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sometimes the answer can surprise you.

Friday, June 6th, 2008

So, as promised, my favorite reunion story. (Apologies to those of you who’ve heard this three or four times already.) It happened on Saturday night, the year that I was housing coordinator. Saturday is the best night, for reunion workers. Reunion week starts on Sunday, with very intense last-minute preparation, and [...]

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“you have to do it like you did it then.”

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

In college, I worked part-time at the Radcliffe Alumnae Association.  The RAA, among its many other functions, handled housing and events for Radcliffe reunions and junior reunions.  (”Radcliffe reunions” are for classes who predate the semi-merger of Radcliffe and Harvard classes; “junior reunions” are for any class younger than their 25th reunion.  Conventional wisdom, back [...]

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what we’re doing here.

Friday, April 11th, 2008

This June, it will be ten years since I first started keeping an online journal.
I was going to say something like, “online journal, that’s what we called them before they were called weblogs,” but that’s not entirely true.  Online journals were always much more about personal narrative, telling stories about your life.  They’re by nature [...]

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Posted in academic, personal, writing and editing | 2 Comments »>

a personal history of the magnetic fields.

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

I saw the Magnetic Fields last night, at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. It was a great show, a good mix of old and new material, and I always love the differences between the live and recorded versions. Every time I see them live, the older material gets slower and sadder, I [...]

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good fences.

Saturday, December 29th, 2007

When I was growing up, I knew all of our neighbors, and we all knew each others’ business. I don’t want this to sound all halcyon-days rural-utopia; I grew up deep in the heart of suburbia, and I think that the local culture on our street was an exception rather than the rule, even [...]

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Scene from a family holiday.

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

The scene: it’s Thanksgiving, I’m in New Jersey with my family, and it’s exactly what I wanted the day to be. Including all the strange interludes.
Mid-afternoon, we’re still a couple of hours away from turkey, but the appetizer courses are in full swing. The uncles are watching television in the living room, and [...]

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