Corporate America
\n— Amazon
\n— Work culture
\n— CEO as possible sociopath<\/p>\n
New York Times public editor’s function as independent reactor\/ombudsman<\/p>\n
The structure of German U-Boats
\n— claustrophobia
\n— gross smells
\n— the sinking of said U-boats
\n——-scratches found on interior walls<\/p>\n
The Lusitania (off-shoot of above topic)
\n— everything about the ship. The captain. The passengers.
\n— what the event meant
\n— Documentary footage of Lusitania setting sail (amazing)
\n— Woodrow Wilson
\n—— neutrality campaign\/League of Nations<\/p>\n
WWI (off-shoot of above topic)
\n— Re-cap of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination (Exhibit A presented of Rebecca West’s description of FF’s trip to Sarajevo)<\/p>\n
The various faces made by Allison, caught by my camera, as she leapt (or cannonballed) off the diving board. We described the various faces as:
\n— maniac in an old-fashioned Victorian lunatic asylum
\n— a terrified soon-to-be-murdered person as an axe-wielding killer comes at her
\n— We kept zooming in on her face on the photos and laughing until tears streamed down our faces. <\/p>\n
Sociopaths. (This topic will repeat)
\nThey are:
\n— charming
\n— disarming<\/p>\n
H.H. Holmes
\n— his “murder castle” in Chicago
\n— the forensics of that time
\n— the upcoming book\/movie (Scorsese?)
\n— Wikipedia article read out loud and discussed
\n——- The difference between a regular murderer and a sadist<\/p>\n
Death\/Grief<\/p>\n
Bachelor in Paradise<\/i>
\n— gender politics
\n— dating rules (woman as aggressor\/woman too eager or into it = BAD)
\n— thick ludicrous eyelashes<\/p>\n
The pros\/cons of suburban life<\/p>\n
The high school reunion I missed\/weekend in R.I.
\n— classmate tazed outside the reunion for being drunk and disorderly (friend said later: “I could smell his skin burning.”)
\n— pile of iPhones on the sidewalk
\n— Visiting the gun shop
\n— My old friend Glenda
\nwhich led to …<\/p>\n
Being stalked
\n— lack of recourse for stalk-ee
\n— Delusional men who won’t take No for an answer<\/p>\n
Ethan Hawke: Yes? No? <\/p>\n
Mountain Gringo salsa: our mutual adoration thereof<\/p>\n
How much we love the sounds of nature
\n— cicadas
\n— wind
\n— trees<\/p>\n
Tycoons\/robber barons\/capitalists of Industrial Revolution
\n— Vanderbilt
\n— Rockefeller
\n— Carnegie
\n— J.P. Morgan (and his wretched emasculating father)
\n——– We watched the History Channel’s Men Who Made America<\/i> series: amazing.
\n— Paused it to talk about Maury Klein, my great college professor and the best class I took in college: The Industrial Revolution. Told Allison all about it. Then we started up the show again, and in 10 minutes time, there was Maury Klein onscreen as an expert.
\n— Titan<\/i>, by Ron Chernow, which we read together. Now we want to read The House of Morgan<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The qualities of really successful people
\n— innovation\/risk
\n— not giving up
\n— imagination<\/p>\n
Which then led, naturally, to:<\/p>\n
Sociopaths\/Narcissists
\nSerial Killers
\nCreepy psycho children a la We Need to Talk about Kevin<\/i><\/p>\n
The danger to dogs in Malibu from coyotes who leap fences into backyards
\n— Similar danger to dogs in NYC who have gone missing when tied up outside grocery stores or whatever, possibly kidnapped to be put into a dog-fighting ring. <\/p>\n
Our awesome skin and how proud we are of our awesome skin and how good we take care of our mutually awesome skin
\n— her mud mask and whether or not I should give it a shot<\/p>\n
Pools vs. Ocean. What do we think?<\/p>\n
The sucky design of the garden hose<\/p>\n
Our various family members and how they all are doing.<\/p>\n
How much we like Sandra Bullock<\/p>\n
Nicola Tesla.
\n— We spent quite a bit of time casting the fictional movie about the rivalry between Edison and Tesla.
\n— Possible actors to play Tesla: Joaquin Phoenix. Tom Hardy as Edison? Tesla looks vaguely like Orlando Bloom but could Bloom pull it off? We discussed with desperate seriousness as though this were an actual job we had.<\/p>\n
Rosemary Kennedy
\n— lobotomy
\n— Joe’s lying – the whole tragic situation
\n— John-John’s body language in a photo in People magazine, leaning towards Rosemary inclusively. We both stared at the photo. Stricken.
\n——– John John’s death.
\n——– The Seinfeld episode about John John.<\/p>\n
Taylor Swift\/Miley: Yes? No?
\n— the importance of what teen girls like
\n— how ahead of the curve teen girls often are
\n— they lead the way towards what’s cool or what’s next and what do they get for their prescience? Scorn and derision. See: Elvis Presley. So I’m all for anything that teen girls love without reservation. I’m for anything that gives teen girls a fun fantasy life, and pleasant dreams, and something to strive for.
\n— also I just love Miley. <\/p>\n
How much we hate it when people are assholes during complicated highway merges. <\/p>\n
The following conversation is not about anyone we know. It’s based on a picture of someone (whom we do not know) playing a banjo. That’s it. Once we started we couldn’t stop:<\/p>\n
“He drinks artisanal beer.”
\n“He makes his own almond milk.”
\n“He’s a feminist.”
\n“He works in a co-op.”<\/p>\n
AC\/DC.
\n— our love thereof
\n— which led to a conversation about Def Leppard.
\n— side swerve to Stone Temple Pilots
\n— Judas Priest was mentioned in there somewhere too, as was Nirvana
\n— we reminisced about Yaz
\n— and then U2
\n— all roads lead back to AC\/DC. The highway to hell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Corporate America — Amazon — Work culture — CEO as possible sociopath New York Times public editor’s function as independent reactor\/ombudsman The structure of German U-Boats — claustrophobia — gross smells — the sinking of said U-boats ——-scratches found on … Continue reading