Nerd Love

Both my thought for the week and my Place I Went have to do with the concept of being a nerd.  I had a happy hour this week with a friend of mine at Brasserie Beck, an overpriced K-Street place where I once saw Carl Levin.  They have really good mussels and frites, which makes sense, since they are Belgian.  But you will easily put down $40-50 for a meal, which is no problem when you're on the company card, but choke-worthy for a grad student like me.  During happy hour, though, they have half-priced Belgian drafts, which are delicious.  As pretty much anyone will tell you, I am not a beer person.  Truth be told, I'm not even really an alcohol person.  Red wine makes me nauseated, I usually have to give back rail drinks for being too strong...if a diet coke could make me better at talking to people I don't know, I think I would be a tea-totaler. (Is that how you spell that?)
But Belgian beers are delicious.  They taste like light, refreshing juice.  And the bartenders at Brasserie Beck are delightfully geeky about it all.  They tell you the composition, the aging process, they let you try samples and pair them with things.  I ended up going with a Palm Speciale, in spite of its menu description of tasting like "warm biscuits".  (Dear BB, no one wants their drink tasting like warm biscuits.  Especially when it's 106 degrees outside.  Just FYI.)  All of this to say, Brasserie Beck happy hour is highly recommended.  Ignore the menu and let the bartenders put their geekery on display.
And now my own nerd-dom: I think I may be in love with Gene Lyons.  First, who can resist this come-hither look paired with a tweed blazer?  A woman can only be so strong.  Second, he writes fantastic columns on why current Republicans would hate Reagan, on why schools are not like companies and also has some of the best headlines around.  He has a way of taking a lot of my mutterings (and the mutterings of millions of others) and turning them into useful, articulate thoughts that can actually be shared with people on both sides of the aisle.  Take, for example, the debt ceiling debate.
 During the two speeches on Monday night, I sat with my roommate in our living room and moved through a roller coaster of emotions.  First, I was amused at Wolf Blitzer's anxiety in getting ready for the address - I think he's permanently scarred by the Bin Laden debacle, when he was forced to reveal nothing, nothing, nothing until a slightly drunk John King stepped in and totally stole his thunder.  Then I was worried for Obama and the reception of this speech - first of all, why exactly was he giving a speech a couple days after the GOP had specifically said "we're tired of speeches"?  And good gracious, did he have to keep saying all the things typical Americans don't know?  They already think he's pedantic and elitist, so recapping the nation's ignorance seems like a terrible idea.  But by the end of the speech, I felt he had, overall, done a good job.  He had used solid reasoning to back up his ideas - we have to do historic cuts, but to suggest you can tackle this problem without any revenue increases is insane, and the CBO, Moody's, S&P and the American people all agree.  We have already paid for all this stuff, this is about authorizing ourselves to be good on our word and about making a solid, sustainable plan for the future.

And then came Boehner's speech.  Facts went out the window.  Right off the bat, he compared the US Government to his own small business.  That is nothing but misleading rhetoric.  His small business did not determine the international economy.  His small business was not responsible for determining the behaviour of millions of other businesses in the US and around the world.  And then he moved on to some good ol'-fashioned revisionism.  
"Here was the president, asking for the largest debt increase in American history, on the heels of the largest spending binge in American history."  

I'm sorry, who had the biggest spending binge in American history?  I mean, not according to Sarah Palin?  Could it be...oh wait...maybe...not a democrat?!  Take a look at this fantastic graph the NY Times put together on the comparative spending of Obama vs. Bush.

And this.  This is why I'm in love with Gene Lyons.  This quote right here:

"Mr. President, this ain't Harvard Law Review, where everybody's done their homework and honorable colleagues seek reasoned compromise. If you want the great mass of Americans to grasp what's going on, you've got to tell them plainly and repeatedly until they can repeat your message like an ad slogan: "Less filling, tastes great." "Where's the beef?" Like that.

How does "deadbeat Republicans" sound? Because the simple fact is that the GOP under George W. Bush put two wars, a Medicare drug benefit, and tax cuts heavily slanted toward the rich on the national credit card. Now that the bill's due, they're planning to skip town and stick Democrats with the charges...

So when Speaker Boehner speaks of "the largest spending binge in American history," he's hiding who's responsible. The Obama administration has added a comparative fraction to the National Debt, almost all by necessity. Also due to recession, tax revenues are way down.

These are indisputable facts. GOP cultists, however, occupy a metaphysical netherworld where anything in the New York Times is false by definition, scorning arithmetic as an elitist tool. Much of the public simply doesn't know what to think; the Obama White House has been perversely reluctant to tell them."

 (Read the rest of the article here)

Roommates, in case you were wondering, this is what I was trying to get out when I was sputtering incoherently on the couch.  Gene Lyons, please marry me.

Justified Prejudice

I am not an Old People person.  I don't know what this is going to mean for me as I become an old person myself (although according to my students I reached that mark at least 10 years ago), but as it stands now, I just can't do it.  I really admire people who can talk super slowly and super loudly and about the same subjects over and over and over.  But I am not one of those people.  Now, of course there are exceptions to this.  I love swapping emails with my grandmother and I'm always up for a Golden Girls marathon.  But overall, there is a certain pace at which I need my life and my conversations to move, and old people just don't fit into that equation.

I bring this up because there is a lady at my work who is about one hundred and fifteen years old.  I'm guessing.  She is a very sweet lady, and I appreciate the fact that her glasses are the same size as her head, much like the Queen.  But you know, the woman cannot for the life of her work a computer, and this drives me up the wall.  She has told me she can't seem to send an email to someone, and I look over to discover she is trying to type their email address into the browser window.  Or she asks me how to do something like print a document.  Like a word document.  Like the kind of thing you just press the "print" button for.  And I think what gets me the most is that I'm usually the one who ends up looking stupid.  Consider this conversation:

Old Lady: Kath-a-ryn (this is how she always says my name)
Me: Yes, Old Lady?
OL: I just got an email from someone all the way up in New York.  But I can only see the first line.  How do I open it?
Me: How do you...what?
OL: Open it.  I would like to open it and see the rest of the email.
Me: Well right but...you click it.
OL: Click it?  What do you mean?
Me: Like click...with your mouse.  <-- notice how stupid I am starting to sound.


There is only so much I know how to break down.  I don't know how to further explain the concept of "clicking".


Ok, but the point of all of this is not to make fun of an old lady who, I understand, did not grow up with computers.  It's to say...it's amazing to me how generations change.  Because it's not just that she didn't grow up with computers.  It's that she didn't grow up having to constantly learn and adapt to new technologies.  I didn't grow up with Twitter or Google +, but I did grow up learning that things change at a rapid pace and you better get comfortable with teaching yourself how to open an email.  So when Twitter etc emerged, it wasn't scary and it wasn't overwhelming and I didn't automatically think to myself that it was the realm of the kiddoes.  I thought, "gee whiz I can't wait to see how congressmen make idiots out of themselves with this new technology."


Not really.  I would never think "Gee whiz".

But I think we should be keeping our eyes out for how this is going to impact schools and politics.  The idea that schools should look a certain way because they always have and always will is fading.  Check out this story from Slate, where they try to use crowdsourcing to design a modern classroom.  Are desks necessary?  Walls?  Teachers?  It's all on the table.




Oh and for somewhere I went this week: Station 4.  Go there for brunch.  Enjoy the people watching.  Stay out of the heat.  Ask for homefries.

New Nose, New Times

I have the best possible excuse for not updating: I've been hospitalized.  Coincidentally, this is also my excuse for not going to the gym and eating poorly, so I'm really hitting up all those New Year's Resolutions.

I had a deviated septum repaired, and let me tell you, it feels awesome.  Breathing is really underestimated. 

Since then, I've traveled to California and back for the holiday weekend.  I went to the Ojai 4th of July parade, and I think this event really captures my hometown in a nutshell.  There was a healthy mix of tractors, smart cars, giant raised trucks and people dressed like vegetables.  I wish I could find a good picture of the raised truck I had in my mind.  It was approximately 800 feet off the ground and had an eagle and an American flag painted on it.  Perfect for the parade, but I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that this person has this truck every other day of the year, too.  What happens on days when he or she is not feeling particularly patriotic?  Probably takes public transportation, like a real socialist.


There were also representatives of different spiritual centers from across the valley, as Ojai has the highest number of these per capita.  To be fair, we only have about 10,000 capita, but still, well done to us for being so enlightened.  Also this added lots of pretty saris to the festivities.


My journey back to DC had a layover in Cleveland, which actually turned out to be a halfway decent airport.  But the little hopper flight from Cleveland to BWI was miserable.  First of all, it was in a prop plane, which I hate.  I used to have to take those from DFW to Abilene, and it took me until about junior year to realize that the "prop" came from "propeller" and not "prop" like for a movie.  As in a pretend plane.  Because it certainly does not feel like a real plane.  But to be honest, I've more or less gotten used to those by now.  The main reason this flight was miserable was because of my neighbour on the flight.


I am a friendly person.  I don't mind a little conversation, a little polite small talk to make things less awkward.  One of my most pleasant flying memories was being on a plane to the UK and spending almost the entire flight chatting with a 70 year old man sitting next to me about the Harry Potter book in my lap.  But I have limits.  And these limits are even more important when working on 2 hours of sleep.  And I most often express those limits by answering politely but concisely and then putting in headphones.  And this lady, my neighbour, did not seem to know these rules.  She asked where I was flying from (because who the hell actually comes from Cleveland?) and I said L.A. and returned the question.  She said Miami because she was visiting her boyfriend.  I did my limits thing: "Oh, that sounds nice.  Well let's hope it's a nice, smooth flight home!" and headphones in.  Ready for some Bon Iver and mah jong.  Next thing I know, a cell phone (still on!  No respect for anyone's rules!) is in my face with a picture of an old chubby man.  "This is my boyfriend, he's handsome, isn't he?"  "Oh, um, yes, he has nice eyes." "Well he's 57 and he looks great for his age doesn't he?" "Yeah, absolutely, I would never have guessed 57." "He's wonderful.  So handsome.  Great body.  Big, you know?"  "Oh that's so great that you guys found each other." (hands still holding my headphones, about an inch away from my ears) "Well he's not all great.  Last night...he was texting someone.  At 2:30 AM.  And when I rolled over to see who it was...he covered his phone.   What do you think that means?" ...


I then proceeded to talk with this lady about every aspect of her relationship for about an hour and a half, the entire length of the flight.  That's longer than most of my own relationships even last.  

So this is my thought for this week: I miss etiquette.  That is to say, I miss something that has never been cool in my lifetime.  For the most part, I get this.  I don't like the idea that something just inherently should not be done for no reason other than it just isn't.  I think it's silly and, more importantly, disenfranchising.  If you know the rules, you're in the club, but there's no way to know the rules other than to be in the club, and so we limit social mobility and accentuate class differences.  I like the idea that we act in ways that make sense, not just ways that Emily Post says are acceptable.


But I also think basic social rules do play an important role, and total disdain for them is unhealthy and counterproductive.  For example, if there were rules of etiquette for text messages, we would not have people getting in fights over how tone comes across or texting too late or too early in the morning.  The dismissal of etiquette for wedding invites (so many of my friends do it on facebook now...) means that people end up confused and angry because it's unclear how official the RSVP is, or what guest limits are.  Placing the buffer of etiquette rules means that we can all maintain better relationships with one another, and that's the point of it all, isn't it?  If this woman next to me had just picked up on my polite hints, we both would have left the plane with nothing but pleasant memories of meaningless small talk.  As it stands now, if I ever see that lady again, I will run the other direction.


She decided to run a background check and make him come see her in Baltimore, in case you were wondering.  It seemed like a sound decision to me.