Rule, Brittaniea http://rulebrittaniea.org Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:17:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 A fable for Christmas http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/25/a-fable-for-christmas/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/25/a-fable-for-christmas/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:17:03 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/27/the-noogan-accent-is-thick-y/

Captured on South Beach, Satan later escaped. His demons and the horrible Bloody Mary are now killing people. God has fled. Avenging angels hide out in the Everglades. And other tales from children in Dade’s homeless shelters.

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/25/a-fable-for-christmas/feed/ Solstice http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/21/solstice/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/21/solstice/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:14:43 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/28/there-is-a-grated-bridge-in-ch/ I am barefoot, in the first neighborhood I remember from my childhood. I am playing basketball with the neighborhood boys in someone else’s driveway. There is no net, and it is the latest I have ever been allowed to stay outside at night. The sun is still out, it’s dusk, yet it feels like it must be 11 o’clock. I know that’s not possible, but the memory is still magical.

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/21/solstice/feed/ Cars sliding down icy hill http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/cars-sliding-down-icy-hill/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/cars-sliding-down-icy-hill/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:15:09 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/24/in-chattanooga-checked-into-h/

The music makes me giddy.

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/cars-sliding-down-icy-hill/feed/ Arnold Spirit http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/arnold-spirit/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/arnold-spirit/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:03:08 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/24/left-hattiesburg-before-8am-j/

I used to think the world was broken down by tribes. By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not.

— From Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/17/arnold-spirit/feed/ Unknown Beauties http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/16/unknown-beauties/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/16/unknown-beauties/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:27:03 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/because-people-have-asked-im/ girls on film

Lance points me to this Harvard Gazette article about the nameless girls who posed for color test shots before the advent of digital touch-ups.

This ties in nicely with my new television obsession (via Netflix), Mad Men.

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/16/unknown-beauties/feed/ Depression http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/depression/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/depression/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:56:39 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/stopped-for-the-night-in-hatti/ This This American Life episode (first segment) featuring Studs Terkel interviewing people who lived through the Depression is fascinating and terrifying for three reasons:

  1. What if this happens again?
  2. Some people are still really that bigoted (replace “negro” with “faggot”).
  3. Soon, the generation of people who lived through the Depression will be dead.
]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/depression/feed/ Enjoy it while it lasts http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/enjoy-it-while-it-lasts/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/enjoy-it-while-it-lasts/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:49:54 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/mississippi-is-surprisingly-be/ It is currently snowing in Houston. To fully appreciate this miracle you need to know that it was 78 degrees yesterday.

Since moving to Houston I’ve found it harder to get into the holiday spirit. I’m not so enthralled with the consumerism or the religiousness, or even the family aspect of the holidays. I look forward to Christmas solely for the sense of nostalgia that comes with it — being a kid, staying up into the late hours of night decorating the tree with my mom, wearing a flannel nightgown and fuzzy slippers to open presents on Christmas morning. It’s one of my happiest, simplest memories of childhood.

Korean winters were always cold enough, but I found that the things which annoy me most about the holiday season here — crowds at the stores, endless earwormy Christmas music, tacky plastic decorations — were what I missed most about Christmas in Korea.

The shops in River Oaks and Highland Village can hang their wreaths and transform their olde-time cast-iron streetlamps into candy canes and snowmen, but when it’s 70 degrees outside, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas.

Today, it does.

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/10/enjoy-it-while-it-lasts/feed/ Take my pen knife, my good man! http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/take-my-pen-knife-my-good-man/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/take-my-pen-knife-my-good-man/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:52:26 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/welcomed-to-mississippi/ The Houston Monorail

Did you know that in the 1950s Houston used to have a Monorail? (Via Houstonist)

]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/take-my-pen-knife-my-good-man/feed/ Pop tarts http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/pop-tarts/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/pop-tarts/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:34:12 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/i-am-not-going-to-my-10-year-r/ Another blast from the past via Facebook today. This time an old friend I haven’t seen since before I could drive. He rained this storm of wisdom on me via email:

I live in the fun. Plus Im tired of leaving the fun, so I dont. I lived at the beach in SoCal for 5 years and the rule was… I live at the beach. Why would I want to go the midwest when I live at the beach? Argue that.
]]> http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/08/pop-tarts/feed/ What Girls Want http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/03/what-girls-want/ http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/12/03/what-girls-want/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:55:35 +0000 Brittanie http://rulebrittaniea.org/2008/07/23/thanks-to-a-previous-tweet-pu/ Atlantic Monthly columnist Caitlin Flanagan gives glowing reviews to the Twilight series (ugh), but it’s what she has to say about teenage girl readers that most resonated with me.

I can remember lying on my bed in a Dublin row house at 15, so immersed in Margaret Mitchell that I faked three days of illness to keep reading…

I never did that, but I would have had the thought occurred to me.

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