An Astonishing First Sentence

By Hillary | Published: April 21, 2008

It was hard to read Paul Krugman’s New York Times oped today past the first sentence:

“Nine years ago The Economist ran a big story on oil, which was then selling for $10 a barrel.”

$10 a barrel?! Just 9 years ago?!

Astonishing. Oil is $117 a barrel today.

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It *Is* Harder to be an Artist These Days

By Hillary | Published: February 23, 2008

Right on the heels of my blog entry on obstacles to Living a Halcyon Life, the New York Times publishes a great overview of the financial difficulties artists face . Excerpt:

“Rent for a studio or a one-bedroom in the East Village, for example, has more than doubled in 10 years, said Douglas Hochlerin, a broker with Bond New York, a firm specializing in Manhattan rentals. Last year, when the rent on Ms. Berman’s Mott Street one-bedroom, where she had lived for three years, rose to $1,550 from $1,350, she gave up her lease, beginning another bout of itinerancy, as she described it.

“‘It’s all about money,’ Ms. Berman said cheerfully. ‘It’s not like I have a penchant for the transient life.’

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Building a Halcyon Life

By Hillary | Published: February 18, 2008

Gone are the halcyon days Samuel R. Delaney writes of in his memoir, The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village , when his full-time but fairly relaxed (and low-paying) job as a Strand Bookstore clerk was enough to support him and his wife, poet Marilyn Hacker, in an East Village loft while they began their writing careers. True, the loft was cold and seedy, but who cared? They were young, passionate, and living in one of the most energetic and creative communities in the world.

That was way back in the 1960s. Since then, the price of urban real estate has skyrocketed and incomes (in real terms) have plummeted: this makes it much harder to live as an artist, activist or other ambitious dreamer.

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How to Get Your Boss to Say Yes to Telecommuting or Flextime

By Hillary | Published: February 17, 2008

Telecommuting and flextime are key tools for reducing the drag that your day job has on your activist, art or academic vocation.

If you’re going to suggest to your boss that you be given flextime, or be allowed to telecommute, make your case in a short written proposal that focuses not on your needs, but your employer’s. Your boss probably can already guess why telecommuting benefits you; what s/he really needs is information on how it will benefit – or at least not harm – your company. Maybe you’ll get more work done with fewer distractions; maybe you can work later hours or some weekends; or maybe you’ll spend more time helping customers or out in the community. More advice from The Wall Street Journal : “Anticipate and answer your boss’s potential objections, such as missing staff meetings or forcing co-workers to cover some parts of your job. Set criteria for evaluating your work-at-home setup and specify plans for assessing it after a pilot period, such as six weeks.”

And try to back up your proposal with some facts and statistics. The WSJ recommends these:

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“Six Word Memoirs”

By Hillary | Published: February 17, 2008

From BoingBoing some famous people contributed some great six-word memoirs to an anthology:

Kentucky trash heap yields unexpected flower. — John Kurtz
Changing mind postponed demise by decades. — Scott O’Neil
Despite disorders, jafroed jewboy gets girl. — Michael Eisner
Didn’t pull out. Downhill from there. — Roger Daubach
Thought I would have more impact. — Kevin Clark
Yes, you can edit my biography. — Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia.)
Must remember: people, gadgets. That order. — Brian Lam

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Class in America?

By Hillary | Published: February 17, 2008

There’s a sad article in today’s New York Times about the fifth anniversary of the awful nightclub fire in Rhode Island that killed 100 people and seriously wounded 200 others. The survivors – many horribly burned – continue to struggle, and many feel forgotten.

This caught my attention:

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Best Punchline *Evar*

By Hillary | Published: February 10, 2008

New York Times editorialist Gail Collins on the demise of the Mitt Romney campaign :

“All I know is somewhere in doggie heaven, an Irish setter is laughing.”

A bit of explanation for non -political or non-dog junkies: Romney’s wife Ann, I think it was, told what she must have believed would come across as a cute story reflecting how efficient her husband is: that when the family used to take car trips, they would leave their Irish Setter Seamus in a dog crate up on the roof for hours while they drove – because Mitt would not stop until he reached the day’s destination.

Until one day when he (Seamus) shat all over the car.

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Reader’s Digest Tips for Becoming Happier

By Hillary | Published: February 10, 2008

From The Reader’s Digest , a useful summary of 20 very pragmatic actions – such as laughing more, walking more, focusing on your close relationships – that really will help you become happier.

I do love that Tip #1 is “practice mindfulness.” I guess mindful living is no longer just for wild-eyed hippie types.

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Mitt Romney – He Really *is* a Twit

By Hillary | Published: February 7, 2008

Romney was obviously a phony through and through (obvious, that is, to everyone except a large number of Republicans), but I was astonished by his sayonara speech this morning.

“WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign on Thursday, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for John McCain. “I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,” Romney told conservatives.

“”If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.”

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The Lifelong Activist Recommended on ThinkGirl.net

By Hillary | Published: February 6, 2008

A nice mention of The Lifelong Activist in an article entitled Creating a Balanced and Sustainable Activist Life on ThinkGirl.net . Excerpts:

“You’ve taped flyers to phone poles, raised your voice at a rally, organized a fundraising event, and challenged your uncle at a holiday dinner or two. You consider yourself an activist, and show it in more ways than a couple paltry examples can show. If you’re like most activists, you frequently look within for solutions to a few dilemmas. You might ask: How do I keep my hope and energy up? Where do I find the time to do it all? How do I avoid burnout? Thankfully, there are a growing number of writers who acknowledge these challenges and encourage fulfilling and creative solutions…

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