Local and Global

Before I forget, I want to flag this nice piece of writing from Bob Mould about his recent trip back to Minneapolis.

As some of my readers may know, I've been obsessed with Mary Tyler Moore of late, even though I still haven't managed to save for the first-season DVD. I've always been a fan of the geographically specific, the preservation of the local in an era of what I might as well call "deterritorialization." My favorite thing about reading personal blogs is their ablity to restore a sense of neighborhood to a world in which one's interlocutors are as likely to be in Bangalore as next door.

Yes, I mean that literally: our phone rings every hour with some Indian gentleman -- sometimes aggressive, sometimes bemused -- trying to get a person who does not live in our house refinance her house. I have this fantasy of moving to India to work as a go-between in the information economy, but the relentless calls are souring me on the idea. I'll have to hunt down some personal blogs from the subcontinent to compensate.

People I Want To See, A Place I Want To Be

Seeing this photo of Doug, Sara, and Jillian on Steven's blog this morning made me realize A) how perverse it is that I'll be staying at Doug and Jillian's place in June but won't get to see them; B) how much I miss hanging out with these people.

They're having fun. I wish I were there.

The Bean Speaks

Kim is helping Skylar decorate her pink thrift-store dress in the kitchen. I'm preparing my lunch. Periodically, I blurt out one of my favorite nonsense phrases in my low-blood-sugar randomness. But Skylar objects to my ramblings:

"It's disturbing the one who's fitting the gown for me."

That's Skylar syntax for you. And abstraction, too. How many five-year-olds refer to their own mother as "the one who"?