52. Step into a job no one wants to do. When I was 13, my dad called me into his office at the large urban mall he ran. He was on the phone. What followed was a fairly banal 15-minute conversation, which involved the collection of rent from a store. On and on, droning about store hours and lighting problems. I kept raising my eyebrows, pretending to stand up, and my dad kept waving me down. I could hear only his end, garrulous and unrelenting. He rolled his eyes as the excuses kept coming. His assertions were simple and to the point, like a drumbeat. He wanted the rent. He wanted the store to stay open when the mall was open. Then suddenly, having given the job the time it deserved, he put it to an end. “So if I see your gate down next Sunday afternoon, I’m going to get a drill and stick a goddamn bolt in it and lock you down for the next week, right?” When he hung up, rent collected, he took a deep breath. “I’ve been dreading that call,” he said. “Once a week you gotta try something you never would do if you had the choice. Otherwise, why are you here?” So he gave me that. And this…

53. Sometimes, kick some ass.

So, so stupid.

A few retreats ago I met Andrea Coller, a writer, singer, songwriter, and all around swell person. She’s one of those artists, if I may throw the term around, who’s good enough to almost piss you off. You wonder, how did she get so good? Does she know how good she is? She can’t possibly, or she’d be much less pleasant to be around.

Several months ago, Andrea read us a short memoir piece that blew me away, and I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that a longer version of it won Glamour Magazine’s non-fiction writing contest. Read it for yourself, and trust me when I tell you that everything I’ve ever heard that she’s written was this good.

No, go on. Read it.

It’s pretty nearly unutterably sad that Andrea died yesterday, at age 29. I was honored to have been able to partake of her talent and to claim her as a friend.

Update: Jennifer Weiner, one of the judges of the Glamour contest, blogs briefly about Andrea.

Thanks to Dan for the link!

[Rhode Island] has proposed banning vehicles with more than two axles from two key bridges that are weakened by deterioration, the Route 24 bridge over the Sakonnet River and the Route 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River.

The state says that the weight limits it has imposed on both bridges aren’t working well enough, while the trucking industry says that the state’s plan would fall most heavily on local businesses and force thousands of trucks that aren’t heavily loaded to take detours.

The clash of interests the plan raises — the cost and inconvenience of detours versus the need to protect two major bridges that are failing — points to the difficulty the state is having maintaining its transportation system.

Just to recap, the clash of interests are:

1. Cost and inconvenience of detours
2. Failing bridges

Seems like an easy choice to me.

The claim that the melting of the ice caps will cause sea levels to rise which intern will flood large parts of the land mass; if this were true, then that would mean man has more power than God because God said he’d never flood the earth again.

I don’t know about you but I’m more apt to believe scripture than I am these socialist wacko’s who are trying to scare us in to submission.

Right? That’s gooooood crazy.

First! Boil 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan for 4-5 minutes, and then add approximately 6 inches of peeled fresh ginger, sliced. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, strain out the ginger, and reduce the remaining liquid to an oozy syrup. Put the ginger in a Mason jar, pour over the syrup, cool to room temperature, and store in your refrigerator.

Later that same day! Pour an appropriate amount of cold gin into the glass of your choosing. Stir in two good teaspoons of the ginger syrup. Do you wish to add a piece of the candied ginger as well? By all means!

Stir vigorously! Top with a splash of soda water! Enjoy what I have decided to call the “Double Gin-ger.”

Drink one, and then post about it to your blog. Huzzah!

But really, how cool, right?

(Via Jezebel via World of Wonder via Found Shit)