I’m not totally averse to an expanded understanding of what it means to keep up with the Jones’s. Though this used to be a caution against competing with our peers over material possessions, it might have some under-acknowledged benefits. I have been easily swayed by arguments like the one I first read by Juliet B. SchorContinue reading “Models Monday: Keeping Up”
Category Archives: Series
Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part IV cont.)
I remember watching one of those bloopers and practical jokes programs with my father, must’ve been during the late 1980s, when he made an observation that was characteristic of him. We must have been watching a segment featuring a common citizen made the butt of a practical joke when my father said, “You know, it’sContinue reading “Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part IV cont.)”
Models Monday: Reflections On Marriage
With my first Models Monday post of the new year, I thought I would address some of the issues that I raised in previous posts. As the year was coming to a close, in one post I bemoaned the lists chronicled in magazines and on television of the year in review. Here I suggested thatContinue reading “Models Monday: Reflections On Marriage”
Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part IV.)
In chapter 8 of Slim’s Table, Mitchell Duneier engages the class myth that accords the black middle class moral superiority and authority and devalues the moral authority of the black working class. Interestingly he points out that even though the men at Slim’s table disrupt this hasty, inaccurate assumption, they also use these terms toContinue reading “Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part IV.)”
Models Monday: Sustaining Fictions
I don’t know how these things are connected, but I’ve been holding them together in my mind for some time now. For some reason, I’ve been thinking about these lists we chronicle in popular culture at this time of year at the same time that I have been thinking about the stories that we needContinue reading “Models Monday: Sustaining Fictions”
Models Monday: Making Room for Listening (Part I)
One of my favorite things to do on Sunday mornings, sometimes Saturday evenings, is to read the “Sunday Routine” in The New York Times. Though I grew up in a household where people worked on Sunday, if any day can be imagined as one where people are released from the requirement to work, it wouldContinue reading “Models Monday: Making Room for Listening (Part I)”
Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part III cont.)
I’ve been reading Ann Weisgarber’s novel The Personal History of Rachel DuPree (more on that in a separate post). At one point, Rachel notes that her husband Isaac has built the family a wooden house and describes the sod house they lived in before: Its walls were nothing but squares of sod. The ceilings sagged. TheContinue reading “Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part III cont.)”
Models Monday: Forgiving Yourself
Venus Williams is in the news today for a “wardrobe malfunction,” and her prominence suits me today because my reflections are about her–or at least comments about her. I once heard Pam Shriver say about Venus Williams that one of the things that she liked about her was that “she forgives herself quickly and movesContinue reading “Models Monday: Forgiving Yourself”
Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part III cont.)
One of my posts during Thanksgiving acknowledged films that were shown on that occasion when I was a child. My mother was listening to her favorite radio station the day before Thanksgiving and the DJs were discussing Thanksgiving movies. They noted that The Godfather films mark a new trend in Thanksgiving movie marathons. I didn’tContinue reading “Reading with my Father: Slim’s Table (Part III cont.)”
Models Monday: Repeat Step 1(In Advance of the New Season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta)
I think I might have seen an advertisement on television promoting the new season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. In advance of the new season’s launch in early November, I thought to re-post my thoughts on the show because they’re sure to be relevant because nothing on the show ever seems to change. NatashaContinue reading “Models Monday: Repeat Step 1(In Advance of the New Season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta)”
In Reverie Blog 