[lit-ideas] On Accident

From: David Ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 11:38:54 -0700
Now and then one person's worldview rubs up against another, like two people in 
a crowded elevator.  People notice this, maybe grunt, but there's no shouting.  
And then there's today's New York Times business section in which we learn that 
Lands' End customers were sent a free copy of GQ magazine.  The cover photo, 
shown by the Times only as far as the armpit, shows a "Hawaiian" girl wearing a 
lei and, the article says, not a lot more.  The photo goes to the navel.  
"OBSCENE cover!!" writes one person.  "Pornography," writes another.  "Really?" 
I thought,  "how do such folk deal with art museums, National Geographic, St. 
Tropez?"  Of course the answer must be, "They don't."  "I ordered Christian 
private school children's uniforms from your company and you sold my home 
address to a magazine company that peddles in soft porn for men???"  Peddles 
in?  Would soft porn for women be better?  Collision of worldviews.

I note that "Fifty Shades of Grey" still tops the bestseller list.

Read yet another review yesterday of "Excellent Sheep."  We've been getting a 
lot of coverage because the fellow moved to Portland after leaving Yale.  The 
book seems to be doing well.  I wonder, idly, how much attention he's paid to 
the real habits of sheep.  Having sent my history of camels article out again, 
I'm quite alive to how much we imagine animals, especially when we use them as 
a point of comparison to human behavior.

Yesterday everyone landed safely: my niece in what I think of (wrongly) as 
Spartaville or Spartanburger, L. in Amsterdam, E. here.  Quite the day for 
relatives in the sky.  Today L. was tasting cheese and E. is digesting her New 
York interview and job prospects.  

I learned while browsing the web that there's a Shorter University.

BTW the "Hawaiian" model's name?  Emily Ratajkowski.  Can't really make the 
"that's her heritage being expressed" argument unless, of course, her mother's 
name is Kapaa'maa'oi, or something of that ilk.

For fun I typed "Munchkin University" into the search engine.  Sure enough...  
Note that "every student" agrees with "his" until the final line, when we 
switch to "his or her."  Accidental perhaps?  Like sending GQ to...

Carry on,

David Ritchie,
Portland, 
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[lit-ideas] On Accident

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