Normality

Good point up there in the final bullet under Law and Security – I imagine Gabor and I are the only ones pedantic and awesome enough to know about Harding’s invention of the word “normalcy.” The noun form of normal you were all looking for, America, was “normality.” But, bygones. Just like just about every other cool nerdy thing I know and use to have four-star conversations with Gabor, this is a fact I picked up in high school. What a work ethic I had back then. And I was sort of as funny as I am now. I could tell you so much about the long term causes of WWI, or the Bessemer process of hardening steel. My glasses weren’t as stylish, and I was never this self-possessed, but I drove an old Honda Accord. You would have liked me.

Summer Anthem: The song I most want to link to is “All I Want” by Joni Mitchell, but I won’t both because I can’t find a good clip, and because Sharon says it’s too fulfilling of a stereotype for human rightsy types like me to listen to Joni Mitchell. She’s not wrong, but when I am in need of expressing the sentiment that I want to rip my stockings in some jukebox dive, this is my go-to. How about we top off that high school nostalgia with this song by Pavement? Shady Lane. I first heard this on an audio mix tape made for me by an inconsequential older boy. It’s not as summer anthemy as most of the songs I’ve posted here, but it has a quiet joy, the type of song I feel like listening to in lazy, strolling August. Somehow August isn’t as insistent as July, with the beginning touches of melancholy along with the feeling of things winding down. We’ve got plenty of summer left, mind you, but let’s take it gently, and indulge in some leisure.