Five Years

Seeing the front page on one of the New York free dailies handed out at subway stations today reminded me that it was five years to the day that I showed up to grad school. How do I know? I showed up to grad school the day that the lights went out from the Great Lakes all the way to the East Coast. I tried to make sure that I didn't take it as a sign from somewhere that I shouldn't start grad school. Instead, I unpacked my car, slept in the dark for a night woke up the next morning to drive to Maryland and visited E. Who knew four and a half years later we would be married and I would be within a year of finishing grad school (hopefully)? I guess life has a way of working out really well.

I Want a Vacation -

- so I'll take one!

I returned from ASA in one piece. I wish that I had more time to find people and meet them. But, I was so nervous about my first experience as a discussant, that I missed the opportunity^[1]. Next year in SF, I'm meeting everyone at the Scatterplot party though! And, hopefully, I'll meet some of you before then.

However, before the real intensity of applying for post-docs and buckling down on dissertation research starts, E. and I are off for vacation to be tanned, rested, and ready for the craziness that is going to be the upcoming year!

[1] Talk about impostor syndrome; I can't believe people actually wanted to hear what I had to say! I benefited from a lot of really good advice from people regarding being a discussant, so maybe I will post some of it when I return.

Brooklyn: Full of Wonders

Being married to someone who studies neighborhoods, living in a specimen of the gentrification debate, and inhabiting one of the most diverse areas in the country sometimes make you over-question your surroundings. My sister and I, who give ribaldry a new meaning, hit up Midwood, Brooklyn today. Certainly, I thought, Midwood would look like the other parts of Brooklyn I had seen: three- to five- floor apartment buildings, a nice diverse population (maybe some segments would be denser than others in some areas), small, sparse parks.

But imagine our surprise cruising down Ocean Parkway, and seeing enormous Georgian mansions interspersed with fancy synagogues. Mansions! I get that we're near the beach, and maybe back when New York beaches were unspoiled sparkling wilderness, rich folks had beach houses there. But now? I mean, you're an ad executive and you maintain a condo in the UES, a chateau in Provence, and a beach house a mile away from lovely...Coney Island??

I had so many questions.

1) If you can afford to live in a mansion, why Midwood? What is fun here?

2) Where do you work where you can afford this mansion, if you're not a local doctor or suffering a 2 hour commute into job-dense Manhattan?

3) Who are you?

Perhaps I will call chacha to figure this out, and see what kind of subjective, loaded answer they give me.

One Down, How Many More to Go?

I've been absent the last couple of weeks because I was finishing the albatross that has been around my neck for over six months. I finally sent out my first sole-authored paper for review. Now, I just need to get me a reviewer voodoo doll!

I am getting ready to head to ASA. I'm sad that I missed the Scatterplot party and will get in too late for the Anomie's grad student brunch, but hopefully I will find others through the new ASA tweet network.

His name is Matt. He likes to dance.

Seven Seals and Weapons Bans

Tornado footage from Iowa was on T.V. late last night, and yes, we brought up the Apocalypse, and yes, we cracked open a Bible. That's what two pitchers of margaritas and dozens of years of education will do to a party.

Comparisons of the past few years to the end of days--New-Testament-style--are fairly common. I'm sure 2008 is not the first year this has been brought up. After all, the Bible describes the end of the world as a panoply of persecution, climate change, and violence, all of which have been going on, sadly enough, for quite some time. In Revelations, unspeakable violence destroys a quarter of the earth (for starters), the moon becomes red like blood, the sun is blacked out, wind stops blowing, and stars fall to the earth.

And as long as we were trying to feel out how much we could say about this without sounding too ridiculous, I thought of the recent SCOTUS decision on the D.C. gun ban.

Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

If writers could see 200, or 2000 years into the future, which many would say God can, and our founders attempted to, what was predictable or perpetual? Could our founders have predicted the kind of weapons technology that exists today? The moon is often red these days (thanks pollution), and we've had several devastating earthquakes. Is the end upon us, is another interpretation correct--or am I looking in the wrong book?

All the natural disasters lately have been distressing, and it's impossible to read the minds of writers of recent years, let alone writers of centuries and millennia ago--but for better or for worse, this is the job of the powerful. And I'm having trouble evaluating the quality of their work.

Hi

Hello. Mike asked me to introduce myself. I got so excited about the ideas for the labor movement discussion that I started posting. So, I'm E. Mike asked me to start posting on his blog, because technically it's called "pragmatic idealists," plural, so I figured, I'm kind of a pragmatic idealist, and if I start posting, the blog can live up to the plural assignment. I don't know who reads Mike's blog, but I haven't seen too many swear words or threats in the comments section, so I'm in! Look forward to participating more.