Congrats to crabwalk.com reader Jonny the Friendly Lawyer for being described in LA Weekly as a “visibly hip late-30s dad” bringing his son to a Pixies show. (JTFL had already expressed his thoughts on childhood indie rock here, in the comments to this June post.)
Jessa links to a great, Nigerian-inspired short film with Shakespearean overtones.
Had another Wilmer-Hutchins story in Saturday’s paper.
A rousing defense of prostitution: “I remember the first time I had sex — I still have the receipt.” (This seems as good a time as any to remind readers that the proprietor of this web site does not, in linking to an article, necessarily endorse said article’s positions.)
“Bashing the McMasses: The real target of the anti-McDonald’s film Super Size Me is the people who eat there.” So true. I think about 80 percent of the anti-Wal-Mart, anti-McDonald’s sentiment out there is a classist, cultural argument — not economics.
I was all ready to hate this NY Times piece on the start of squirrel season in south Louisiana. I expected the same rickbraggian string of stereotypes and Mystical Swamp Cajuns I’ve come to expect from The Paper of Record’s occasional jaunts into my home state. But to give credit where it’s due, Jere Longman did a nice job, I thought.
That said, playing this fairly slight story on page 1 continues the Times’ tradition of treating the American South as some bizarro world that must be explained to Manhattan readers National Geographic style. The fact the Times treats southern men hunting as a cultural “other” on par with Chinese foot binding still says something, I think.
5 thoughts on “a variety of links”
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A couple of years ago The New Yorker had an article about boudin and how much the author loved it. Although it wasn’t as bad as some of the NY Times articles, I definitely got the feeling while reading it that the author assumed that anyone who knows what boudin is wouldn’t be a regular reader of The New Yorker.
Personally, I have a special place in my heart for that story, since my hero Calvin Trillin wrote it.
A couple of takes on the squirrel hunting article.
– The article has to loose points for failing to mention the “chucklehead.” I think that a chucklehead is a fox squirrel, but I’m not sure. I mean, if your looking for some local color, you gotta go with Chucklehead.
– Why do articles about Louisiana always ascribe “Cajun-ness” to something that may not be exclusively Cajun. I’ve always thought that squirrel hunting was more of a Avoyelles Parish / Alexandria activity (which is mostly above the Cajun / redneck Mason-Dixon line). My grandfather, who was a football coach at Eunice high, always said that Pine Prairie had the best football team in the state until squirrel season started.
Absolutely, Brian. Squirrel hunting is definitely a northern-Cajun-country event. No squirrel hunters in my neck of the woods growing up. Ville Platte is really sort of the southern end of what one might call redneck country. Some definite Cajunness, but some definite Anglo/Protestant influence, too.
Oooh, I got a mention!
The prostitution article was interesting. A bit disturbing, but a fascinating read. Glad you posted it. Also glad you don’t necessarily SHARE those views. 😉