If you haven’t filled out your ballot yet, do so right now and send it in ASAP. I used the Publicola endorsements as a guide – I found their arguments more compelling and generally went with them when they disagreed with The Stranger. Ballots must be hand-delivered or postmarked by 8/18 – next Tuesday!
Archive for August, 2009
12
Aug
Vote now!
06
Aug
Dollar coins!
This seems like the sort of thing Classic Paul* would do, though I think maybe he wouldn’t want so many chokers around the house these days: You can get a box of 250 dollar coins with no shipping cost. If you want. Just saying.
* I wish I had a better link to “Classic Paul” than his current blog. Suggestions?
This is some chewy stuff. Hyde seems to top every smarty’s list of favorite essayists, and while I haven’t read any of his short pieces, this book is driving me to seek out the rest of his work. He speaks knowledgeably about mythological trickster figures from all over the world, touching on Europe and Asia but focusing more on Africa and North America. This isn’t anthropology, though — he’s much more interested in the meaning of the figures, so he explores their commonalities and presents a convincing argument that the trickster is necessary as a bridge between discrete categories (like gods and people).
This quote, from a different work, was all I knew of him until this year: “Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time, it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.” That’s some good stuff, and it’s just the tiniest portion.
Discussions of the boundary-crossing works of Allen Ginsberg, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage only sweeten the deal for intellectual snobs like me, yet he seems to deliberately shun the dense academic jargon that clogs the writing of his peers. It’s not an easy read, but it’s not off-putting, either, and feels like a late-night conversation with your smartest friend.
You said it, sister