Settings: Coordinates & their associated monikers.The Magic City. Birmingham, Alabama. AKA, the Stomping Grounds.
The Heart of Dixie. Alabama, Alabama. AKA, Sweet Home.
The Federal City. Washington, DC. AKA, the Erstwhile Hometown.
Dramatis Personae: Influential spirits/corporeal bodies, on stage & off.
Nate Silver. Founding editor of the American political website
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/. Quite possibly the brainiest person in the whole entire Universe. American Hero #4.
Thomas Friedman. American op-ed columnist and bestselling author primarily concerned with geopolitics, sustainable energy, and making an awful lot of money.
David Brooks. Everybody’s favorite reasonable American conservative commentator whose massive mancrush on the 44th President of the United States is as adorably obvious as it is slightly unnerving.
Malcolm Gladwell. Canadian writer and cultural critic. What Nate Silver is to numbers, Gladwell is to words. Fourth All-time Favorite Foreigner.
Bill Simmons. American sports and popular culture writer. AKA, The Sportsguy. As it relates to literacy, the J.K. Rowling of bored suburban American males aged 18-thirtysomething. American Hero #3.
Glen Hansard. Irish rockstar. Poet. Prophet. All-time Favorite Foreigner.
Benazir Bhutto. Martyred former Pakistani head of state and all around dreamboat. Second All-time Favorite Foreigner.
44. Barack Obama, the forty-fourth American President. AKA, Son of Jor-el. American Hero #2.
My Anonymous Sister. A foil and font of wisdom/puzzlement. I’d say more, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy.
Scout-the-Dog. A faithful and wise companion. Virgil to my Lost Pilgrim. A dilettante of sorts, possessed of artistic, philosophical, and spiritual faculties heretofore unseen in an American canine. American Hero #1.
Pastor Jim. A real-life Baptist preacher in the southeastern quadrant of the so-called Heart of Dixie who also pens a syndicated column for the Anniston Star in Anniston, Alabama. Pastor Jim is unfailingly brave and smart and steadfast in his vision of the erstwhile Nazarene as a progressive revolutionary who rarely came upon an orthodoxy he didn’t want to shake up. American Hero #5.
The Erstwhile Nazarene. Jesus of Nazareth. Who was, you know, an interesting cat as far as I can tell. Fifth All-time Favorite Foreigner. Cautionary Tale #1 (i.e., be very careful who you get to handle the posthumous bios -- or better yet, write a memoir!).
DFW. American fiction writer and essayist David Foster Wallace. Cautionary Tale #2 (i.e., there is such a thing as being too smart).
Thich Nhat Hanh. Smiley little Vietnamese monk. Third All-time Favorite Foreigner.
Thomas Merton. American(ish) poet-monk who loved silence, oatmeal, and warm baths. Cautionary Tale #3 (i.e., Electric Fan + Warm Bath = Untimely Death -- even if you're Thomas Merton).
Terminologies: Unintelligible tics, tags, and coinages.TJB-POV. Slapdash amateur photo essays shutterbugged by yours truly. Usually with an edifying quote attached. No extra charge.
Shutterbug. n. photographer / v. to take pictures.
The Royal We. When we (!) pretend Ye Olde Blogge is maintained by a multitudinous staff. Fun times!
Travelogues. When we (!) take this puppy on the road.
Cultural Writing. Writing about, you know, culture. Which is to say, Everything.
Thirty Things I Love Right Now. That would be, uh, you know...thirty things I love right now.
NYT. The New York Times.
WaPo. The Washington Post.
TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design. It's this, uh, thing for smart liberal people with a lot of money and a lot of guilt that they're all smart and liberal and rich and, in some cases, famous. So they meet up every year and hang out for a week in Monterrey (or somewheres) and go to lectures and be all smart and liberal and guilty (and well fed) together. Plus they have a website about it,
with video! Fun times.
Sunday Links. A good many Sundays -- not
all Sundays, but a sizable percentage -- I'll brew me up a coupla cups o' joe and scan the interwebs for cool stuff. Actually it's mostly a scan of the NYT and WaPo, with some TED thrown in for good measure. Sunday Links is your veritable one-stop shop for a little bit of inspiration coupled with some food for thought. Etc.
FYI/411. Extemporaneous links and accompanying gloss.
Quick Question. That's gonna be a quick question that seems maybe rhetorical but I answer it anyhow. Because somebody's got to.
Alabamiana. Paul Bowles had Tangiers; we’ve (!) got the Heart of Dixie. The BBQ’s better and they speak English. It’s a no-brainer.
Update Update. Kind of like an update but better. (Actually it's just an update, no better or worse, but I like how it sounds kind of meta- or whatever. Because a blog entry is like an update to begin with, so calling a blog entry an update is sorta...ah, forget it.)