SORT OF FAMOUS: LOOK, MOM, I'M IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
My essay about the new PATH station next to Ground Zero appeared in the uberelite New Jersey section of the Sunday New York Times last week. Sadly, the NYTimes does NOT make this content available online, but still...I'm pretty thrilled. The paper version included a wonderful Tom Bloom cartoon of a woman staring out a subway window ("It even looks like you," quoth Jeff), and sat below a gorgeous snowy photo of my adopted home, Hoboken, NJ, taken by...Dith Pran! Dith Pran! Real life hero of "The Killing Fields!" Could it get any more great than that? I think not.
THE PARADOX OF CHOICE, OR THE CHOICE OF PARADOX
The other thing I'm thinking about these days is that there seems to be a mini-industry of books out there right now telling us that We Have Too Many Choices, and that isn't good. I once heard a woman say, "Some say the glass is half empty. Some say the glass is half full. I say the glass isn't big enough."
Again, it's one of those very Western, very American problems. Like going to the A&P today, searching for a single size container of plain yogurt, and being simply overwhelmed by the choices and the sizes and the sheer, sheer din of yogurt on the walls. Should I go with Brown Cow because they're cool? Should I reject Dannon because they've shrunk their serving size by two ounces? Is this Stonyfield Farm low fat, or regular fat? Did I leave a big container of yogurt at home and so shouldn't even be making this decision?
Like that. But one could argue, if one were a conspiracy freak, that this din is a useful din. That this level of product noise is a weapon of mass distraction. That the wall of yogurt hides a bed of lies.
Or something like that.
AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'..except in Cyberspace
Here be a splendid group of women (mostly) talking about their digital lives. A lively discussion on that "can't get away from it" subject, "Why aren't there more women in corner offices?" Well, maybe can't get away from it is a relative term. Relative if you're of a certain class and probably even a certain race and a certain educational stripe. That is, the kind who reads the New York Times and Fast Company.
Me, I'm on my couch. And I'm reading "Boob Jubilee," an anthology of writings from the Baffler, which is a good cleansing detox for anyone who was part of any part of the Internet bubble, and/or the 80s money-porn version of that life. And I was part of both.
TRANSITIONAL SPACE JUNKIES PLEASE APPLY
These
folks know about "transitional space," something I'm most interested in these days, having just visited the PATH station near Ground Zero. Anyone else?
