I have always lived in cities—in reverse chronological order and, interestingly, order of size: Brooklyn (NY), Boston (MA), and Worcester (MA). Every time I move to a bigger city, some people inevitably ask me about surviving in these places, as if millions of people are merely surviving in them. By “surviving,” they don’t mean how expensive it is to live in a city or any other kind of jokey definition of surviving. These people mean surviving in the literal sense. The following are two real examples of this happening to me…
Category: America
Them Vs. Us
Recently I’ve gotten really into the Freakonomics podcast, a podcast by journalist Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt who co-wrote the Freakonomics book. The podcast has actually been around for years and, in my mad quest to get caught up, I’m listening to some episodes from around the 2012 presidential election (simpler times). It’s been interesting to hear about some of the topics people had problems with during that election and how little they’ve changed in the past four years.
America says, “shove it England,” again
The phrase, “the book was better,” is one of the most annoying things a person can say about a movie. An apple is not an orange and a movie is not a book. Most of the time I wonder if a person actually likes the book better or if a) they feel obligated to say… Continue reading America says, “shove it England,” again
Addressing strangers can be even more awkward than I originally thought
I’m going to try to cover a lot of ground with this post. I’m going to try to drop some truth and acknowledge how I am ignorant to certain ideas. I was recently at an open mic that was running pretty late into the night. Two gentlemen walked into the bar where the open mic… Continue reading Addressing strangers can be even more awkward than I originally thought
Measuring up the situation
In high school, I ran for the track and field team. I ran pretty much every event: the 100-yard, 200-yard, 400-yard, and 1 mile events regularly and somewhat less regularly ran the 300-yard hurdles and the 2-mile. I could sprint and run long distance; a weird combination that once saw me run in the 1-mile… Continue reading Measuring up the situation
USA Defense Battery
One of my all time favorite quotes from The Simpsons, “Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it.” Well, a couple of years ago I found what they were talking about… The USA Defense Battery. I didn’t count each firework individually (and some are cut off) but by my… Continue reading USA Defense Battery
I’m Voting Republigum!
I bought this from a candy store, called Sugar Heaven, a couple of months ago: A little too good to believe. Obviously, what attracted me to this was that it’s gum that has, “Vote Republican,” printed on the front. The amazing thing is that the name of the gum is actually, “BONUS!” printed in an… Continue reading I’m Voting Republigum!