ellenkushner | from the good old Friends page (Reply)

rozk recommends web-comic La Muse.

megmccarron wonders if gender is really as dead as they say (and, fine English teacher that she is, is Specific and Gives Examples of surpassing horror).

I had a great time yesterday with my 17-year-old nephew, who was visiting from Cleveland on his first solo trip. NYC put on its best for him: the Korean waitress at our regular sushi lunch joint came over and hugged us and expressed enthusiasm over meeting him (and wanted to know where Ohio was); while his mom had said there was no way we could get a tour of NYU since they'd all been full for weeks, we just walked up and joined the tag end of one, despite having no official Visitor tags, and got inside a dorm (this is the Kushner Technique, a combination of chutzpah and luck - and faith in both - which is, I suspect how my grandfather got out of Russia in 1917 [having deserted the White Army with a supply wagon on its way to the front] . . . . A fine old Family Tradition), and then went to the info office where we started to ask about self-guided tours and were told, "Oh, there's a tour starting in 10 minutes you can join." This time we got tags. After, we repaired to a little bakery where he ate a fancy-schmancy homemade Moon Pie, and I discussed the credibility of something called a Coca Cola Cake with the Argentine countergirl (who says her Israeli boss is always bringing her stuff to eat) - "Would you like a taste?" she asked, and cut me a nice little slice, which we enjoyed tremendously.