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August 29, 2006
Stuff! (good players should know)
Boston is liking the rain right now, which is all right with me since I feel like I was basically hot and sweaty for the whole month of July. I will probably be wanting that sun in the middle of January, though. I pretty much don't like the cold and have been mentally preparing myself for the winter here. Laura and I scoffed at a woman we saw today who had already donned her "long black heavy coat." Some people at work said they had broken out their winter pajamas.
Grad school starts next week, and I am ready to hit the books again. Actually, while there are books involved, my program will probably be less academic and more practical, which is exactly what I need right now :). However, we are reading one book that I am excited about: Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson. I don't know how great the book is, but it's still pretty neat that I get to read it for a class.
Speaking of books, I am currently reading "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs. Following in certain brothers' and sisters' footsteps, I am rethinking my views of how cities work, and I'm beginning to see the huge gap between the is and the ought. That empty bench that you see on that green triangle at the intersection of two major roads? Yeah, that's empty for a reason. In fact, there's not any reason to sit there, unless you like to watch road rage in action, which does in fact occur very often in Beantown. Which is why Laura and I will have John's car only for the month of September, and after that our chances of dying will decrease exponentially. Unless moving to Dorchester is an even greater risk. It could get risky if we run into any teenage girl gangs.
| By heiders | 10:30 PM
Comments
What's "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" about? The title alone sounds like it could be an interesting read.
Posted by: Ed at September 2, 2006 03:05 AM
It's a book about the way the great cities (by great she means big) in America work and the failures of orthodox city planning. It was written in the 60's but still feels relevant today. Jane Jacobs, who recently died, is the author. She was a non-academic expert on urban development and is one of the inspirations for the New Urbanism movement, if you've heard of that. This is a cursory and inadequate description: if you want to really understand what it's about, you should read the book. I highly recommend it.
Posted by: heiders at September 2, 2006 10:17 AM
