One of my faves:
Sex Ed
Betsy Sholl
Well-dressed, demure, jammed into those
politely arranged desks, it’s hard to be
serious, but we are. No one even parts lips
to acknowledge what used to drive us crazy
in the back seats of cars, what kept us up
half the night reliving the last slow dance,
girl on her toes, guy bent at the knees
to press in against her.
The instructors speak precisely about
the importance of our children knowing the facts,
so surely none of us in our high heels and
neck ties is going to admit how our first mistakes
have suddenly blossomed so tender and lovely
we’ve been forgiven a thousand times,
a thousand times forgiven and repeated ourselves.
But fingering the graffiti on this desk,
I remember being braille to you, being read
like a steamy novel, and how those lessons
stayed with us, practical as driver’s ed, those hours
of simulation behind the wheel of a parked car.
The truth is I don’t regret having studied with you
though I do feel inarticulate, like an athlete
asked to speak in a room of kids, who has nothing
to say except, “practice, practice.”
Once our daughter watched the cat in heat
yowl and slither across the floor, and without
looking up asked, would that happen to her. Sometimes
it isn’t shame that makes us speechless. It’s not
regret that makes me linger at the curb watching
her toss back her yellow hair and yank open
the heavy doors to school.
I updated the I’m Just Being Miley post with the official video. Let me just say that I’m a bit disappointed in it’s Disney Channel flavoring. I realize that Disney probably owns Miley, but you’d think that with her star-power and money and Disney’s money that they all could have done a little better. The video consists of Miley singing along with about a dozen other 14-15 year old girls singing in turn. Not only is it pretty boring (the background is a white drop sheet), but totally inappropriate. Now, we all know that Miley, what with the alleged sexy-time photos that circulated and the fact that she’s “in the business”, has certainly had her fair share of “experience”. I even realize that they have to make the video to attract a younger age cohort. BUT a bunch of 14 year old girls jumping around, singing the lyrics, “When we’re intertwined, everything’s alright,” just seems kind of dirty. Call me old-fashioned, but I’d have rather seen just Miley gettin’ a little steamy with some dude. At least she looks older than 15.
Whatevs. I still <3 her.
This girl is fantastic. She plays the ukulele and other various instruments. I’ve been following her for a while and decided I needed to post something about her here.
Every time I listen to her stuff I’m amazed by its uniqueness and quality.
Her Youtube channel
3 Things I’m thinking of doing!
* The National Gallery
* Tower of London
* The London Aquarium
oh and Harrods. duh.
Suggestions?
Filed under: Econ, The Internets | Tags: 2008, Brooks, David, Election, Obama
I’m a big fan of David Brooks.
The trends are pretty clear: rising economic sectors tend to favor Democrats while declining economic sectors are more likely to favor Republicans. The Democratic Party (not just Obama) has huge fund-raising advantages among people who work in electronics, communications, law and the catchall category of finance, insurance and real estate. Republicans have the advantage in agribusiness, oil and gas and transportation. Which set of sectors do you think are going to grow most quickly in this century’s service economy?
Tucker just posted the cast for I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell! I’m such a fan and so excited! Not only do Tucker’s personality and book lend themselves to making a great movie, but the cast is fucking unbelievable. I’m most impressed with the character slated to play Tucker, Matt Czuchry. If you’ve never seen Gilmore Girls not only are you missing out, but you also have no idea how perfect Matt is to play Tucker. Matt plays Logan Huntzberger, a wealthy, slick, and at times, prickish, student at Yale and boyfriend to Rory Gilmore. He’s perfect.
I cannot wait for this movie.
I realize that I haven’t actually written anything about what I’m doing at Oxford (I mentioned it a bit on my “About Me” page). That’s for a few reasons:
1. I just recently got my computer hooked up to internet.
2. I haven’t had much time to devote to writing something worth reading.
3. I want to tell stories with pictures. I left the cord that connects my camera to my computer at home.
So, I’m going to do most “site seeing” posts after I return home.
But, quick and dirty:
I’m at Oxford’s University College (Univ) for three weeks to study International Economics & Commerce. I have class Mon- Thurs from about 8:30 to 10:30 (though this varies because my tutor has to travel). My class has 9 people in it and our tutor (a prof. at Univ) is known around as “Slick Nick”. He has, in the past, taken a liking to his female students. I’ve heard that he’s been asked to “tone it down”, but it’s still quite apparent that, in his own words, he is, “after all, a man”. Nick is mostly harmless and a pretty good lecturer.
A run-down of the past week. Again, I’ll do longer “site-seeing” posts with pictures. I’ll also add pictures of the campus and my dorm room, etc.
Sun. 6/29
Arrived at Univ. My room is on the very top floor of a 13th century building. It was hell lugging my suitcase up the last set of stairs with was narrow and incredibly steep. We went on a 2 hour walking tour with the program director, Mark Thomas (History/ Econ prof. at UVA).
Mon. 6/30
First class with Nick. This was a jam-packed day of activities. After class, we went on a library tour, did a scavenger hunt, and then went punting. After all of that, we had our first Banquet Dinner (there’ll be another the last evening of the program). Then we all went to a club. That was pretty fantastic even though a piece of broken glass went through my flip-flop and cut my foot a little.
Tues. 7/1
After class we went to Blenheim Palace. Pics to come! Went out to a pub after dinner.
Wed. 7/2
My class didn’t meet today. Nick was in China. Went to a club, danced dirty.
Thurs. 7/3- Sun. 7/6
Went to Edinburgh. 7.5 hour train ride each way– TOTALLY worth it! Edinburgh was amazing. Walking tour, pub crawl, museums, unveiling of an Adam Smith monument, met great people at the hostel– pics and more to come.
Mon. 7/7
During class we had a debate about the pros and cons of globalization. After class I mostly just hung out until dinner. Then a bunch of us hung out in the beer cellar.
Tues. 7/8
After class a few other girls and I went shopping at this really cheap clothing shop in Oxford. After that, my croquet team won our first match, putting us in the semi-finals of the tournament. Tonight is Trivia Night in the beer cellar.
You probably already know about Pimm’s because you’re far more cultured than I am. In the past week I have fallen in love with Pimm’s and lemonade (aka lemon-lime or Sprite).
From Wikipedia
Pimm’s No. 1 Cup is the essential ingredient in the Pimm’s Cup, which mixes one part Pimm’s No.1 with three parts lemonade or lemon soda (sometimes ginger ale or Indian tonic water), ice cubes, borage leaves (nowadays a wedge of cucumber is usually substituted for this ingredient), mint leaves and slices of lemon, orange and strawberry.
Pimm’s is listed on VA’s ABC site, so we’ll see if I can find it in the US. If not, I’m starting an importing business.
While discussing with a friend the possibilities of playing croquet (another new *love it*) on the Mall and/ or the Lawn at UVA:
me: oh, and we’d need to import some Pimms
Friend: hehe wooooo pimms
me: love that stuff
Friend: heh yeah it’s cute
me: cute?
Friend: yeah you got to england and fell in love with cultural booze
Well, duh.
