With the possible exception of the grass in the central park, I think we have all survived the Fourth. I have a complicated relationship with the holiday, even if we ignore the current discomforting foreign policy. Mostly, it’s about the fireworks. I enjoy the sparkles and the lights, but I’m finding that the older I get the more uncomfortable I am with the sounds and the smoke they cause. The big fireworks for large displays (the kind over the beach in Santa Barbara, or over any of the Seattle-area bodies of water) are fine, somehow. It’s the smaller explosives, the …
I had occasion to attempt clothes shopping yesterday. It’s always been a daunting task for me, now more so since Caitlyn thinks that department stores are for running in. She knows she can get around (under) the clothes faster than I, and it amuses her no end to have me chasing after her. I’ve never really gotten into shopping for shopping’s sake, although I certainly tried when I was a teenager. The chief problem is that I’m tall and narrow, and while the models and fashion industry say this is what women should look like, it’s still impossible to find …
The conversation vered toward local traffic over the weekend, with an out-of-town guest surprised at the number of cars on the highway – at mid-day on a weekday, no less. I was rather inarticulate in saying that yes, there are lots of cars on the road and that’s ok since we need people to get fed up with driving so we get some comprehensive public transit in place. D. thought that there’d be fewer people on the road if property and houses weren’t so expensive closer to the city. If people didn’t have to go so far just to find …
The other day, I noticed a billboard advertising Nestle’s new CoffeeMate, now not just non-dairy but soy. The ad was making a connection between the curved shape of the CoffeeMate bottle and the curved shape of a toned female waist. One more product pushing the miracle of the soybean… lose weight, stay in shape, be hot and sexy all by adding Soy CoffeeMate to your coffee. I thought it was all a bit ridiculous really. Nothing against the soybean, but it’s hardly a miracle food that can cure everything. Still, I wasn’t expecting to be validated quite so soon: The …
A copy of The Stranger materialized in our kitchen the other day, so I had a chance to read this edition of “Savage Love” with an update on “straight rights”: “In particular, and not to put too fine a point on it, they [fundamentalists and conservatives] want to change the way Americans have sex,” [Russell] Shorto writes [in “The War on Contraception,” in the New York Times Magazine]. “Contraception, by [their] logic, encourages sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance (like homosexuality), and a preoccupation with sex that is unhealthful even within marriage.” Shorto quotes Judie Brown, president of the American Life League: …
I can’t help but think about a short story I read back in high school, “Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer. A family, feeling unsecure, gradually adds level after level of security products to their home. First, it’s a warning sign. (No Tresspassing. Beware of Dog. Never mind the dog, beware of owner.) Then it’s bars on the windows. Eventually, it’s a wall, and then a wall topped with razor wire. The day after the razor wire is installed, finally feeling “safe”, the family lets their child out to play. He, being the climbing, curious thing a child is, …