Thursday, June 29, 2006

So much good stuff ...

... over at About Last Night best to just visit and keep scrolling. One thing I found especially interesting: Terry and I both live in large cities and both of us walk all the time all over, whereas in small towns people drive everywhere. What does Bill Kauffman make of that, I wonder.

Update: Dave Lull sends along this link, which is pertinent to my Bill Kauffman query. He also sends along this: Big City in Little Pieces. But I could take issue with a lot of the latter, not least this reference to "the famed New York incivility," which I have found to be more legendary than real - I think of the guy on the subway a couple of years ago who was so solicitous that my wife and I precisely follow his directions when we got off so as not to get lost. Or this: "The outsider is still overwhelmed by the din and anomie of New York: the jackhammers and honking cabs and people who won't look you in the eye." Some of us outsiders are thrilled by the din and I have yet to discern the anomie myself. Haven't noticed the people who won't look you in the eye, either.
And this: "Life on an inhuman scale ... does not make one any less human. " What exactly is inhuman about the scale of Manhattan, which was built by humans, not bears or doplhins? "Man's reach should exceed his grasp," as Browning put it. "Else what's a heaven for?"

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