of the totally insane people who would sit casually on the WTC railing, as if sitting atop the void was the commonest thing to do.
Which is, sadly, the appetite- and soul-killing reason why you had to request a window table when eating at Windows on the World.
0
On 111 Male Characters Of British Literature, In Order Of Bangability
@jennie Seconded! But surely KING ARTHUR is *at least* top 20? Or is _Mists_ finally out of print?
0
On My Life Without A Cell Phone: An Amazing Tale Of Survival
Um, my post lacks the requisite snarky-ness, but if you have children, please get a cell phone for emergencies.
My healthy son once had an unexpected medical emergency in his car seat. There was only time to park, pull him out and call 911 using my cell.
Everything turned out fine. But tho I'm not especially religious, I have often thanked God that my phone was, yes, in my back pocket. Insert your own ironic-y punchline here, then one mom to another, *please* get a cell phone.
1
On Los Angeles, April 29 - May 4, 1992
Since everyone went to school & work as usual, we all had to get home, somehow, in the middle of the day -- in our case, we were parked on the 10 with god-knows how many others for the longest time. But what we saw that long, hot afternoon actually gave and gives me hope, especially since I have seen it again, walking home on 9/11, and again, driving home with two kids in the back seat and a tornado on the ground.
In extreme situations, tho there are of course a few freakouts, most people calmly wait their turn, and, en masse, silently head for home. East Angelenos, midtown suits or workaday suburbanites -- we all just want to see our family safe, one more time.
The settings may be grim, but the lesson is hopeful: Can't we all just get along?