I just learned from Metroblogging Twin Cities that Victoria's Secret will be taking over the space formerly occupied by The Gap on Hennepin and Lake in Uptown. NooOOOooo! What a wasted opportunity! Why do we need Victoria's Secret in Uptown when you can find it in every bleeding shopping mall in the country? So what if it's "the only non-mall Victoria’s Secret in the state and one of a few in the country designed to test a store concept based on the underwear mogul’s Pink sub-brand"? Are people really going to come Uptown for that? According to the Southwest Journal article, "Uptown Association member and area resident Thatcher Imboden said the Victoria’s Secret would be a better fit for the community than the Gap was and he thinks it will be used. 'Everybody needs underwear,' he said." That's what Target is for, buddy! With an attitude like yours, Uptown will soon be just another burbclave.
1) My knees: They are sore from another fantastic week of dancing at PINEWOODS, BABY! Only 356 more days until the next layer of cartilage is sacrificed to the implacable gods of dance (not be be confused with the Lord of the Dance).
2) My Singing Group: The Court Revelers now have a web site! Check it out and come and see us at the 2007 Minnesota Renaissance Festival starting August 18th.
3) PIRG: The Minnesota branch of this environmental group has been swarming around the Twin Cities like Hare Krishnas at the airport, and with equal fervor. They are especially thickly congregated around the local co-ops and around the University campus where I work, I suppose because those places are more likely to be harboring liberals with environmentalist leanings. Their mantra, "do you have a minute for the environment," instead of bringing me into the fold, instead inspires me to try to come up with witty and cutting replies, like "not THIS minute" or "yes, but I am not wasting it talking to YOU." Pathetic attempts in the face of the juggernaut, but oddly satisfying. At the very least I can refuse to link to their web site in this blog entry.
4) Harry Potter: Tonight I will begin my media blackout. I don't want to have to rush through the book in order to find out what happens before someone spoils it for me. I want to spread out the enjoyment as long as possible. Sometimes the media and the American public is capable of keeping a secret. I saw The Crying Game the night it opened, having little or no idea what it was about beforehand. Afterwards, I was glad I had gone to see it right away because I was sure that the "twist" would be leaked, but surprisingly the secret was kept for quite a while. Likewise with The Sixth Sense, which I didn't see until it had been out for about six months but still managed to keep its mystery. Of course, Harry Potter is a phenomenon on an entirely different scale, so I'm not counting on people keeping their mouths shut this time.
*5) Dangling Prepositions: I read somewhere that the rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition is a wholesale invention by Strunk and White. Like any good liberal arts student, I have always held the Elements of Style with the greatest of reverence, but can you honestly say the title of this entry would have been better worded "Various Things On Which I Wish to Comment"?
My husband, apparently sick of hearing me whine about the paper I am trying to write on the application of Kluckhohn and Hofstede's frameworks for describing culture, sat down and dashed off a sample paragraph to inspire me:
Cuckhold and Hotshit are two Internationally renowned and acclaimed idiots. Their main thesis on the background-effects of non-normative development show a complete lack of spinal integrity. In other words I don’t believe one iota about their theories of joint occlusion and rearword malifluence that their supposed “expertise� would claim. Their ideas on leadership are well-worn childish conclusions from unsupported bases of pure dingo’s kidneys. If these two would simply evaporate in the hot steam of their own combined excrement then the world as a whole would be a much better of place indeed.Thank you. Give me an A now.
Setting aside any questions of academic integrity and honesty that might arise as a result of turning in his work as my own, I didn't think his contribution would ultimately be a good fit for my paper. Nevertheless, I couldn't bring myself to consign this glorious prose forever into oblivion with the mere striking of the delete key. It deserves an audience, even if it is only the audience of two or three who read this blog. Enjoy.