Strangechord

A few observations (blogged from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport):

• I’m sitting in a food court area. There’s a nice looking food counter called The Good Earth, which appears to sell yummy sounding wholesome sandwiches, yogurt smoothies, salads, etc. To its right is a food counter of a bakery selling fresh-made, interesting-sounding sandwiches. These counters have no customers in line. The next counter is an A&W “All American Food” counter selling horrid-looking burgers, chili dogs, and fried cheese curds. Fried cheese curds?! A&W has a huge line that never goes slack, a good 15 customers at any given time. The other two counters have far more appetizing food and yet the only restaurant with a constant stream of people in line is for totally tacky fast food. Why? Are people really so willing to save a buck that they’ll eat such crap food for lunch or are fried cheese curds and chicken strips really more appetizing than a turkey and swiss on whole grain bread with soup? It makes me feel so alien; I don’t understand the majority’s preferences. Is this a midwestern thing? (Help me out here, I haven’t lived here in so long.)

• The Portland airport has free wi-fi; Minneapolis makes you pay $7 for a session. Rat bastards.

• My friend and former Sociology professor, Rowan, gave me a simple and older-looking wooden “No War” button for my birthday earlier this year. I’ve recently been wearing it pinned to my jacket and a few days ago at the counter of a convenience store, an employee asked me indignantly, “You’re for no war?” I replied without a second though, “Yeah, isn’t anyone?” He gave me such a funny look. This morning on the airplane, I received four compliments on it, including one from a fellow who remarked that he collected buttons and that it was a “vintage” (read: 60’s) design. I replied, “Well, it’s an old statement”. He added, “And a good one”. I look forward to wearing it around Fairfield.

• I hesitate to say I love my iBook, because I think it’s weird to speak of “loving” objects that aren’t alive. Let’s just say I really appreciate owning my iBook and am enjoying the hell out of it. I have no complaints and it’s light as a feather to boot. (It’s a 12″ iBook, by the way.) I have a 60G hard drive; I loaded it with photos, including scanned-in childhood pics, and all of my music and I look forward to sharing all of it with Mom. She’s super open to new-to-her music and usually likes what I play her. I packed a bunch of blank CDs to burn her some mix CDs straight outta the iBook.

• The newsstand/bookstore across from where I’m sitting has a whole display row of Time magazine featuring Dubya as “Person of the Year”. Look at that illustration! The expression reeks of that whole false earnestness that Christian conservatives love: “It’s hard work, but at least God is guiding my every decision”. Liberal media, my ass. If I had a subscription to Time, which of course I don’t, I would cancel it immediately. I mean, c’mon, this is a man who refuses to even negotiate with himself.

• You know, you can tell hipster techie types by the shape of their eyeglass frames. It’s true, the frames are a giveaway.