Bits and Bobbing across the pond

Regretfully, I’m back on the road for a few days: the weather and street life are getting delightful back in the Wyck.  While clearing up to-do notes, I came across a bunch of links and notes that I had been saving to share here.  I’ll turn this over to a day of miscellany, then...

* A friend sent me a link to a recent New York Times magazine  feature, an in-depth article by Russell Shorto about what it’s like to live as an American expatriate in the Netherlands.  It’s wonderful reading and highly recommended: his thoughts on the uniquely Dutch blend of capitalist and socialist economic models is particularly good.

…but no reflections on bitterballen?

* Transatlantic flights are good for catching up with current movies.  I really enjoyed Frost / Nixon, although I keep seeing the actor playing David Frost as better suited to his prior role as Tony Blair in The Queen. Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino has a  growling, misogynistic charm that I feel somewhat guilty for enjoying.  The Day the Earth Stood Still and Marley & Me are unwatchable; Caddyshack  doesn’t hold up well across the years. 

Eventually, I go back to reading magazines and typing business plans.  and sleeping…

* Garrison Keillor publishes “The Writer’s Almanac”, a daily 5-minute podcast featuring brief biographic sketches and poetry.  Recently, he read David Sullivan’s poem “Warnings”, worth reading, which delightfully begins

A can of self-defense pepper spray says it may
irritate the eyes, while a bathroom heater says it's
not to be used in bathrooms. I collect warnings
the way I used to collect philosophy quotes.

* The Economist noted that the unemployment rate for men has been rising faster than for women during this downturn. In part, it mirrors the types of jobs that men and women predominantly fill, but the end result may be that a higher percentage of women will be employed than men for the first time in US history.

It got me wondering “What are men good for?” if women become the dominant demographic in both the home and the workplace.