Tell me good things about Charlotte, North Carolina because I'm going to be living there for the next two years. Working for Teach for America. Teaching science. Everything about this terrifies me.

Photographs by Giles Clement

Last night I found two gray hairs, one after the other. They are neighbors and, though I've only been aware of their existence for a day, I've grown rather fond of them. Later I was social--I laughed! I chatted! I mingled!--but it was ultimately tiring* and not what I wanted** so that's that.







*because of whispers to Brady to please wait ten to fifteen seconds then rescue me from an uncomfortable conversation, because of mumbled lies about a non-existent super serious boyfriend

**my bed, my down comforter, my space heater, Ys

ALWAYS BE DRUNK...GET DRUNK MILITANTLY. JUST GET DRUNK.

William Faulkner, from a Life gallery of famous literary drunks and addicts.

YOU'VE GOT TWO BIG UNCLES DOWN THERE IF YOU WANT THEM

Man. I have had some pretty incredible teachers. Because I can afford to be naive (optimistic? hopeful?) right now, I will say that I would love to be somebody's Gaff, Eibel, or Ballor one day.

YEP YOU GOT IT

Sunil knew nothing of the movie [Slumdog Millionaire] that ends with an airport-slum boy finding money, love, and fame. However, he might have recognized one of that movie's conceits: that deprivation may give a child a certain intelligence. The other conceit--that a child's specific miserable experiences might be the things to spring him from his deprivation--was the lie. It was the movie version of the electrified fence. The women who had been manicured and exfoliated and blown out would linger at the premiere past 1 A.M., then head to the after party at the JW Marriott. They could relax, not just because the film about the slum boy had a happy ending but because the boy's suffering had been part of the solution.

--Katherine Boo, Opening Night

ON TO THE NEXT ONE

Ah so here is a crazy thing that happened. I got this job that I wanted. So I could possibly be in this one city for the next two years.

The problem is that I feel very unqualified to do what they might need me to do. And I'm still waiting to hear back from New York. And I could respond to these interview offers in Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, Memphis, Nashville, and Austin.

Austin. I really like the sound of Austin.

But I like the sound of the other place, too. Warm weather and BBQ and a (sort of) light rail system.

TRUTH

This is the weightiest statement that has ever been made.

PECAN WAFFLES AND SCRABBLE

When there is always a book to read or a book to write, a sermon to prepare or a retreat to lead, a letter to write or a call to make, my self imposed pressure leaves little time to simply live, for being human and playful, for delighting in pecan waffles and Scrabble. Is my life slipping by without making time to be a friend with my friends?

--Brennan Manning (via this)

Tomorrow is the big day but I am not worried because the dishes are done, the bills are paid, and last night I had ice cream for dinner.

This cat has cat-shaped spots. Cat upon cat upon cat upon cat. It's cats all the way down.

PUTNAM

I'm not "tough," just a soft hearted Imbecile - And Lois and Janet and all those other girls actually scare me down deep (Dodie didn't scare me half as much!) - They scare me because of their slinky beauty like snake-beauty....what do they want? Out of me? If they won't give me a piece of ass because I'm a rowdy inattentive monk drunk, then why do they want to see me? They scare me like the Devil - Their intentions are not honorable. - They also realize I don't like women and never did - I only like their bodies for sex - I think women are evil the way they coolly manage men with big ungovernable hurting hard-ons - Let the devil take his Eve back - I am Adam and I'm alone again with all my ribs intact

--Jack Kerouac, from a letter to Jacques

When I started high school, I couldn't wait to get out of Dillon. I thought that every book I read was like a rung on a ladder that I built to escape this town that was all about high school football and nothing else. And now that I'm actually getting close to leaving, I'm starting to appreciate that I was shaped by my town...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm surprised by how happy I am to be from where I'm from. Does that make any sense?

--Julie, Friday Night Lights


You might think this is Julie talking about Dillon but it's really me talking about Alliance.

The Wire was not about Jimmy McNulty. Or Avon Barksdale. Or Marlo Stanfield, or Tommy Carcetti or Gus Haynes. It was not about crime. Or punishment. Or the drug war. Or politics. Or race. Or education, labour relations or journalism. It was about The City. It is how we in the West live at the millennium, an urbanised species compacted together, sharing a common love, awe, and fear of what we have rendered. The Wire depicts a world in which capital has triumphed completely. A world in which the rules and values of the free market and maximised profit have been mistaken for a social framework, a world where institutions themselves are paramount and every day, human beings matter less.

--David Simon, Quality Trumps Ad Nauseam



Hey, Timothy, remember how much David Simon sucked IRL? That's really too bad. Hey, Dan, remember how much we suck when it comes to City and Culture but it's actually a really cool class so we shouldn't suck so much? Yeah.

THE EARTH SLIPS

What are we going to do about Haiti?

I LOVE YOU BUT YOU'RE FREAKING ME OUT

In New York you can drink beer in ancient sawdusty bars, you can find cupcakes of all kinds, you can appreciate the humor in people getting electrocuted onstage, you can go through another interview and--upon finishing--immediately forget about it, you can see an off-duty clown get his morning coffee, you can feel crummy when the bus driver is rude to foreigners with sad eyes, you can ride the subway and wonder "is this what it might be like next year?", and you can still see Orion's belt.

SHE'S GOING TO BLOG ABOUT THIS, DUDE

Monkeys riding dogs. It's monkeys riding dogs. Look at this dude's outfit. The monkey, not the dog. Oh my God the dogs are herding goats. Monkeys riding dogs herding goats! Where does this take place? Clearly heaven. Monkeys riding dogs herding goats next to squirrels riding bikes. OH MY GOD, the dog rolled over and the monkey is STILL ON IT.

--Brady narrating a video I have not seen and hope to never see because the real thing could never be as good as the idea in my head

Another danger of privatization can turn a university into a glorified trade school. Business programs and computer-science departments will attract wealthy supporters, but who will bankroll poetry? This concern is heightened because English--a high-enrollment, low-teaching-cost department--actually subsidizes disciplines such as nuclear physics and engineering, which require expensive equipment. Colleen Lye, a Berkeley English professor, says, "We have the No. 1-rated graduate department in the country"--according to the U.S. News survey--"yet our faculty and students feel second-class. For example, most humanities departments lost their phones this fall, while most science departments haven't."

--Tad Friend, Protest Studies


On a related note, this is a picture of a professor using the wall of a building as a chalkboard after a fire alarm was pulled during the protests:



Such an interesting story; education is a mighty and wonderful thing.

THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED

Diana: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

hang on

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

me: HAAAAAAAAAAAAA

DIANA I AM DYING

The problem with getting eleven hours of sleep is that your body has a hard time forgetting how lovely it feels to be well-rested and wants to recreate the feeling nightly.

I truly do dislike every single thing about winter.

LOVELOVE

This is a key to chez MMBJ and the kindest gift I could ever receive. Two days in, pretty lovely so far. I am a happy, lucky person.