I've now watched Alec Baldwin playing the president-elect more than I've watched the president-elect.
Watching one of the morning news programs this morning I heard a reporter talk about all the people left without power while scenes of ice-draped trees and skidding cars filled the screen. Shortly after, I picked up the Herald and read the headline, buried on page 13, "Central US ice storm falls short of dire forecasts".
I like the Golden Globes: The actors seem more relaxed than at the Academy Awards - though last night the presence of alcohol didn't produce any embarrassing moments - and the awards are all in high-profile categories. I just wish that, on the red carpet, somebody, someday, would answer the question "Who are you wearing?" with "Sara Lee."
(I'm going on a short trip, returning here next Monday.)
New Year’s Day I decided to get some exercise – my first in weeks – and went for a bike ride. Four minutes into it I came upon a block party; a band was playing in a cul-de-sac and tables were set with food and drink. A large man walking across the nearest lawn gave me a wave that turned into a gesture of invitation. I yelled that I’d stop on my way back.
I rode about a dozen blocks before turning around. The party was now in full swing. The man who had waved me over introduced me to a woman selling cups of sangria, then the man dispensing coffee, who was the owner, I learned, of the new café on 6th Street. Next to him a wine seller named Richard was doing tastings. Tina, who lives on 8th Street, introduced me to her sister who was visiting from Stockholm. A huge pan of paella appeared suddenly in someone’s driveway while I was talking to a woman from Belorussia. It was not great exercise but it was a wonderful way to begin the year.
I'm starting a new end-of-year tradition here: choosing a word of the year. Merriam-Webster has already done it, I know, picking the word "surreal." But their decision is based on online searches, and there are words used frequently, addictively, pointlessly, infuriatingly, that nobody needs to look up.
Like "so." A few years ago my friend Greg pointed out to me how people being interviewed often began their answers with "So." I hadn't noticed it but, alerted to the trend, I began to hear it again and again. It is, as Greg pointed out, annoying not just as a verbal tick - like "like" - but as a note of condescension. Even though interviewees use it merely as a launching pad, it comes across sounding as if they're talking to a child, or someone who hasn't been paying attention. "So" reads as "Let me explain it to you again so maybe this time you'll understand." Even when it prefaces a statement as straightforward as "I was living in LA at the time."
And it's become ubiquitous, even among the otherwise articulate: lawyers, politicians, scientists, writers. Americans from all walks of life it seems - with the exception of athletes - now answer questions with "So." It's absurd, but not surreal.
I saw what Hania meant about Christmas being the season of cliches when I opened one of my presents from her on Christmas morning. It was a black T-shirt bearing the Latin words: Id Est Quod Id Est.