Weekend Open Thread:
Up On The Roof
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Weekend Open Thread. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Ah, and I had gotten so used to your Sunday updates!
RJ has stated that he’d like the weekend entry to be a jumping off point for a conversation among commenters. So, slawkenbergius, nice to see you. We haven’t met! I’m Nom de Plume. If other readers want to make comments today we can see who we all are, and make a stab at some discourse. Everyone who posts here seems way above average intelligent. Sounds like a good community to me! As for your photo, RJ, it makes me feel chilly. Connecticut has a poorer budget than the snowier regions I’m used to, less snow making for, ironically, poorer road treatment. I must admit it’s more charming to see white snow on the roads instead of the gray slush you get from early and assiduous salting. But given that winter tires are unnecessary given the actual number of snow days we have, getting around on these New England-y pretty roads is treacherous. Did you know that Montreal has the best roads in winter of anywhere due to the fact that 1/4 of its taxes go to winter road maintenance? Meanwhile, I’m using being slicked-in to ponder the thickness of the reviewers in “getting” Diane Johnson’s latest petit four, Lulu in Marrakech. How can they be reading this sly novel at face value? Lulu herself is a study in unreliableness as a narrator, making the reading much more challenging and intriguing than the mere reportage of events and observations Lulu gives us. I’ll go back, in the early morning darkness here to continue a surprisingly sophisticated observation about Americans in the world that makes a dog’s dinner of accurate representation. No wonder reviewers were annoyed at her inaccuracies in describing a Marrakech that many of them purported to know better than she. That’s exactly the point. Come on. Isn’t that a tip-off right there that there’s something else going on beneath the surface? Thank you, RJ, for giving me the head’s up to that clue before I even started reading. I’ll eagerly await your more reliable reportage on this book. Meanwhile, instead of pairing Johnson’s book on Amazon with the likes of Candace Bushnell (fluffy chick lit), a more astute marketer might suggest William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden.
Ah, snow. And ah, the rooftops of New York, where a whole other city reveals itself, apparently one with stepped Dutch gables and Queen Anne towered dormers — what religious establishment is that down there? How little I remember.
But I do remember the cold. It is currently in the 40s here with a very chilly pink sunrise progressing rather nicely over the hills. As cold as I can bear these days — hat and scarf weather for us, which means more ways to accessorize. But nothing more extreme, please.
Montreal’s brutal weather would explain in part the need for road upkeep, yet I would suggest the drivers make their contribution as well. “Je me souviens” — Quebec’s licence plate motto — “I remember” does NOT refer to driving ettiquette or skills, which makes for an exciting time on the province’s roadways. I learned new ways to express myself, using words associated with the Holy Communion, including the Host, the Tabernacle, and other terms related to Our Savior.
Now I want to read Diane Johnson. Or at least the review in the LRB. Happy Holidays mes amis!
In NYC, only Yorkville can offer up a plausible imitation of a Rhenish roofscape, if really only appreciated from above, as opposed to from river level, as a real Rhine view is meant to be seen.