The Reading Room

Behold my Bracket

2009-03-19T14:33:00.002-04:00

Entirely for use with my post on WeLoveDC

On Politico's "Female pols in 2010" article

2009-02-23T16:48:00.005-05:00

This morning, in the elevator on the way up to the office, still in a post-oscars sleep deprivation stupor, I glanced at the front page of the office subscription of Politico.

"Female Candidates Line up for 2010" reads the head of the story which goes on to state, "A slew of formidable female candidates, mostly Democrats, are lining up to run for the Senate in 2010, enough to raise the prospect of a surge of women into a chamber that currently has just 17 women senators." WOW, a SLEW! A great SURGE! I grew excited enough to continue reading despite my bleary-eyed Monday stupor.

How many, exactly, is "a slew"? If you stand by the oxford english dictionary definition, you would expect it to be "a very large number, a great amount." Sweet! So, like, at least 30 women in 2010 races. I mean, come on, there are like 500 reps in Congress (453 in the House and 100 in the Senate, to be precise. Plus non-voting reps). Reading about this amazing slew of female candidates stepping into the spotlight, I lapsed into a pre-caffeinated dream of a country where representation reflected the population.

Turns out, this prediction of a "landmark year" for women candidates has been triggered by the presumed intentions of 12 women. TWELVE. That, Josh Kraushaar, is a "slew" I can believe in.

The tremendous in-depth reporting about women in Congress by the journalistic masterminds at Politico continues from there. (Side note, my roommate and I are convinced that the 30 Rock joke where Alec Baldwin goes "Thanks for telling me what I already know. You should work for The Huffington Post" should sub in Politico.)

Maybe I should check the sarcasm here. But, let's think about this. Currently there are 91 female members of congress. That constitutes a whopping 17%, up from 16% last Congress. We picked up 2 new female senators and 10 new female reps for the 111th. If all 12 of these proported candidates run and win, and all the female incumbents up for reelection retain their seats, that will constitute 103 congresswomen, 19%, less than one-fifth. Less than one in five.

Of course I'm happy that our country is inching closer to demographic representation in terms of gender (let's not get into how many black men and women, latino men and women, gay men and women, single and unmarried men and women are reps). However, I'm not convinced that a percent a year constitutes impressive progress on this front. At this rate, maybe by the tricentennial 50% of our elected officials will be women.

If the statistics alone were what irked me, I probably wouldn't be writing. It was more the after-the-jump business that got to me. Politico interviewed Karen O’Connor, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University (no relation), for the piece. Now, Karen O'Connor sounds baller, generally speaking. For better or worse, however, she delves into answering the "why" regarding the recent rise of these candidates. She points out that "female candidates have a better track record in elections where economic issues are at the forefront, which makes the current political environment especially alluring." Also: "In the post-Sept. 11 climate...women were vulnerable to perceptions that they weren’t as tough on dealing with terrorist threats."

These observations, while evident, are heartily disappointing. One can't help but feeling, well, so these extremely qualified and ambitious women are pushing through, largely because the economy and Main Street are in the shitter and women are Queens of their domain, the home. It's like playing with a handicap -- does victory feel as legitimate when you're getting a bit of a head start?

Maybe I'm wrong and the path opening up for a handful more women is an incredible thing we should all be psyched about. It's politics, which everyone knows is 90% manuevering and misdirection and capitalizing on an open door. Maybe we should be thrilled and grateful to the American people and the machinists of the political machine that now there is, as O'Connor described, a "farm team" of female pols.

Maybe.

I can't get one thing out of my head. It's the title of a book by, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY),also mentioned in this article, entitled "Rumors of our Progress Have been Greatly Exaggerated."

Monday Morning Work Haiku

2009-01-26T11:05:00.003-05:00

Because they all won't fit in my G-chat status box...

monday work haiku:

too tired, brain not functioning;

why aren't I in bed?

beige, tan, off-white, white

these colors together make

an office rainbow

-c.q.

if print is so dead
why must i still go to work?
ugh i hate the web

-m.f.

Boss not in office

But so much work still to do

There is no escape

-s.t.

Post-Inaugural Recap for Family, Friends, and any others who for some reason read this blog

2009-01-22T16:11:00.004-05:00

(because I'm too lazy to do both a post and write an epic e-mail)

FROM: Acacia O'Connor

Date: Jan. 22, 2009

SUBJECT: "THE LARGEST EVENT EVER IN THE WORLD"

...or so said an FBI agent. I'll let you debate the verity of that claim, and the broadness of the definition of "event". World War II, anyone?? The Police reunion tour??

This is a dispatch from Washington DC, now that the party is finally over. Let's start from the beginning.

The city began prepping for Jan. 20 as though it was bracing for a tsunami. Which, in fact, seeing people walk through the streets and on 395 on Tuesday, did seem more accurate than one might have first thought. (Digression: you know you're a tourist when: you walk towards Anacostia on 395 south) Don't drive anywhere. Don't take the metro anywhere . Buy bread and milk now, there won't be anything later. You won't have a ticket , it will suck and be freezing. Don't plan on using your cellphones . Don't make any quick movements with your hands - you will be sniped.... et cetera.

In the end, we had a house of 7 - Vassar friends Aapta and Alithea came down for the weekend from New York, Alex Sheff, who recently moved back here from Uganda, stayed with us, and Hobie, who was technically at a conference for the Global Young Leaders Program, spent most of his time with us, as the conference was overbooked 5-fold and full of overachieving egomaniacal toolbags, essentially. (Global young leaders like to talk about themselves? Who would have thought...)

Friday and Saturday were essentially excitement build-up days, and influx of unwitting tourist days. Sunday the real party began, with the We Are One HBO-ified super concert at the lincoln memorial. After donning a variety of spandex and fleece layers, we had a pre-concert breakfast as a group, including all the essential body-warming vitamins and minerals (mimosas have vitamin C, not so sure about the whiskey..) We had a sweet little spot between the Washington Monument (which we affectionately refer to as the phallus) and the WWII memorial, meaning that we could see the show on 2 huge jumbotrons directly in front of us, and could claim to "see" the concert. Bruce Springsteen is an especially formidably tiny dot, let me tell you. As we had roughly 2 hours to wait before the show started, we entertained ourselves by singing all of the verses of American Pie and hoisting Alithea onto our shoulders - all things that the people around us duly appreciated, let me tell you. They can talk all they want about the spirit of love and unity this weekend, but my impression is still that crushing crowds brings out the worst- not the best - in human nature.

My favorite moment of the concert had to be when they brought out the great symbol of America - a bald eagle named Challenger. Challenger tried to break free of its chains to the sound of "oooh" from the audience. They appeased it by bringing out a second eagle, Challenger's friend - i wish i were making this up - Mr. Lincoln. The music was pretty sweet too. We felt quite validated when a truncated version American Pie was sung and the people around us turned to see our reactions.

Tuesday was, as expected, in many ways a giant clusterfuck (pardon the phrase). We were out of the house and on our way to the Mall by 8:10, by which time others had already been on the mall for a couple of hours. In trying to find the entry points, we passed by several lines of people who literally had no idea what they were doing. We also were pushed aside to make way for Samuel L. Jackson to walk through the crowd -- baller! Sam, Alex Sheff and I had silver tickets, which meant we were in a gated-standing-room-only area that I've indicated on the satellite map image. We were smack dab in front of a jumbotron and in full view of the capitol. I could see the red outline of the door from which the cool kids were entering the stage. The weight of being in the mass of Americans waving their little obama american flags and chanting o-bam-a (something that, somehow makes me feel strangely uneasy) did a passable job cancelling out the frigid cold. The exodus was a bottleneck, squeezing us next to the Native American Museum. In an act of poetic in-justice, impatient inauguration-goers broke through the chain link fence and trampled through the Native american wildlife sanctuary that flanks the museum. Oh dear.

I went to 2 inaugural balls - the first being Tuesday night: the Bytes and Books ball for Education and Technology in the Folger Shakespeare Library. Essentially, a gathering of fancy people whose age rivalled that of the copies of Henry IV on the shelves of the library reading room. Ball gowns and real diamonds and a serenade by a perceptably drunk American Idol Reject in a sparkly suit. We (Heather and I) felt like posers, faking being important, fancy and schmoozy. George Lucas had come and gone by the time I got there. There were rumors Chris Noth would show up, but after about 3 hours of wandering around in unfortunate footwear, I decided it would be more worthwhile to go watch some Law & Order CI instead.

I felt much more at home at last night's unexpected ball - the Obama for America staffer Ball at the old Armory. The girls in line were wearing cocktail dresses and headbands from Claires, holding heels in their hand while they walked in Target flats. Let me just say that I can die happy now: I was in a crowd of some 1000-2000 people who saw Joe Biden and Barack Speak and jammed out to Jay-Z. JAY-Z! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE JAY-Z?! Some of you do. Barack's speech was funny, understated and appreciative of all the kids my age who pulled more than their weight to get out voters and win counties. I felt cynicism dissipate: maybe the hope would carry on.

It was truly something special to be a part of - something I wish you all could have been here to share, but really you just missed a lot of watching TV outside and open bars.

America is ours again! Huzzah!

Now if you don't mind me, I need to take a nap for about 4 days.

all my love,

Acacia

From the Typewriter to the Bookstore: A Publishing Story

2009-01-13T12:04:00.001-05:00

Oh MacMillan Digital, ya'll are funny.

On the NYTimes front page ads

2009-01-13T11:21:00.004-05:00

This week marked the debut of front page display ads on the New York Times A1. CBS was the first to pony up for the ads, which reportedly run at around 100,000 a pop and are supposedly going to help rescue the Times in these bad *ahem* times. I get it, Times, you need the dolla bills - print is dying (Just ask the Atlantic, psht.) I can't blame you.

I can, however, blame CBS. The ad which ran yesterday, a prime-time show pimping disguised (very poorly) as faux-world summit announcement, was painful. One would think that if you're going to shell out a hundred grand for advertising on the New York Times, even if it is below the fold, you would put a little more crafting into it.

Mainly it's a font issue, which I realize lumps me into a small niche group of individuals who have inexplicable rage caused by poor font placement. In this case, a slightly italicized block sans-serif. Underlined. Excuse me, I feel queasy. It looks like an ad I would have hated to have in my section of the Vassar college paper because of its awkwardness and ugliness. Though the block of ugly does, probably, achieve its advertising goal of grabbing my attention, CBS is now even further away from convincing me to watch "World Comedy Leader" How I met Your Mother (as if that were possible).

Greatest (some may say Nerdiest) thing I've seen today

2009-01-08T14:45:00.005-05:00

If I came away from my survey of British and American Literature course at Vassar (R.I.P. ENGL 220-221) it was a healthy fascination/slight love for Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. Not altogether surprising, considering one of the lecturers was Bob DeMaria, who loves Johnson more than Johnson loved his cats (coincidentally, it's unclear who loves their cats more, Sam Johnson or Paul Kane...).

As strange, erudite and seemingly grumpy - I mean, have you seen this guy? - Johnson was, his dictionary is awesome. I have an 1833 edition - it was a gift. It's like the OED, but tangible, older, somehow more.. crafted. Imagine deciding to catalogue the words of the English language and selecting the best literary uses for said words. And spending 9 years of your life to do it. That's dedication, Sammypants.

Second-best to the real thing, is what I discovered today: the dictionary, in blog form. Brilliant. Instant addition to google reader.

Santa Bush

2008-12-17T12:07:00.001-05:00

Via Pat (gotta love office e-mail fwds from your former congresswoman boss.)

Dear Vassar Grads in Brooklyn

2008-12-09T10:42:00.003-05:00

Let's all laugh about this.

A Message from the Brooklyn Tourism Board from jeff on Vimeo.

For a little contrast - listen to Hova.

Arianna Huffington's Philosophy of Blogging

2008-12-05T16:13:00.002-05:00

"You lost your job-- you have time to blog!"

Arianna Huffington, of Huffington Post fame (Alex: "I want to make a newspaper and name it after myself") was a guest on the Daily Show Wednesday night, pimping the new book - The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. The conversation definitely pitted the self-proclaimed "blogging evangelist" against the traditional, pro-good writing Jon Stewart (presuming he wasn't just playing devil's advocate, also possible.)

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Arianna Huffington

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

"Why would I give people the dreck?... My other thoughts -there's a reason I haven't put them on the show."

I said to Alex, I'm a hypocrite since I have this blog, but I totally agree. I don't exactly know what is gained by creating entirely democratic public discourse where every single person in the world has a blog that three of their closest friends read (or no one reads). What Huffington describes sounded more to me like a call to keep a freaking diary than anything else, especially in her description of it as "catharsis." Indeed, the fact that people need to seek community in the anonymous and remote makes me feel sad inside.

Coming back to the hypocrisy, however - I've felt more and more guilty about the blathering, self-indulgent nature of the blogosphere and my own part in it. This is partly why I have posted less frequently. What am I saying that 10 more qualified and well-spoken writers, and probably thousands of unqualified but equally vociferous bloggers are not?

Huffington believes blogging is a first draft of history. I don't disagree, considering the influence of HuffPo and the birth of so many "blog" arms of big-name news outlets. I can't help but worry that those in the internet world are so busy blogging and tweeting that no one is carving out refined and deeply critical thoughts.

All the Women Who Have Cooked Before

2008-11-24T16:09:00.002-05:00

During our pre-Thanksgiving dinner prep, I had a flashback to an unnamed angry woman of the past, yelling at her partner or children about how she had "slaved over a hot stove" all day for them. To be clear - I didn't feel I was slaving at all, which was precisely the point. My appreciation for cooking has a direct relationship with the amount I cook, and these days each are tangibly ascending. For better or worse, the fact that cooking was stereotypically "woman's work" is never far from my mind, however.

At some unknowable point in the past, I - and many young, education women like me and around me - decided that victorian 1950s-era notions of "traditional" femininity were not for us. We would not be the chained to the kitchen ball-and-chain, a passive No. 2 in the relationship and family hierarchy, a glorified maid with a Mrs. to denote our status. These narrow female roles had perhaps already lapsed enough by our mothers' generation to make them seem implausible in their extreme forms; society had evolved at least a bit beyond the laughable "women's brains are half the size of men's" concept of a woman's role.

But still, a New York Times article from 1988 entitled "Women: Out of the House But Not Out of the Kitchen" sheds light on one remnant of the past many young women today grew up with -- seeing Mom in the kitchen and tagging along with her to the grocery store. According to the Times 90 percent of married women surveyed for the piece did all the shopping and cooking in their households. A marketing consultant quoted in the story said that cooking ''is still considered a woman's role, and women are accepting it more.''

"Hell no! Not me!" most independent, strong women in their twenties or thirties would say, and I'd be among them. However, recently I have been reflecting on my own time in the kitchen and relationship with cooking.

In our apartment, the three of us cook together pretty much all the time. Two of us are women, all of us are from Vassar, and as such, even the odd man out has an overcharged sensibility for the heteronormative. We are hypersensitive to gender roles--seriously, but also with a sense of humor and often deserved self-derision. When Sam took the lead on ordering the Turkey, I asked him if he was going to be in charge of it. "Only if we're going to go by prescribed gender roles," he replied with characteristic dry sarcasm. When for a moment all the women at the party were chopping and sauteeing in the kitchen while the men flipped from "Mythbusters" to football, we called out "Well isn't this typical?" and "My heteronormative alarm is going off."

It wouldn't be funny at all, except for the fact that it is not at all typical for us anymore - or if it were typical, it would not be considered in any way acceptable. We wouldn't be able to brush it off by saying "I did it because that was what my generation did," like a housewife in the Times story, now 20-years ago.

Of course, we're talking about a setting now where all of us are single, close, friends. I'm not entirely sure what married couples my age and older are experiencing in terms of the division of household duties and kitchen responsibilities, but I'm hoping it's something Betty Friedan wouldn't recognize. My gut reaction to the question "Will I be the one doing all the cooking?" is "Absolutely not." But...

There's a but. But I love to cook. Nothing is more satisfying than making a meal to share with loved ones, or trying something new with interesting ingredients to great success. While sometimes I'm happy to make a sandwich, most times cooking provides a mindless respite from the data, reading, and rapid-fire communication obligations of the work day. It's sensory in a way that the work day seldom is: touch, see, smell, taste.

Then again, cooking is, in my experience so far, best done when 1. you're doing it with another person to help or talk to and 2. you aren't being forced to the stove by obligation. The latter circumstantial advisory keys into the beauty of changing roles: freedom to choose.

We battle daily with a feeling of wariness about tradition and dated concepts of feminity. Tasks such as cooking, cleaning and organization are always tinged by the "woman's work" concept for me, and if I'm doing them and someone else is not, it is cause for introspection. The same thing is true of other stereotypically "female" things that we have long sought to shrug off and forever evade. The fear of being considered emotional or hysterical pre-feminist females gives way to a reticence to have any sort of "Defining the Relationship" talk, or openly expressing strong feelings at work. Caution is a good thing, though, and sure beats the alternative-- blind oblivious obligation.

The words "because I should," hold no currency anymore. Taking their place are the words "because I want to."

Dear Self: Stop twittering and blog

2008-11-20T12:06:00.003-05:00

I keep coming across these really interesting articles and pieces of information about publishing, books and gender issues. So instead of collecting them or commenting, I take the lazy way out and Reader-add them or tweet about them. I'm working on a couple longer pieces, but just some things to think about:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today in The Huffington Post Erica Heller, daughter of Catch-22 author Joseph Heller lamented the whoring out of the publishing industry, which has been a-buzz in the past week about million-dollar advances for Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Nate Silver, the Bushes, Tina Fey and Sarah Silverman, among others. Heller vents:

"And now, onto that illustrious stage of authors, along with Kurt Vonnegut, James Jones and the rest of the best of the best, strut authoress and author, Palin and Mr. Plumber, with their books certain to be ghosted by some unsung schnooks, manuscripts that will be comprised mostly, I'm betting, of little more than bragging, lying and recycling some very stale air. For their efforts, they will be awarded gargantuan advances, piles of money that could feed several Third World nations for some time."

I understand the ire and this issues - commercialization versus contribution - is what gives me the most pause about publishing. This came up at the Future of the Book lecture I attended at the Newseum last month as well: namely the fact that publishers rely on big-name sells and gamble on advances for celebrities memoirs which are as intellectually void as Heller intimates. I get the impression that too often, when a work comes to the table, the first question isn't "Is it good?" they are "Is it marketable?" and "Will it sell?"

I know this varies depending on the house, imprint and editor, but the culture of books that reflect our lives today is floudering beneath the surface, obscured by thick, glossy celeb hardcovers. What is the solution?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the world of Book innovation, two new media tools are getting attention:

BookSwim which is being called the NetFlix of books is meeting mixed reviews. CSM's Chapter & Verse had it today. The timing is interesting, as our organization, publishers and booksellers are all getting out a big "Buy books!" holiday media push (I'll refrain from pimping for now...).

I'm in the camp noted eventually in the Chapter & Verse story: “How lazy can people be not to be able to go to the library?” Seriously. And what serious reader (serious enough to read 3 books a month) is concerned with "having their house cluttered up by books"?

Then there is DailyLit something I've known about since attending the AAP intro to pub seminar in September. It got pimped by the WaPo yesterday. DailyLit is awesome - it sends a snippet of a book to your inbox/RSS feed/phone every day. I subscribed Anna Karenina, which I'm reading in actual paperback as well, so I can do double time when I don't have it on-hand. Out-of-copyright books are free, and you can subcribe to new books for around $5-$7. And you can send it to friends. Nothing tells a nerd you care like a snippet of a book via e-mail, right? I know that's the way to my heart...

Dear Barack Obama

2008-11-04T14:32:00.004-05:00

Dear Senator Obama,

This letter is the vocalization of an on-going internal monologue I've been having with you for several months now. In just a few hours, there is a liklihood that you will become the next president of the United States. As much as the thought of this possibility enthralls me - typing it in messages to friends sends a shiver up my spine - I am also worried. Worried for you, Senator Obama, worried for us, worried for the future of Hope.

You have brought something special to this country during the presidential campaign. At the beginning of your campaign for the democratic nomination, you electrified young voters like myself who saw much of our own idealism, enthusiasm, tenacity and honesty in you. You used the words "we" and "us" instead of "me" and "I"-- we liked that.

You corralled the hopes of voters across the country by speaking to us, saying "look- I know what you're going through." We were and are, highly cynical - unwilling to saddle our trust on the back of politicians who don't know us, or stand impotent when it comes to creating policies that help our lives, rather than harming them.

But something in your voice, surprisingly deep and even, assured us; something in your smile, accessible and normal, put us at ease. Millions of us have heard you speak, and our hearts lifted a bit when you included us all - blacks, whites, latinos, asians, native americans, straight, gay - in your references to a united america. Your promises haven't felt empty, they felt credible, tangibly so.

And now, as I write this, people across the nation are standing in long lines to cast their ballots. Some for you, some for your rival John McCain. Your supporters awoke to the realization this morning that this could happen. But we can't believe it yet.

I cannot fathom how exhausted you are, or how much more burdened you will soon become if you are indeed elected president. I wonder how long ago you realized what you must take on as president. I know you must see that in asking people to Hope like they haven't before, to believe that change is possible - and we believe it in part because we can tell you believe it - they are also trusting you to lead them to that change, and fulfill that Hope.

We're a nation in economic trouble - people drowning in their bills, their mortgages, their health insurance fees. We're a nation with an international identity problem - countries abroad think we're a bully, an elephant in a china shop. We're a nation of health issues, education issues, financial issues, foreign policy issues - all clamoring for attention and funding and resolution, all equally important. Americans want solutions to these issues, or steps in the right direction at the very least, and if you are elected, they will all look to you.

As much as I hope, as much as I believe, I also fear that hope, because I still wonder how much change can be affected. How much can be done - how long will it take? You sagely warned us all in the closing of this campaign that it won't happen overnight. Clearly you realize our expectations are high and the times increasingly desperate.

So how are you holding up? I always say, that we shouldn't want a candidate or president who is "just like me" because I am in no way prepared to be president. If I were in your position, looking out at faces of hundreds of thousands of Americans with all their dreams of change reflecting back at you, I'd be terrified.

If you are elected, won't everything change? No longer Barack Obama, or Senator Obama - you'll be President Barack Obama, a man for the history books. I can't imagine how strange that transition would be. You must miss your daughters, miss your alone time, miss the time before you had an entourage of reporters (and bloggers, sorry about this) following your every step, watching every twitch of your facial muscles, weighing every word. Everyone talks about how much ego it takes to run for president - and probably yes, initially, a lot of ego goes into campaigning. But it is clearer to me now as never before, what amount of sacrifice it requires to actually be a public servant, especially to be a good one, an honorable one. Clearly there are perks - but there are also unfathomable responsibilities.

Despite all this, I believe firmly that all our hope is real. It is real and useful and must be redirected to take steps to heal the problems we now face. You said you believe this last night at your rally in Manassas - we need to maintain our fervor for change, no matter what happens tonight and tomorrow. Change, you say, is in all of our hands. I agree, and that is scary too. We believe in change, many of us believe in You - We also must believe in Us.

Your call has brought many many people together this year; God-willing it will bind us together over the coming weeks as we switch over from one single goal - election - to many hundreds of goals aimed at improving our great nation.

Barack-or-Treat

2008-11-04T12:42:00.002-05:00

My dad sent me this story in an e-mail from trick-or-treaters on Friday night in Lyncourt:

-----------------------------------

I was giving out candy on Halloween. Anyone who could ID my Barack-O-Lantern got extra candy. Most kids did pretty well.

I had four sibs that come to the door. They all held out their bags.

I asked them "What do you say?"

"Trick or Treat," they all said.

I gave them candy and offered them the chance for addition sweets.

"That's that, you know, President dude," said the eldest boy.

"Almost!" I replied

"Yeah dummy, you mean Barack Obama!" said his sister, who was year or so older.

"Yeah, Barack Obama, Barack Obama!!" chimed in the two little ones.

"Very good," I said and lavished extra goodies on them.

They went away very proud of themselves, telling their mother that they got extra candy because the knew who Barack Obama was.

There was a little girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old, patiently waiting her turn. She walked up the steps and silently held out her bag.

Again I asked "Well, what do you say?"

She stuck out her chest, confidently looked me in eye and said "Barack Obama!"

Post-Standard Endorses Dan Maffei For Congress!!

2008-10-29T11:24:00.002-04:00

Syracusans - unite! And vote for native son Dan Maffei on Tuesday.

See the endorsement below (via syracuse.com) and watch the debates from the jump.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our Choice: Maffei for Congress

by Post-Standard Editorial Board
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 5:02 AM

As a recent headline noted, Central New York's next congressman will be a rookie. The departure of veteran Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga, leaves a vacuum in the 25th Congressional District, which stretches from Onondaga County to Rochester's eastern suburbs.

Seeking the seat are Republican Dale Sweetland of Fabius, a former farmer, crop insurance salesman and chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature; Democrat Dan Maffei of DeWitt, who served as a congressional aide for Sen. Daniel Moynihan and for Rep. Charles Rangel's powerful House Ways and Means Committee and now works as a senior vice president for Pinnacle Capital Management; and the Green Populist Party's Howie Hawkins of Syracuse, a political activist who works for UPS.

Csorsh and the Ft Ad**nt

2008-10-27T15:05:00.002-04:00

My friends may mock me, but I find the Guardian, Times Online and the Independent from the UK to be two of the most interesting, good-looking and informative newspapers. Some may call them rags, but where else could you find stories like this or this

That said - on the Guardian music blog today there was a look at iTunes censorship of "dirty words," which has apparently run amok - reaching into the realm of the completely harmless and censoring words such as "hot" (as in Katy Perry's H*t'N'Cold). Not so hot.

Maybe I will never understand, but how does starring out a couple of letters in the words fuck and shit make them safe for sensitive eyes, or - presumably - the eyes of kids who are apparently buying songs off of iTunes with their credit cards (a dubious presumption at best). Because KIDS ARE DUM, and words with starred out letters don't computer in the baby brains. There's no way they can tell what the word C**ks****er should be.

Words, collections of phonemes with culturally ascribed meanings, are neutral entities. Nothing about the work fuck, is in-and-of-itself inherently offending. I'm not even approaching saying that words have no power - as a bibliophile and recovering English major, I clearly believe that words have power in their employment and in the intention of the user. But really, what good does it do to star-out some letters in "naughty words"? They aren't eradicated, the offending material isn't censored so it plays back normally anyway. All this does it draw attention to the stigmatized words and their "badness."

It's amazing that the shining light of America rests so strongly on our first amendment, and that individuals from other countries come from thousands of miles away to be here, where the light will shine on them too, and yet, watch the Daily Show, listen to the radio, try to download music. See that the first amendment has its own asterisk, a footnote which after "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;" * reads "*except for f*ck, s**t, c***, c***, t**s, etc. etc."

Here and There

2008-10-23T21:57:00.004-04:00

Part of my job sends me bouncing around the internet every day in search of books, publishing and politics in the news and on the wires. Today was a good day.

Women and the Presidency: 'Crying Pat' Schroeder Reflects on Campaign Bias

An Open Letter to McCain from NOW

'Llectuals: The New PBS series

2008-10-16T16:57:00.001-04:00

I wish! This is hilarious. Molly found it, so kudos to her. If only it were real...

Home sweet Syracuse

2008-10-06T15:45:00.008-04:00

I miss Central New York. I don't think I've ever uttered these words before (or written them for that matter) and I certainly never expected to.

Growing up I clung to being an "outsider" for some reason, despite the fact that that word described me about as well as it describes John McCain as regards Capitol Hill. "I live in Syracuse, but I was born in Massachusetts," I would assure people as a teenager.

This originated from the deep roots the families I grew up around had in the area - kids who lived just a block away from their grandparents and cousins, fathers and sons who built bonds over their love of the Bills and SU basketball. I was equal parts jealous of their given community ties - my own family was spread out across New York State, in Florida, Texas, Maryland - and dismissive of them - some Syracusans remain in the county for the entirety of their lives, something which to me smacked of small-minded parochialism.

As bratty as that attitude may have been, it developed out of a sense of loyalty to my own family's values: independence, experience, expansion - though, admittedly I never thought about it in those terms as a kid.

My dad's family had moved around the country in his childhood, such that he and his three siblings were all born in different cities. My mom's family was still in large part clustered in Upstate NY, but they weren't within walking distance at any rate and my maternal grandparents lived in Florida for most of my childhood.

Not exactly globetrotting, by any means, as you are probably already thinking, but as a kid one hardly needs an excuse to feel left out in any slight deviation from the norm. And the norm was and is north side italian grandparents straight off the boat, parents who graduated from Bishop Grimes too, or Solvay or Henniger maybe.

So, four months after moving of moving away from Vassar and to Washington and as we advance deeper into fall, I find part of me missing the familiarity of my hometown, Syracuse. It is, at least in part, nostalgia for past falls - the return to school with its sharpened pencils, new school shoes and afternoon soccer practices; the colors seen out of car and bus windows riding to sporting events or to go apple picking at Beak 'n Skiff.

Also, it is small, simple, manageable... unpretentious, plainfaced - all the things that once drove me away from it screaming, clamoring "more, bigger!" are also part of its charm.

It makes me think of all this election season talk about small towns and small town values, which I don't really buy in to; I think people everywhere have these so-called small town values--family, loyalty, simplicity and morality for example.

But in big cities, in young cities, these are locked in an arm wrestle with idealism, ambition, adventurousness. That isn't to say that no one is idealistic or ambitious in Syracuse, or that no one is simple in New York City or D.C., it's just about proportion and priority. I'm digressing.

There is a unique excitement when, wearing my sweatshirt with the orange letters Syracuse emblazoned on it, people chat with me about their CNY roots. I'm a native now, having given my formative years to the city.

And while I chose to leave and to move here, quite happily, I'm beginning to wonder not if - but when - I will choose to go back and make an impact in a different way. I watch the campaign of democratic congressional candidate Dan Maffei and wonder.

This sentimentalism may dry up (or maybe 'freeze' would be more appropriate) come November, when I'm getting calls from my parents about shoveling snow - but I'm not convinced that'll do it either. Especially if its a green christmas in D.C.

Note: A couple days after writing this post, I was talking again with someone about Syracuse at a meeting. "I don't really like sports or heavy italian food, so I was already off on the wrong foot." That sounds about right.

(photo from syracuse.com's Your Photos, by greggor23)

Lunch at the Capitol

2008-10-03T16:36:00.005-04:00

When we rolled up to the back door of the U.S. Capitol building, we were met by a smiling plain clothes security guard (and several uniformed officers with giant guns) inquiring as to our purpose. ID card in hand, my boss explained we were here for a little tour. The guard was instantly apologetic, quickly jotting out name tags for all of us that boasted "Staff-Led Tour" in red caps.

"You're Pat Schroeder, right?" He said, though it is more a statement than a query. When she confirmed he added, "We really miss you around here Pat." He was not the only person to say so.

I was a bit starstruck, to say the least, following Pat around as I saw the inside of the Capitol building for the first time ever. We all-- we being Heather, three other young female AAP staffers and myself--kept close to her so as to adequately hear any insights about the building, or stories of her past in it... "The Senate side is like a cave, darker than the House side - someone should invest in 100-watt bulbs...those spots on the steps there are blood, from a duel. I'm serious! The male members called the founding mothers statue 'three women in a bathtub.' "

Periodically members would spot Pat and grab her for a hug. The first of which was Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who I recognized as a member of the House Judiciary Committee because she sat in on the copyright subcommittee hearing I attended a few weeks back.

Walking towards the House side, I peered out the windows toward the mall, and gazed, slack-jawed at the frescoed ceilings and wall-sized portraits. The commanding grandness of the capitol immediately brought to mind the Vatican museum in Rome, except for frazzled staffers replaced the ubiquitous amoeba-like clusters of tourists (though there were some of those). While we walked, Pat looked at me and, catching sight of my wide-eyed expression, smiled knowingly. I wondered if she was thinking at all of her early days in the building, her first votes...

Several twists and turns brought us to the members-only cafe. Tables on the periphery were taken up with members and staffers in suits and american flag lapel pins. Pat waved to a congressman a few tables away, Duncan Hunter (R-CA), with whom she sat on the Armed Services Committee. Towards the end of the meal, another member stopped over and Pat asked when they would be voting (on the second try at the bailout package). He told her fifteen minutes, and asked her how she would have voted. "I'm glad I don't have to make that decision," she laughed.

After lunch, we made our way past the House chamber where they were indeed casting the vote that would pass the bailout. The most telling sign was the congestive presence of the press--the pressroom was filled wall-to-wall with a significant spillover of photographers and reporters tapping their palms anxiously with their notebooks, their eyes darting from staffer to staffer, looking to grab a member for comments. We passed John Hall (D-NY, Poughkeepsie) on his way in to vote.

We breezed through the rotunda (see picture) and moved back toward the senate side, away from the fracas. The halls were suspiciously deserted of student groups and interns. A lone security officer stopped us and indicated we had to go back - until Pat whipped out her member card again. "That means Cheney's around," Pat murmured to me. On our way to the exit all laughed about how badass we felt as part of the entourage. Exiting the way we entered, I felt the stirring of a familiar desire -- the feeling I get when I'm on the hill, wanting to be a part of it all. It's the feeling of any government engagement - school, local, national - being part of the works, something important. It's something I felt on a small scale at Vassar, but will probably chase again until I can manage to get my hands on it, even if it is just the delusion of a significant contribution.

5 Friends

2008-10-03T09:59:00.001-04:00

A little celebrity use in agenda pushing can't be wrong when it regards voter registration, right?

D to the E to the B-A-T-E veep debate

2008-10-02T16:45:00.003-04:00

The hours before the Vice Presidential Debate are tick tick ticking away as the nation's media puts itself at heightened risk for an aneurism due to all the pre-debate coverage (there is roughly a new twitter post every second on the topic). Something about this debate makes me recoil, despite my own excitement - we're having a party in my apartment to watch. Prior to the presidential debate last Friday, the tone grew out of expectations for Obama and McCain as future presidents. The tone surrounding the pre-game coverage today, however, is more vulturous - every outlet, every blogger, is predicting just how and how greatly either Palin or Biden will screw it up.

A bit to my relief, at least the media doesn't seem to be sitting in wait to feast on the stumblings of Palin alone. Biden is definately facing his fair share of high (or low) expectations, if you can call them that. I first attended to this fear after realizing just HOW BADLY I want her to fuck up, both because I greatly fear the success of the GOP ticket and also because I have felt from the very beginning that she is not the woman to be making these strides. She is not the radical feminist to command my admiration, a la Hillary or Pat (Schroeder), Gloria Steinem or Ellie Smeal. But then again, as a fairly successful and at least respectable female governor, she doesn't deserve to be publically humiliated by rapacious journalists either. Contradicting myself again, however, I'm inclined to say - "well oh well, that's the political game, grow some balls or get out." But really, do we expect male candidates to grow balls or get out?

It should be interesting to say the least.

A very sweet band from NC

2008-09-30T15:33:00.001-04:00

Saw this band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, perform *free* at the Kennedy Center last night - thanks to Alex who asked me along. The concert was held in the experimental theater, and it was certainly not quite what we expected.

An adorable, Walker-family-esque couple taught any of us brave enough to come down to the front stage to clog before the band came on. Turned out we wound up dancing the entire show. Everyone, dancers and non, had a great time - it really renewed my fervor for (free!) sweet events that bring people together in random ways. And reinforced my belief that dancing should happen waaaay more often than it does. Especially to music as unique and fun as the Chocolate Drops.

Southbound

2008-09-30T15:02:00.004-04:00

This past weekend Heather, Aaron Franklin and I hit the road - destination: Manassas, site of the NOVA (northern virginia) Brew Fest. (Sadly, Alex was put out of commission by a blown tire and couldn't come.)

The microbrewery festival was fantastic - by volunteering we were granted free entry, and spent the afternoon pouring teeny beers for festival goers at the Mad Fox brewery tent. They basically slapped some 'Brew Crew' t-shirts on us and set us in front of the taps. It took me a good hour to stop pouring heady glasses and to know enough about the brewery and the four drafts to not sound like a complete idiot, but after that it was fun - who doesn't like interacting with virginian beer-lovers of varying levels of intoxication?

The three of us spent the night camping out at Bull Run...in a 2 person tent...in the pourin

g rain. Despite the dampness and cramped quarters, it was refreshing to be outside the beltway and in nature. Camping during the last weekend of September would an inconceivable activity in upstate NY. I should note - however - that fellow "campers" were mainly comprised of behemouth RVs complete with satellite dishes for their TVs. Made you beg the question - this is camping?

Staying the night, though, afforded us the

opportunity to check out the National Battlefield Park at Manassas - probably the one and only civil war (aka War of

Northern Aggression) site I've ever visited. The park there is grand and sprawling, and the mixture of morning clouds and sun made for a very serene, pastoral sort of view. We visited the Henry Hill house, where 85-year-old Mrs. Hill was on bedrest when the first battle began, literally in her backyard. Refusing to leave, she was ultimately killed by shrapnel during the battle.

I apologize for this diary-esque digression, but it was a neat weekend that made me really itchy to see the many millions of places and things I have yet to see. Anyone up for a cross-country trip? :-)

David Foster Wallace, Publishing and Nostalgia

2008-09-24T16:43:00.002-04:00

The recent death of David Foster Wallace has been shocking or unfortunate or wasteful enough to get some of the media and publishing corps to turn their attention briefly from the even more unfortunate economic turns.

Publishers Weekly Editor in Chief, Sara Nelson, who spoke at the recent AAP Intro to Publishing seminar I attended, wrote about Wallace in her column this week. In her article, Nelson concludes finally that while "marketing and publicity and distributing and platforms do make a difference," that maybe "we are also in the business of finding, nurturing and disseminating writers and their ideas."

The world of publishing, as I come to know it in a piecemeal fashion via AAP, alternately and equally repells me (for the former mechanism Nelson mensions) and attracts me (for the latter.) Her reflection gnaws at what bothers me when I take an imaginary stroll down a future path as a book editor. Nelson says Wallace was "a writer of the old school" who was welcomed into a "similarly old-fashioned" publishing world.

How many editorial assistants, aspiring writers and english majors, I wonder, would reflect on the fact that writer-centered-publishing is "old-fashioned" with extreme sadness? I do.

True, economics students and investment bankers are seeing their future careers erased in real time. But I can't help but feel now that I have had every "when-I-grow-up" fantasy struck off the list already. When I was in grade school I had a short-lived to be a Disney animator, a now defunct sort of aspiration, as disney movies are almost entirely computer animated. My next passion, journalism, was born from equal parts Upton Sinclair, Harriet the Spy and the movie version of All the Kings Men. Skip ahead 10 years and meet me circa graduation, when every major newspaper in the country was downsizing its newsrooms and installing mobile bloggerism. J-school degrees abound, but the backpocket reporters notebooks and press passes are practically extinct. Then there is publishing, another art-breeds-fantasy where I imagine myself the Ezra Pound to some unknown T.S. Eliot. You see the trend...

I recently joked with my cousin Caroline that post-modernism killed true love. Now, in an exclamation romantic hyperbole, I feel like broadening that statement to post-modernism killed everything, especially authenticity. And back to Wallace - who maybe felt the same way when he described life's little rat race in a 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College.

Clearly it is possible to experience nostalgia for things you haven't experienced (hell, most of America feels it for some good ole day that never really was), and what I yearn for is a career of ideas, one that holds Truth and Beauty (keats?) as its two guiding lamps. Where? No clue. Did someone say grad school?

Thoughts about Food

2008-09-22T22:51:00.003-04:00

I just finished reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" and have found that, though it seemed impossible, I am thinking even more about food than ever before.

I love food. I love it a lot. Increasingly so since moving into my first apartment in DC and beginning to cook house meals almost daily. Additionally, our proximity to Eastern Market at the NE Capitol Market makes shopping for food even more enjoyable, despite the fact that I continually feel I am the physical embodiment of a post from www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, (#5 - Farmer's Markets; #6 - Organic Foods; #48 - Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops; #90 - Dinner Parties... and don't get me started on shit like #44 - Public Radio...).

Coincidentally, I had to go grocery shopping today, directly after having read and absorbed Pollan's prescriptions for eating food. One of his guidelines for shopping is - if and when you have to visit a grocery store - stick to the peripheries. It is on the edges of the store that most chains stock produce, dairy and meats -- things more likely than not to be Food (rather than processed food-like substances). Another quaint rule of thumb - don't buy things your great-grandma wouldn't recognize. So yeah, no slim jims or cheez whiz, or frozen taquitos.

These rules work very well at helping you reach the aim of buying non-processed food goods, especially veggies. And for better or for worse, I've now become interested in the ingredients of things, which perhaps isn't quite what Pollan - who advocates the foregrounding of food experience versus foods-as-nutrients - is shooting for.

These were things I was already interested in before, however, as a food lover (and someone who has the socioeconomic luxury of considering food in terms of enjoyment rather than basic life sustenance, let's be honest). My roommate aspires to be an organic farmer, a goal that looks more an more attractive to me as well, day by day. Since moving here, we've had many discussions about gardening, patronizing local farm stuffs and about the unfortunate disconnect we feel about what we put in our bodies and where it comes from.

If you think about it - as Pollan invites us to - it's a little weird. To consume things without knowing how, where, when or by whom they are made. But it is a byproduct of our highly specialized society and culture - Wikipedia Culture - where all information is Google-able and therefore commodified. I don't know how to do a lot of things. Aside from general common sense, in which I rank about average, I don't have many survival skills - a fact that makes me more and more uncomfortable as I take on more responsibility.

Unfortunately, the way we eat is very much tied up in our social class and this kept nagging at me while I read "In Defense," though Pollan is aware of it as well. He advises the reader to "be the type of person who takes supplements" but goes on to admit that that person is highly educated and most likely middle or upper class. I'm not sure what to do with this, its just one of a few ways the book oversimplifies or circumvents the way the mutation of our social fabric has changed our eating habits - dwelling more often instead on the popular notion of Fast Food Culture or the opposite side of the token, orthorexia nervosa.

It is so disturbing that the simplest food production processes - growing crops, hunting animals - are now rarer, more difficult to come by and much more expensive. Also, considering the often unconfronted yet accepted truth that industrial producers willingly market products to the American public which contain little or no dietary value - or in many cases are actually harmful to people's health - is supremely disturbing. Food consumption is just one of many cases of things that makes me ask myself why people can't or don't think for themselves (installment two coming soon: voting!).

In the final chapter, Pollan compares our eating habits with the food culture of European countries, specifically the French in this case. The French and Italians are envied for their attitude toward food - their immense enjoyment of it, their food culture. Yet there is this attitude of Americans toward European food culture that it is still some sort of vacation from the norm. We Americans don't have time for hoity toity leisurely meals with our families. We're busy being the world's supplier of Little Debbies snacks... Oh wait... Pollan points out that American families don't really sit down to Norman Rockwell-esque meals anymore - nostalgic language that immediately sent up a red flag in my mind. He completely ignores that part of the reason why families aren't eating together anymore is because now many women and mothers are working full time instead of devoting their afternoon and evenings to cooking dinner. There was something off about the portrait of the American family without recognizing this shift in the family dynamic that our culture as a whole hasn't dealt very well with as of yet.

This portrait of American eating made me think of what my future family life would be like in terms of cooking and eating (contributing factor to this train of thought also being this Inside Higher Ed article today about women with advanced degrees). It make me hope that someday I find a partner who is like my roommate -- equal parts in love with food and concerned about these questions, and just as excited about our herb garden.

Women's Rights in the News

2008-06-15T20:01:00.004-04:00

Perhaps in an effort to atone for the masked (or, at times, not so clandestine) sexism in the media regarding the democratic primaries, various news outlets and columnists were addressing feminist and women's health issues today.

One of the main threads has been the fate of the white female vote now with Hillary's withdrawal from the race. Some news outlets have been putting the microphone in front of the mouths Hillary supporters' who would rather go to McCain than turn to the dark side.

As columns by the Times' Frank Rich and Ariana Huffington demonstrate, however, this move may not neccesarily be as en masse as it seems. And even if middle aged white women are saying they will vote McCain, the sooner they learn about his policies regarding a woman's right to choose and reproductive health (125/130 votes against choice), the sooner they change their minds.

Rich does well to point out that "the notion that all female Clinton supporters became “angry white women” once their candidate lost — to the hysterical extreme where even lifelong Democrats would desert their own party en masse — is itself a sexist stereotype."

At the rally before Hillary's good-bye speech, I did hear a handful of staunch supporters (ages roughly 50-60) say they might vote for McCain. Reporters, huddled around their little camera platform, were practically foaming at the mouth to talk to these vocal women.

However, even the most vocal supporter in my vicinity (so vocal she was urging those around her to clap their hands and sing when "We Are Family" was playing over the loudspeakers), had changed her mind after hearing Clinton's extremely supportive cry for Obama. Though, to be entirely fair, there were indeed audible 'boos' at the mention of his name.

Both Rich, Huffington and Maureen Dowd make passing mention of a crude joke McCain once told in 1998 about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. This, of course, made me curious. I think any woman considering voting for McCain should hear this.

Allegedly, McCain said, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?"

"Because her father is Janet Reno."

Chelsea was a teenager at the time; McCain was still a senior citizen. I think this proves that she (yeah, Chelsea!) is closer to deserving the highest office of this country than he.

He told Maureen Dowd ''I will always maintain a sense of humor. Life is too short not to.''

Well, you know what I find funny, John?

http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/

The Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are younger than John McCain. So are chocolate chip cookies.

I've gotten sidetracked by John McCain's near-octegenarian status. PS. Read this about ageism.

Now, other Times' column. Nick Kristof writes today about a UN special session regarding sexual violence. You can read more about this opportunity for action at human rights watch online.

And finally, Sarah Odell, Wellesley junior with her insight into the Clinton campaign and the importance of feminism from today's Washington Post. I can't believe that girls can go into college, much less come out not wanting to be labeled feminists because of all that feminism entails, but in some ways I guess thats a good thing because it means the women attending colleges such as Wellesley and Vassar grow up hearing the same thing men have heard for years: You can be whatever you set out to be.

401K and Health Insurance: Because You're Not Supposed to Just Know

2008-06-14T09:41:00.003-04:00

Dear Ron Lieber,

Thank you for your article "A Primer for Young People Starting your First Job." Though I would have loved for you to go on and on about the many real-world facts of life I as of yet don't understand - it was a good start.

...If you don't understand what 401K means, or wonder what having student loans indicates for your W4, read it. Today.

Michelle Obama called a Baby Mama

2008-06-14T01:06:00.001-04:00

Up, up and away to D.C.

2008-06-14T00:39:00.003-04:00

So, you may have noticed a layout change. I'm not sure who "you" is, other than Sam and Molly, who are my only known dedicated readers. But for the sake of rhetoric.

I'm moving to Washington! I'm a real person now, didn't you hear? So, anyhow, I have a job with communications/pr for a publishers trade organization.

Having a plan leads to the inevitable doubts as to whether or not I'm doing the best thing, the "right" thing. One job leads to the next, one move precipitates all the rest, in a chain of events you cannot really prevent or change. Needless to say, I feel intimidated. I turned down a job with a small newspaper in upstate New York, about a half hour from home. Though I opted for a D.C. job more for the city and the people than the job, I wonder if I'm selling out or something. I think this job will be great, the office seems like a very positive and relaxed environment, the people are very nice. Post-graduation, life planning and responsible decision-making are generally panic-inducing. I guess I just expected to be more at ease once the job and house business was set up.

Luckily, I am calming my nerves with love of my parents new puppy, UEFA cup soccer games and more than enough sleep. And a return to running, something that I've desperately been needing to do.

News Bites: Because there's so much good news out there

2008-06-13T23:38:00.006-04:00

Alright, let's try this again. In an ideal world, I'd be posting these alone and not in a lump sum, with more ample time to comment on them. Apparently, I am either too busy, too lazy or both. More on that in a second.

1. Is google why can't I concentrate anymore?

After Morgan's article, this was extremely appropriate. The phenomenon Carr talks about in this Atlantic Monthly article regarding reading was very familiar. Those glory days of reading in my bed all day and all night have turned into schizophrenic bopping from book to e-mail to facebook to a crossword puzzle or Scrabulous game. I miss my focus, to be honest.

2. Techno Toddlers

Also appropriate, So Young, and So Gadgeted and the topic of much discussion among my friends and I of late, I feel. Today kids are entering adolescence with a mastery and intimate knowledge of the internet, cell phones and texting.

We twenty-somethings were among the last high schoolers to go through much of our childhoods without cell phones and e-mail addresses. I didn't get a cell phone until right before I left for Vassar, and it was a prepaid virgin mobile model. As is typical, I tend to think its better to be introduced to technology later, and can't really fathom buying my toddler a cell phone (who the hell do 3rd graders need to call? Go play some fore square or something.)

3. From Babies to Equal Parenting

Though I have less than zero marriage and parenting plans, I am fascinated by Americans' approaches to both -- probably because there is no sure way to do either successfully, it seems so hit or miss. This sunday's Times Magazine cover is about splitting parenting duties equally, going beyond gender norms where the woman is the care provider.

Despite it being the 21st century, that Title IX is a quarter of a century old and working moms are commonplace, in couples where both parents work the amount of housework done by wives outpaces that done by husbands by almost 2:1. Even when each partner is working, the gender disparity remains.

"Where the housework ratio is two to one, the wife-to-husband ratio for child care in the United States is close to five to one."

Social norms apparently work against parents who wish to engage in equal parenting. (Really, you don't say? Social norms reinforcing gender stereotypes? Nawwww) Women's jobs also, strangely, are always more "flexible" than men's.

"By way of example she describes two actual couples, one in which he is a college professor and she is a physician and one in which she is a college professor and he is a physician. In either case, Deutsch says “both the husband and wife claimed the man’s job was less flexible.” "

Even the success stories make me skeptical of the potentiality of marriage, but I guess thats 22 for you.

4. Speaking of Gender Normatives...

If you haven't overheard the media's self-reflexive conversation about its sexist tendencies, you clearly aren't reading this blog. Or any blog. Anywhere. Ever. Today's Times had the latest installment of this discussion.

I shall now defer to Katie Couric.

Hell yea.

The Vassar Huff blogger

2008-06-04T15:57:00.004-04:00

Former VSA VP Morgan Warners, and fellow Vassar grad, is now a blogger for The Huffington Post. (Who is jealous other than me?) He wrote his first post on Monday on the dangers of being at once hyperconnected and socially and physically disconnected.

His post also reminded me of something I had forgotten to post: my senior reflection and article for The Miscellany News' graduation issue.

* * * * * * * * *

The Days Before Facebook

Fall Semester 2005 – those were simpler times. The brief, fleeting golden days before blogging, poking, posting and Facebook stalking became standards of the virtual lives of Vassar College students.

The Class of 2008 marks the last graduating class to have matriculated at a Facebook-free Vassar. Even for those who lived it, the time without Facebook, like the times when the Library had just four printers, seems a distant past.

How did we ever make friends before Facebook? Sustain classmate crushes? Plan parties? Learning about our freshmen year roommates required us to be pen pals with them. Before coming to campus, we chatted over Instant Messenger, made phone calls, e-mailed or used the forum set up by the College. Compare this to the incoming freshman class, the Class of 2012, who started a Facebook group proclaiming their status in December 2007.

Because the Vassar pre-Facebook era (P.F.?) was so short-lived, I’ll try to resist using the phrase “back in our day,” tempting as it may be. But the more ingrained in our daily lives the social networking site becomes, the more difficult it is to imagine how we once made do without it.

During freshman week 2004, the Class of 2008 resorted to an actual physical book of photos of our classmate’s faces. If you wanted to know who your friend’s boyfriend’s roommate was, you could look up their name and see their high school senior photo and that is about it. Topics such as favorite music and movies were reserved for second dates, not basic given knowledge or standards of evaluation.

Even after many of us signed on to the virtual Facebook, information was pretty sparse. Our first profiles consisted of little more than a representative photo and contact information. No photos, no events, no status, no gifts, and definately no jetman.

In fact, what first attracted me about Facebook, versus then-favorite social networking site MySpace was how calm it was. There weren’t any advertisements, no messages from anonymous sketchy people hitting on you. It was a closed environment—reserved for liberal arts students. It was almost utopic; we felt safe.

Which explains, perhaps, why successive changes to Facebook have caused near-revolts from students at Vassar and nationwide. After about a year, the Web site opened to high school students, giving rise to the formation of groups such as “It was dumb to open facebook to high school students” and “Facebook ain’t no fun no more cuz High School Students can get on!” In September 2006 the site opened to all internet users and added the controversial news feed. Nearly half a million student users have joined or formed groups protesting the feed.

We signed on because we want to share information, but just how much information we should share and with whom has always been a point of contention. How many of us students have been “friended” by a parent or other adult and felt a level of discomfort? It’s almost as though that person had shown up at a TH party and asked to do a tequila shot. Seniors might want to reconsider their possessiveness, however, since we too are now entering the pool of adult Facebook users.

Facebook dependency is akin to the many other technological addictions these years have brought. It seems odd to imagine locating friends in the library or mall, for example, without texting them. We find the concept of procrastination without YouTube confusing. Many of us have rarely opened an encyclopedia, but we rely on Wikipedia as an infallible source of information. Gone are the days of the whiny livejournal—but blogs have established themselves as news sources.

There are positive and negative effects, of course, to the amplification of our virtual lives. Many argue that it distances us to what has up until now been considered true human interaction. Because we are constantly interconnected, we are rarely ever alone with ourselves. However, our best friends are never farther away than a text, e-mail or instant message, something that will be a comfort as we disperse.

We are the multi-tasking generation, aptly streamlining and prioritizing our tasks, but focusing on a single thing can be a challenge. If we cannot see our best friend once a day, that’s probably okay. If we cannot check our e-mail once a day, it may cause an emotional breakdown.

Each incoming group of Vassar students will see their own changes and have their “remember-when” moments. Facebook did not make our college experiences good or bad, just different from those that came before. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go change my status to “graduated.”

Freezepop - Less Talk More Rokk

2008-06-03T20:08:00.001-04:00

Guitarhero anyone?

Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage

2008-06-03T20:04:00.001-04:00

Another recent guiltless joy: youtube in the morning. youtube in the evening. youtube all day long...

Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex

2008-06-03T19:59:00.001-04:00

Oh yeah it is.

News snacks. Yum.

2008-06-03T19:25:00.003-04:00

Post-graduation and pre-employment, the summer has granted me one great thing: a renaissance of newspaper reading, something I've been missing since the Eliot Spitzer and Bear Stearns newsweek over Spring Break in March.

1. "Sisters" school recruiting: Who wants an all-girls education?
The NYTimes today had an interesting article about the remaining all-female Seven Sisters schools (Vassar, which went Co-Ed in 1969, was once one of their number) sending their admissions deans to international schools in the Middle East to recruit.

I particularly liked Tamar Lewin's description of the sisters schools: "The American colleges, for all their white-glove history and academic prominence, are liberal strongholds where students fiercely debate political action, gender identity and issues like “heteronormativity,” the marginalizing of standards that are other than heterosexual." Oh heteronormativity, I miss discussing you already... Read it here.

2. Let's not return to a pre-Roe world
Waldo L. Fielding, a practicing gynocologist for the past forty-someodd years, contributed an essay about the realities of self-induced abortions to today's Science Times. I think anyone arguing against a woman's right to choose would have a difficult time supporting their viewpoint when faced with the scenarios Fielding describes. His words also made me think about Yale senior Aliza Shvarts miscarriage art project in a different light, too. Not quite for the shttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/views/03essa.html?ref=sciencequeemish, just fyi.

3. There's a biological reason for the sarcasm that binds us
And I thought that sarcasm was just one of those inexplicable miracles of life. Kind of a dry article, but still cool. A University of California San Fran professor did a study asserting that the ability to detect sarcasm resides in the right parahippocampal gyrus. Sweet, Professor Rankin, good to know. Read it here.

Underemployed and begging to differ

2008-05-31T17:06:00.002-04:00

"Job Climate for the Class of 2008 Is a Bit Warmer Than Expected"

So writes the NYTimes today, as I spend my entire day scouring the internet for jobs that are more and more outside the realm of ideal.

Walking from the graduation ceremony, I heard one of my classmates fathers giving her a hard time about not having a job. "Dad, lots of people don't have jobs."

I felt bad, I knew how she felt. "I don't have a job yet," I told her so her dad could hear. "Me neither," chimed in two friends I was standing with. "See?" she snapped at him and we all felt better for a moment.

The first week post-graduation feels like a breakup. The sort where you still love each other but its best for you both if you move on. Somehow though, I feel like Vassar is not lamenting the way I am.

It's fitting then, that job searching is eerily similar to firing up match.com. You adjust your personality to fit the person on the other end (or the business, as it were), you act overly enthused about things you know next to nothing about, you agree to eat at a thai restaurant when you hate it (here think: entertaining the possibility of moving 500 miles away or lowering your pay standards $10,000).

"The graduates who are struggling to find work now typically earned degrees from less prestigious institutions and were not the top students.

'A poor economy magnifies the differences between student groups,” said Lawrence Katz, a professor of economics at Harvard. “Those graduating from spectacular schools with spectacular grades will continue to do well, while those in the middle and lower end will have a much harder time finding jobs and will be offered much lower salaries.' "

Hrmm... if you say so...

Rachel Ray's hipster (keffiyeh?) scarf

2008-05-29T07:44:00.009-04:00

Exhibit A: A still photo of Rachael Ray, taken from a recent Dunkin' Donuts Commercial. It looks as though she's about to object to something, or defend herself about something, doesn't it?

Dunkin' Donuts had to defend itself yesterday, taking this spot off the air. Why? Ray's scarf.

Now, if you're a Vassarian, I know what you are thinking about that scarf:

"That looks like that hipster scarf that I always

see _____ wearing when they sit smoking outside the library..."

I think for many, now, that is one of the primary associations for the scarf, also known as a keffiyeh. Traditionally, the keffiyeh is a headdress worn by Arab men. Right-wing conservatives were quick to point out that the scarf is a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, popularized by Yasser Arafat.

Pro-Jewish blogger Pam Geller wildly called the scarf "part of a cultural jihad."

I wonder how many 20-somethings wearing the scarf on a daily basis at liberal arts colleges and in neighborhoods in Brooklyn (with large jewish populations no less) actually realize any authentic symbolism tied to the piece of

cloth.

You'll see on the left, that even Newsweek's magazine Current includes the keffiyeh as one of the essential accessories to hipsterdom, as a sidebar to Molly Finkelstein's article on the subject.

The entire situation lead me to think about where we draw the line between fashion and the symbolic. Incorporating a piece of cloth with symbolic meanings in Palestine and voiding it of its symbolic significance - or at least rending its significance irrelevant to the modster wearers - is an unsurprising move for our generation.

Post-modernism (yes, I'm sorry, I'm going to bring in the P word...) allows gen. Y to effectively ignore symbolic ties to previous eras: a scarf can be propaganda and fashion, or neither, or one, at any time.

We get away with a lot under the guise of irony and mimicry. There are lines we draw, parameters we do not cross, though they are becoming fuzzied. On MTV's reality show The Paper, which we Misc-ers watch with pitiful relish, one of the students was wearing an Israeli Defense Force t-shirt, one I've seen VC students wear on occasion as well. Che Guevera t-shirts are more ubiquitous than Chuck Taylors.

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong here, but I think it is true that we often do not give enough consideration to what we're wearing and why.

It's possible that's what upset some about Ray's scarf, they wish she would just think (or that her stylist would think for her). Wear what you want, but wear it with some sort of consciousness? Maybe that's the moral.

Brooklyn school and American hypocrisy

2008-04-29T14:32:00.003-04:00

Kathryn sent me this really interesting and in many ways disturbing NYTimes story about a NYC educator, Debbie Almontaser, who was recently more or less forced to step down from her position of principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy public school in Brooklyn.

Almontaser has been accused of being unamerican and using the Academy to indoctrinate students with a jihadist agenda. The situation with Almontaser have clearly brought out the worst in post-9/11 fear-mongering, anti-Islamic sentiment and highlights the increasing marginalization of an entire section of the American population.

I've had several conversations with friends in the past about how ridiculous it is for countries such as Italy to refuse building mosques and France for keeping Muslim women from wearing head scarves. What this story demonstrates is that the ideal of America as land of the free is an arrogant fallacy. Buildings, clothing and languages don't cause fear, violence or terrorism - If anything, misunderstanding, liminality and the limitation of an entire culture and religion do.

A commenter on the story added this quote from Abe Lincoln that is particularly salient, I think:

"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.As a nation we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are createdequal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotismcan be taken pure, and without the base alloy hypocrisy."

The Walker Family spotted by the NYTimes

2008-04-12T15:36:00.006-04:00

This info is all Claudia, who was browsing the Times style page and came upon a photo slide show with audio.

The Walker Family was in the city to watch the Scottish Day parade. For those unfamiliar with Vassar culture, the Walker family, comprised of Jeff and Kathy Walker and their seven children (the two eldest are Vassar students), plays traditional dances and contra dances on campus and around the North East.

The Times' Bill Cunningham's breathy voice describes: "You'll see a group, I couldn't believe my eyes.. they looked like they stepped out of Brigadoon and it was just to watch the parade"

Parents Weekend, seen from the library windows

2008-04-12T12:34:00.002-04:00

Down to forty-three days until May 25th, graduation day and it's Parents Weekend. Parents weekend is by and large a day of events for underclassmen parents, creating a strange juxtoposition for seniors as we sit holed up in the library finishing our theses.

Parents come and freshmen students show them around--this is the library, this is my dorm room, this is the english department; the underlying message is: this is Vassar, this is my home. For me (and if I can speak for other seniors, for us) it's a indisputable reminder that Vassar will not be my home for very much longer. This realization, a mild existential crisis, inspires a feeling akin to panic as I watch skinny shirtless boys tossing frisbees on Joss Beach from the Reading Room.

I know it's not quite time for sad sentimentality (give it another 20 days), but I can't help but wonder, did I cherish it enough?

Switching from a backward glance to a forward-focused one, yesterday my mom and I had a "check-in" about my plans for next year. I didn't get into the grad school programs I wanted, much to my own and others surprise (I say this only in a impotent attempt repair my broken ego..) I've applied for some jobs but no word yet; A response about the English Teaching Assistantship Fulbright in Italy is still looming.

Last week I was contacted by a popular national magazine company about applying to a fellowship program in D.C. It was one of those moments where it seems like its all coming together, like "yes, this is finally it, this is what its going to be."

And while, yes, it's possible that it may just be "the one," to be punny, this is also roughly the 10th time in 6 months that I've thought a potential path for the future was THE path. Basically I fall in love too fast and then am rejected, except here I'm talking about employers, not boys. I can't afford to be let down again, I'm just too cut up over the last 20 applications that took 10 hours to complete. I can't take another let down after being forced to distill my existence into a 250 word essay about why I'm so fabulous.

I wish I could rewind not four years, but about 4 or 5 months--back to a time where possibility was still endless in my mind and unfettered by the obvious reality that the Associated Press is not going to hire me in June. Those were the golden days. That though my Vassar degree will indeed take me somewhere some day, it's not going to be in forty-five days, but over the course of years. And its fine, really.

My mom suggested we have a little family party back in Syracuse after I'm done. All I could imagine when she said this was me, sitting at a picnic table holding my gold-leaf imprinted degree and being asked over and over and over again the question dreaded by all of the Class of 2008 around the world: "So what are your plans for next year?"

I wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares about that question. I think there's a special circle in Dante's Inferno reserved for sadistic adults who enjoy asking unsuspecting graduates that question--somewhere between gluttony and lust. Mostly because above all else, I'm constantly asking myself that question, and am as thirsty for an answer to it and as much without it as Statius in Purgatorio.

Reasons to choose Svedka?

2008-04-07T02:00:00.002-04:00

I learn the greatest things from foreign coverage of the US. The following is top news on corriere.it, the website of Corriere della Sera: "The Absolut Vodka Initiative."

Apparently Absolut is running a new ad campaign in Mexico utilizing a map from the 1800s, which shows a large portion of now-U.S. lands were then Mexican territories. The ad text reads "In an Absolut world." Probably not going to go over as well in the states...

The LA Times blog La Plaza has it here.

On a side note, though, I discovered this while I was messing around with Google Reader. I think Google Reader just changed my life, no joke. Do other people know about this already and I'm late on the scene?

I want to post about the David McCullough lecture from Saturday night, but tomorrow. Maybe. Hopefully.

Who doesn't get into Harvard?

2008-04-05T14:20:00.003-04:00

Um, roughly 93% of applicants, apparently.

A New York Times article reported on Tuesday that elite colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth have admitted miniscule percentages of their applicants for entry into the class of 2012. The article states that, clearly, a number of factors has contributed to the lows, including the expansion of financial aid packages, the increase in number of high school graduates and availability of online applications.

There was a pretty funny and pointed satirical letter written as well, addressing the issue of legacy students, which I'm sure make up some not at all nominal percentage of the shockingly low 7.1% of Harvard students admitted this year.

"At Harvard, as at Yale, the applicant pool included an extraordinary number of academically gifted students. More than 2,500 of Harvard’s 27,462 applicants scored a perfect 800 on the SAT critical reading test, and 3,300 had 800 scores on the SAT math exam. More than 3,300 were ranked first in their high school class," the article states.

While of course the perfect score students are probably also gifted in other ways, I'm completely unconvinced that being first in your class or having a 1600 is really an indicator of anything much when it comes to the academic world. These are just number games.

I couldn't help but think back, though, to an old article from about a year ago (glad that my brain is filled with past newspaper articles and not other useful information) "Young, Gifted, and Not Getting into Harvard," in which an Alumni interviewer talked about his experience with Harvard rejects.

"What kind of kid doesn’t get into Harvard?," Michael Winerip writes, "Well, there was the charming boy I interviewed with 1560 SATs. He did cancer research in the summer; played two instruments in three orchestras; and composed his own music. He redid the computer system for his student paper, loved to cook and was writing his own cookbook. One of his specialties was snapper poached in tea and served with noodle cake."

Vassar's acceptance rate dropped significantly this year as well, something the Misc will be covering.

Bad book tastes: The english major's romantic dilemma

2008-03-29T20:01:00.004-04:00

Molly sent me the following Times article; not hard to see why 1. she would be reading this (it's in the book section after all) and 2. why she thinks its applies to me. One of my exes Facebook profiles lists "Where's Waldo" among his favorite books. Not hard to see how that floundered...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?ex=1207454400&en=3fe2d9d47b60bac0&ei=5070&emc=eta1

"We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility."

Nice Inferno 5th canto shoutout.

I think its probably more likely that I exclude someone for not reading the newspaper than for reading bad books. If you are unlikely to read nerdy and dorky articles like this one, really, where is this going?

Tall Women...Unite!

2008-03-26T12:45:00.003-04:00

The majority of my friends these days, especially now that I've moved on from the world of basketball, fit nicely under my arm. So I was pretty excited to see the following blog post on The Times blog Well. The author is a 6-foot-4 University of Wisconsin senior.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/life-as-a-tall-girl/?em&ex=1206676800&en=06faa791ad018d9a&ei=5087%0A

I will say though, that tall or short, no one should have the fact that they are different from the "average" pointed out to them. My brother, who is 6-foot-5, hates it when strangers come up to him and inform him that he's tall. This happens regularly, and I can't blame him for being annoyed. No one would ever walk up to a stranger and tell them "You're short!" or "Woh, you're a big lady."

Don't worry, the cheese is safe

2008-03-22T00:28:00.003-04:00

The government is falling apart, the biggest airline just got auctioned off to France, but don't worry... la mozzarella di bufala sopravive, as the Times The Lede blog assured readers.

"Everyone seems to agree that the buffalo-milk version
of the soft white cheese is far superior to the cow’s-milk kind."

check it:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/italys-mozzarella-makers-fight-dioxin-scare/index.html?hp

Dreams of my...democratic candidate?

2008-03-21T09:46:00.004-04:00

Last night I dreamt about Hillary Clinton. Hold on, hold on, let me explain.

I was -- for some inexplicable reason -- sitting with her on the set of some sort of talk show. The host of the show, however, wasn't asking Clinton any questions, she was just using her as a sort of prop. So I asked if I could conduct a little interview after a commercial break.

Commercial break one ends and the host does some sort of roll call instead of letting me do my interview. This happens again after a second break, and after a third an episode of Seinfeld starts to roll instead of cutting to me. Hillary and I are both entirely displeased.

The amazing thing is I remember some of the questions I wanted to ask, because I was furiously writing them down so as not to forget before my first on-syndicated television interview of a democratic candidate for president.

1.) "This studio is filled with young women (it was), many of whom are feminists and say that true feminism means choice and therefore support Barack Obama. What is your take on female choice going against the female candidate? And what do you plan to do to win over votes of young American women - many of your votes are coming from retired and middle age women."

2.) "In recent weeks the democratic primary trail has been plagued by distraction with the Reverend Wright comments and attack politics. What are you going to do to bring the focus back to the important issues?"

I think there was a third about the actual differences in prescriptions for the economy and war and education, but I can't recall specifically. Even in my dreams I am interviewing someone. It would be nice if Hillary did answer these questions.

Note: Apparently I'm not alone in dreaming of the democrats. Check it: idreamofbarack.blogspot.com

Pondering the way we read

2008-03-21T00:38:00.001-04:00

In cross-generational discussions about school and books, there is a common phrase:

“Oh yeeeah, I read that in college.”

The Scarlet Letter. Hamlet. Paradise Lost. Leaves of Grass.

If you are a liberal arts student talking with a college graduate, the odds are that it’s all been read before. And, circumventing various questions about the problematic nature of formulating the literary canon, let’s just say that in most cases there is a reason why these classics are still being assigned. Now it is more likely that they are supplemented with letters, post-modern critical literary analysis and illuminating biographical contexts—but still, Great Expectations is very much the same text it was 50, 100, 150 years ago.

My question for the moment, however, is not whether reading these works is warranted and worthwhile (I think it is, of course)—my question is, what does that obvious rejoinder mean?

“I read it in college.” “We read that in high school.”

Did you? Am I, really? Depends on your definition of reading.

As a senior at a prestigious private college, I have to say my idea of “reading” is a little warped these days. Between practices, meetings, school newspaper articles, my campus job and being in class, I have precious little time for reading the work assigned for my three seminars.

I think I do as well or better than most at completing the majority of my assigned reading. But there seems to be a basic understanding that people who can and do complete it all are either inhuman superachievers or otherwise have no other commitments to speak of (and are therefore lazy or uninvolved).

While this fact of life is given among my friends and classmates, there is no reason to assume that our sometime definition of “reading”—that is, skimming the last 150 pages of a 450 page book or reading only the first and last page of an article—extends beyond Vassar. Right?

During Spring Break, it was my happy task to read the great American classic, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I was spending the week with my grandparents on the beach, so reading this 427-page book (printed on bible paper, of course) should not have been much of an onerous assignment.

One afternoon, upon returning from the grocery store, my grandfather came upon me sprawled out on the couch, the text sprawled next to me with my thumb in it, as I slept.

“How’s that book coming?” he laughed when I awoke, adding, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how I read it too.” He said he’d find a comfy chair on the top floor of the library and read a nice fat paragraph of Melville’s uhh..descriptive.. prose before conking out.

So, I thought, maybe my concept of “reading” is not so new after all.

Don’t misunderstand me: as students, we do an unbelievable amount of work. Most of the people I know are absurdly on top of their lives.

And as for myself, over the past four years I have become a much better reader, in a perhaps atypical definition of the word.

See, “to read” can mean glossing your eyes over printed words and absorbing their meaning. But it can also mean interpreting, uncovering, exploring. The latter definition is the skill that I have lately honed; it is the rarer and more important ability.

Being able to “read” in a broader sense is a vital skill for interpreting our world of ulterior motives, subliminal messages and double-talk. In a post-modern, post-feminist, post-Freudian world of hypertext, we no longer simply read Shakespeare’s soliloquies, we read films, blogs, and advertisements. We read people’s social networking profiles—understanding the subtle art of when to take individuals’ relationship status or professed favorite quote seriously, or with a hint of irony.

Learning how to interpret the plethora of media surrounding us in our daily lives is learning the difference between what is being said and how it is being said, who is saying it and why they are saying it to us and in such and such a way. We read novels and texts this way, too. Answering these delving questions is the aim of education.

I plan to soldier through Moby Dick and to “read” it, in the traditional sense, in its entirety.

However, I know that no matter what, the most important reading will be done when my book is closed: sitting in class having a discussion about what the whale’s “whiteness” means or debating Ishmael’s narrative reliability on an online Blackboard forum.

While I still love the simple act of reading, I am glad that my education has made me a much better “reader.”

It's a blog!

2008-02-23T13:37:00.001-05:00

So, after a conversation with 1978 Alum Diana Pearson and other flirtatious thoughts of my own, I decided a blog is in order.

I'm not sure what shape it will take, but it will basically be a space for me to write on what piques my interest or calls my attention. Newspaper stuff, politics, feministing, being a student, being young.

I've decided to start out just inviting a wee group of people who care, more because of the logistics of being Editor of the Misc and the inherent complications of having the Editor in Chief write and rant as the case may be.

There's some things you can be sure I won't be writing about: my imminent engagement or fire alarms in Main. I'll leave those things to people who shant be named and to MADS, respectively.

Maybe we can start conversations amongst us here... Anyone want to join me?