“What has happened to middle class America?”
July 11, 2011
Filed in: The Home Front, The Middle Ages, The Way We Live Now
This piece in the Times pretty much freaked out my weekend, or at least my Saturday: Job Growth Falters, Clouding Hope for Recovery.
Scary stuff, for us personally but also for everyone (well, not you top 1% earners, y’all just carry on).
One of the things I’m interested in is the way it’s...
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Now Our Lives Are Changing Fast
July 04, 2011
Filed in: The Home Front, The Middle Ages, The Way We Live Now
These days my kids are both listening to Arcade Fire—you know, the indie Canadian band that stole the Album of the Year Grammy out from under Eminem and Lady Gaga.
Normally I’d be proud of them for their alternative leanings, but AF’s latest album, The Suburbs, cuts too close for me,...
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The Ant and the English Major
April 17, 2011
Filed in: Hawaii, The Middle Ages, The Way We Live Now
O my beautiful brothers and sisters of the Interwebs, I have something to tell you.
We are now 126 days away from my 50th birthday—from the day I was supposed to have reached all 50 states. Which was the ostensible point of this blog.
Guess what? It’s not gonna happen.
As my loyal readers...
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It’s not about Gourmet. Well, not exactly…
November 03, 2009
Filed in: The Middle Ages, The Way We Live Now
So yeah, The 50th State is about my quest to get to all 50 states before my now rapidly approaching fiftieth birthday. But it’s also about what middle-class midlife looks and feels like in America right now. Which is rougher than Kachemak Bay when the wind is whipped up; more offputting than North...
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Tracy and Teddy and The Boston Globe
September 23, 2009
Filed in: The Home Front, The Middle Ages, The Way We Live Now
A couple of weeks ago, I did something I haven’t done for ages and ages – sat down and read The Boston Globe from cover to cover.
It was a dark Saturday morning, pouring rain from the edge of some tropical depression or another (Bill? Dennis?) that was passing by. Ted Kennedy had already had...
