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PLACES & CULTUREIn the real world, there is no such thing as a "news cycle," only the ongoing daily drama of cultural dynamics that often eludes the headline-driven news media. Thus some of the most enduring and worthwhile writing in newspapers and periodicals is about places—their history, their landscape, their culture and their social shifts. To continue a strand of links I began six months ago at my personal weblog, I'll introduce Places & Culture here as a regular entry in this weblog. This week, both clips are from the New York Times.
FAIRMEAD, Calif. — Somewhere around the Mammoth Orange, a ramshackle orange-shaped burger stand that is the lone survivor of hundreds that dotted California roadsides in the 1950's, the two faces of Highway 99 merge. There is the wildly unromantic back-alley 99, a blur of cellphone towers, salvage yards, used car lots, strip malls and phosphorescent billboards for personal injury lawyers. But there is another 99, found fleetingly in places like Selma ("The Raisin Capital of the World"), Fairmead ("Elev: 246") and even rapidly growing cities like Fresno. It is the 99 of early March, when peach and almond blossoms burst forth by the thousands on every tree, and of late September, when it is possible to roll down the windows and smell grapes drying into raisins. … This unheralded historic highway, pipeline for migrants and Bay Area commuters as well as almonds, pistachios, grapes, cotton, walnuts, Roma tomatoes, strawberries and potatoes, may have its moment yet.
http://www.nyt imes.com/2003/01/06/national/06HIGH.html
PARIS, Jan. 8—The daily Figaro published maps of the most dangerous battle zones. The radio station RTL announced survival strategies. The Ministry of the Interior pledged to maintain an increased police presence deployed during the Christmas season. The high anxiety has nothing to do with the vulnerability of French peacekeepers in Ivory Coast or President Jacques Chirac's speech on Monday about military readiness. Rather, it has to do with slashing prices. Under French law, retail stores are allowed to run sales only twice a year, in January and August. Today marked the start of a merchandising offensive that can last legally for only four to six weeks.CITY SCENE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/09/international/europe/09PARI.html
Little more than a year removed from the weeks she lived in London as a college student, my wife was a little apprehensive about how faithfully the Red Lion would, in a nod to cultural purity, reproduce the drab cuisine of the mother land as we walked into the quaint British pub on Chicago's North Side. Fortunately, it was distinctively American in two ways: 1) it tasted good and 2) we got free refills. We remarked on our satisfaction in these two areas when the affable bartender stopped by our table. "Our motto," he replied knowingly, "is: our food isn't authentic—it tastes good."
vTHE IRONY BEAT: SUPER BOWL DIARYAmerican males' infatuation with violent sports goes beyond their primeval pleasure in seeing bone-bending collisions and flying sweat droplets, each grunt and drop a small celebration of masculinity.
To hear the sports media tell it, what men care about is relationships.
All week the press has been emphasizing the personal drama of the relational storylines behind the scenes of the big game—tirelessly reporting that Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden is the first coach to switch teams between seasons and then face his jilted organization the following year in the Super Bowl, and then asking everyone how it makes them feel. The story in this morning's paper—headlined: "When Does A Super Bowl Resemble 'Divorce Court?"—led with the fact that tonight's game is "full of broken and bitter relationships," and the tinkling piano soundtrack piped in the background of a pregame show interview with Gruden was right out of a Lifetime documentary. This Super Bowl figures to do much to disprove the notion the men are immune to the melodrama of soap operas, and as I watch it I'll be on the lookout for these and other ironies of this strange cultural ritual.
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