The new look of the blog is almost complete, thanks to Lauren of Faux Real Tho. The header uses a photo I shot in Buenos Aires, in the La Recoleta cemetary last month. My biggest weakness as a writer is a tendency towards airy pompousness, what Louis MacNeice would call the “permanent bottleneck of highmindedness.” Somehow, this picture seems like a clever representation of that aspect of my blogging. Lauren has also upgraded all the Wordpress features, and the blog should have a cleaner look.
In any event, we’re starting to see anecdotal evidence of the recession here. Every very couple of weeks, I get a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon in the “old town” section. My beloved really appreciates it; my tendency to scratch her with my sharp and wicked toenails had become tiresome. And I confess that when I do do my own nails, I have this awful, wretched habit of leaving clippings strewn about. It’s inexcusable and disgusting, but there it is.
Normally, on a Sunday, the salon would be packed (with a clientele that is perhaps 25% male). Today, there was only one other person getting a “mani/pedi” during my nearly one hour there. I asked the woman who was giving me the manicure whether business had been slow, and she said “Oh my gosh, yes. It just started two weeks ago. The gas prices started going up again, and all of a sudden, wham! It’s been really bad. We’re really worried; we’re one of the first things people cut back on when the economy gets weak.”
The local Whole Foods was surprisingly empty for a Sunday afternoon as well. The traffic was as bad as ever on the streets, however. I have a feeling that in this case, the plural of anecdote will indeed be data — bitter data in the first quarter consumer spending report.
And I’ve picked my men’s final four: UCLA, Georgetown, North Carolina, Pittsburgh. The women’s bracket comes out tomorrow.
My biggest weakness as a writer is a tendency towards airy pompousness, what Louis MacNeice would call the “permanent bottleneck of highmindedness.” Somehow, this picture seems like a clever representation of that aspect of my blogging.
Yes, somehow! I’m not sure that I can look at the new header without laughing.
To me, it looked like Lenin. I always figured you were really a Commie :)
Does the expression ‘way TMI’ mean anything to you?
The economy is tanking in late March, before summer gas prices and cooling costs hit. We are very, very screwed.
The very real dangers of unclipped toenails are too serious a matter to fall uner the simple dismissal of “TMI”. I ripped my leg one time just getting up out of an awkward seating position. And then there was that pair of new shoes I ruined in a day’s walk because one toenail just cut thru… Seriously, though, I am now more worried about the economy than I was 5 minutes ago. I already have the habit of stocking up on necessities, but it seems like I have been hearing that the world has been going down the drain in a handbasket, ever since I was too little to pick up a handbasket.
And it hasn’t yet, so maybe we have a chance.
Exactly where does one draw the line about “TMI”? If I read something I don’t need all that much, I just move on. I have relatives, though, who love to email me pictures of the immediate results of surgery without so much as a by-your-leave, and that I really, really don’t need. But that is worth a whole nother thread.
I’m a day or so late with this, Hugo, but this is a real snazzy design; it looks great (oh, and I guess it’s “meaningful,” too). Kudos you and Lauren!