before the list, here's a a favorite image from our week
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Our first day of vacation! Running into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Saint Simons Island, GA after too many years of not seeing it, my daughter and I squealed "We're just East coast girls!" Also, from the photo, can you tell which one of us works in an office all day and which one works outdoors at summer camps?? |
5 favorites: celebrate 4th of July
Brian and I love this mini-series based on David McCullough's Pulitzer-prize winning book and the life of one our nation's most passionate founders. It helps that we also love the actors Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney as John and Abigail.
I've mentioned before that one of my favorite sentences from this man is his confession "I have no talent for politics." And whatever is or isn't true about the stories we tell about our nation's infancy and those who gave it birth, it's impossible to deny a certain nobility we'd do well to imitate. (Not to mention the beautiful marriage partnership between John and Abigail.)
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Other good vacation-related words I found online
- Shipping Out: on the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise by David Foster Wallace: "I have now seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled suntan lotion spread over 2,100 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as "Mon" in three different nations. I have seen 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer-enhanced. I have (very briefly) joined a conga line." A wickedly funny read.
- Rare 1959 Audio: Flannery O'Connor Reads 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find' at Open Culture: We almost figured out how to swing by Ms. O'Connor's Andalusia Farm in Milledgeville, GA on our swing up to the Northeast. Hearing her own voice read this tale of an ill-fated family roadtrip is a close second.
and, on the subject of roadtrips...
- Walker Percy and the Recovery of Place at Front Porch Republic: "We are adept at identifying points of interest, but pay scant attention to the importance of our approaches to exploring them... What Percy’s strategies aim to do, in part, is to put the traveler into a state of willingness and hunger to encounter the world as it is, to discover the great sights with the freshness, the newness, that is so much of what we seek from them."
- Airbnb CEO: Cities Are Becoming Villages at Atlantic.com: "At the most macro level, I think we're going to go back to the village, and cities will become communities again," he added. "I'm not saying they're not communities now, but I think that we'll have this real sensibility and everything will be small. You're not going to have big chain restaurants. We're starting to see farmers' markets, and small restaurants, and food trucks. But pretty soon, restaurants will be in people's living rooms."
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A celebration-filled weekend for us all, dear ones.
