Reality ReconsideredNaming Things
I’ve spent the last two hours trying to think of a label for this blog. Names, titles, slogans, headlines and labels–some people have a genius for them. Some don’t. I’m in the don’t-pile, alas. Names I was considering for this blog…column…whatever this is including Mind Over Mutter, Notes and Natterings, and several other ideas that caused my advisers to bark in horror and dismay. So: Reality Reconsidered. I’ll try it for a while. I remember once, a bunch of us editors at Harcourt Brace were asked to come up with a title for the new edition of our reading program. The previous edition had, I think, been called the Phoenix edition. There we sat in rows of chairs, about fifty of us, brainstorming for hours. The Falcon Edition? The Eagle Edition? The Panther Edition? The Galaxy Edition? No one liked the titles I came up with–the Albatross Edition was one. Well, it carried on the bird theme, didn’t it? And the Dinosaur Edition. Also not popular. Next to me on the desk here is a brilliant newspaper headline. It goes with a story about the new alternative-fuel stations springing up along the west coast. Where the Gas Is Always Greener How do they come up with stuff like that? Those who do? Great authors often write great titles–well duh: they’re great authors. The Beautiful and the Damned–it doesn’t get much better than that. And Fitzgerald had some other gems too. Tender Is the Night? To die for, in my opinion. Then again, maybe landmark books turn their own titles into iconic ones just by being so culturally influential themselves. On the face of it [more] Interesting ElsewheresI found these sites worth a click; maybe you will too.
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 Kabul, Afghanistan, where I was born.
What’s New
Inside this site…
History’s Nine Most Underrated Inventions. Not the cleverest–not the most pivotal–but the most underrated: nine inventions that had the most impact on the way we now live considering how minor they seem. What would you put on the list: Plastic wrap? Post-it notes? Go to the Columns & More page to see my list. Why are bluejays blue? Every so often I’ll look into some wacky, zany, compelling, curious, or intriguing question from readers and whatever I dig up, I’ll post it here. I have two of them on the Columns & More page now, in the section called Ask Tamim. What just happened in Afghanistan? A major private bank is on the brink of failing. A pipeline deal is being inked even as we sit here. Improvised Explosive Devices are going off all over. Parliamentary elections are coming up. The Afghanistan page tells what happened in the week ending September 2.
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What’s Coming
Marine Memorial Club Sonoma Book Fair University of San Francisco (class visit) Litquake panel Asian Art Museum Litcrawl, AFAR event Berkeley Commons Club Pauley Pavilion, UC Berkeley Portugese Artists’s Colony |
I’m not so sure we haven’t entered a period of semi-permanent American decline. Maybe America will no longer be a very wealthy county.