I was a music snob, until I fell for One Direction

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:33:00 +0000

I have two embarrassing admissions to make: One, I discovered that there is a benefit to the erosion of privacy that social media affords. I was in pursuit of the perfect boyfriend, and I thought I found him, in the Georgetown University library: We’ll call him Tucker. But before I asked my crush out on a date, I had to vet him a little: I had to know what kind of music he liked, so I peeked on his Facebook page. Which brings me to my second, more important admission: This was how I found out about One Direction. A British boy band! Did he like them ironically? Who in college listens to boy bands? It hardly matters, because I never fell for Tucker. But I did fall for One Direction – a piece of good fortune for which I will always owe him a profound debt.

Before meeting Tucker, I had heard of One Direction in the way I had heard of NAFTA – which is to say, I could tell you what it was in a vague, unhelpful way. But Tucker’s passion for the musical act spurred me, one quiet weeknight, to give them a listen.

I’ll always hate the Yankees

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:20:00 +0000

Recently, a few friends sent me links to a paid obituary notice in the Daily Courier-Observer (“Serving the communities of Massena and Potsdam, New York”), eulogizing local woman Marylou Belles. I didn’t know Marylou, but she quickly became familiar to me: “She loved cats, and shared her life with four rescues from Save a Sato,” read the obit. “She was also a lifelong NY Mets fan though surprisingly, that wasn’t what killed her.”

If humor is a moat to protect us against the advancing armies of pain, it’s no wonder Mets fans like to laugh at themselves and their team, which has a legacy of stupidity, ineptitude and cursed luck. I can’t imagine a similar obit written for a Yankees fan, because Yankee fans are usually humorless — they’re in it for victories, not chuckles. As a result, I’m pretty sure Mets fans (I’m one) are morally superior to Yankees fans.

Salon.com > fans

I was a music snob, until I fell for One Direction

I’ll always hate the Yankees