Victorian Dress Up Doll available as promotion for the book The Souless. I will be picking up the paperback for bus reading--I like something lighter because I am very distractible on public transit.
This private prep school's plan to ditch the library is utter bosh. You know, The Don and my mom spent thousands of dollars to send me to school so that I could learn the high level thinking and analytical skills that are developed by reading books, not socializing at the coffee bar. Everything about this plan is just poorly thought out.
This NY Times series on distracted driving is chilling. Granted, I have fewer social ties than most, but what is up with this constantly having to be available to people? Sometime in the last 25 years people lost the ability to entertain themselves or solve simple problems independently. I don't get it.
And I know from a report the GAO put out earlier this year that the Wage & Hour Division does jack (seriously, GAO found them a) giving the wrong information and b) ignoring claims) but you'd think that they could do a PSA campaign to inform people that if they are on duty 24 hours a day, they should be aware of labor law. But people do this to themselves. We actually got warned not to be doing extra work; that it's a violation of labor law now that they can't give out comp time and if we're working honestly than that's a case of too much work/too few people and as an agency we need to adjust our workload and the expectations of our clients.
A fun story on Jezebel about people you seriously get off on hating. I will cop to it: my list of hate crushes include the performance artists, certain bloggers and possibly entire cities.
Why it's good I don't have kids: because I think it's fine to drop them off at a birthday party unless it said on the invite that I was invited too.
I did like the story of the Central Park gondolier.
And Serena Williams hawking Tampax is very funny. The things I miss without tv.
8 comments:
Hi Kerry,
I'm sorry to hear that you've got a hate crush on my blog. And I'm sorry that we never crossed paths in real life, because we probably could trade some spirited barbs about Cleveland vs. New Jersey over a couple of beers, and it would be all in good fun.
Over the past month, I've been called both "too negative" and "too positive" about Cleveland. Honestly, right now I don't think I'm either, just content to let Cleveland be what it is, and it means different things to different people. Which is why I've started interviewing Clevelanders on my blog - as an archivist I'm interested in hearing about their Cleveland in their own words. It seems like it's this series in particular that's rankled you.
I'm genuinely glad you've found a place that you like, and I'm sorry your experience in Cleveland was so terrible. Cities are what they are, and since the human race is so wonderfully diverse, not every place can suit every person. In fact, it's an issue that I do plan to explore further on the blog, and if (as someone who's moved to Cleveland and moved away again), you'd like to have your say, I'd be happy to give you the forum.
Otherwise, best of luck,
Christine
I wish I could explain why that library article made me so sad. But it just does. SO SAD.
The Central Park gondolier is great though (and I freaking love the Tampax commercial with Serena and Mother Nature).
The prep school with no library and a $12000 coffee machine was the talk amongst my colleagues for quite a little while. The general consensus is that it's a really BAD idea. I had to laugh at what they're keeping, too: the antique books. I think circulation is a really poor measure of a school library--I don't remember checking out a lot of books from my own high school library, but I was in there all the time and reading. I'm curious to see what the quality of student research papers will look like in the future. I'm grateful for access to online journals/articles/research, but I often need to print materials out to work with them most effectively. But I could just be an old fuddy-duddy.
Christine, it's nice of you to stop by. I've been reading your blog for about 5 or 6 years now and for the life of me, I can't quit, even though it drives me nuts. Take that as a compliment.
What drives me nuts is not your boosterism or nostalgia--it's that even you don't seem to like the place or the people much, yet you continue to maintain that it's a wonderful place. Your issues with trying to find a neighborhood in Cleveland that could support your public transportation and walkable lifestyle need, only to conclude that that Lakewood was the ideal solution yet you couldn't live there because it was a suburb and not Cleveland proper is an example. Your expression of the gall of people from outside the city to come to the West Side Market on a Saturday to shop and visit and get in your way. It's like you're a misery addict, one of the many I met over the years of living there. Just because misery is a cultural relic running through the bones of the city and the people within doesn't mean it should be embraced.
Still, maybe your blog isn't an accurate reflection of your reality. Maybe you just like to whine and bitch. Maybe you and I just have different views. And certainly both sets of opinions and experiences are valid and we can each wander around stating our views. However, I do take offense at the attitude shown towards people who live/have lived in Cleveland and don't enjoy it--that if only we had adjusted our expectations, looked under that rock for the hidden treasure, been tougher, just loved the damn place enough we would realize what a jewel it is and be happy. I tried that for a long time; the place still sucked and didn't meet my needs. If my expectations got any lower and list of needs any shorter when I was there, I would have been a zebra mussel in Lake Erie sucking nutrients out of the polluted, shit-filled water.
If my expectations got any lower and list of needs any shorter when I was there, I would have been a zebra mussel in Lake Erie sucking nutrients out of the polluted, shit-filled water.
This belongs on a t-shirt. It is a fantastic image.
I'm usually a sucker for community boosterism, but the "hip Cleveland" blogs typically leave me wondering why people who hate the place are trying so hard to lure other people there.
What's with the prep school buying a grand total of 18 electronic readers? Are we to assume that these are for scholarship students and the rest will bring their own?
Wende: "the "hip Cleveland" blogs typically leave me wondering why people who hate the place are trying so hard to lure other people there."
I don't follow your line of thought here at all. Most of the people I know who live in Cleveland and blog about loving it actually DO love it here, whether they are natives or non-natives. I don't know that writing about the things we love about the city we live in has so much to do with trying to drag outsiders in (after all, we don't all work for the convention bureau) as it does have to do with recognizing the beauty, culture, and community in a city that gets beaten up by its residents and outsiders alike. This does not make us mindless cheerleaders.
Mindless cheerleaders??? A good deal of mindfulness has to go into the writing I've seen.
If it's important to blog about how great Cleveland is, then someone's supposed to be the audience. I'd assumed it was outsiders, as presumably the insiders don't need to convince themselves. I didn't draw a salary from the convention bureau when I did that sort of thing for Troy -- that sort of grassroots movement is a lot more powerful than the officially funded stuff, so if y'all are NOT aiming that way, I'd have ask why not. It's a wonderful platform for doing something to improve your hometown.
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