“Terriers”: One of this fall’s only gems

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:45:00 +0000

America's obsession with youth is rooted in nostalgia. Why else would a nation of old people want to watch carefree whippersnappers frolic recklessly about in hot pants on their TV and movie screens? We want some old familiar taste of the excitement and uncertainty of youth. In watching 20-somethings (and middle-aged people surgically altered to look like them), we're trying to remember how it feels to be loud and energetic and confused, to leap before we look, to believe that an entirely new life might spring up around the next corner.

When I was younger, I thought it vaguely pathetic to fixate on the past, humming "Glory Days" and exalting the joys of high school or college, of all depraved and undeserving times. But once you're old enough to have at least a loose notion of how the next decade of your life will play out, nostalgia for youth inevitably slips into the frame. The past takes on a sepia-toned magic hour glow: The big hurts and disappointments come to seem just as sweet as the good times.

Far from pathetic, though, nostalgia can bring the richness of the present to light, and illuminate what matters the most to us and what amounts to unnecessary trivia. Nostalgia allows us to view our lives through a more soulful lens.

Vet blows dog whistle on Mariah Carey in unpaid bill lawsuit

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Mariah Carey seems to have stepped in a pile of -- well, you know -- with her Bedazzled stilettos by neglecting to fork over $29,559 to fancy vet-to-the-stars'-pets Cindy Bressler. Bressler is based in New York but spent a month in California last year helping with the birth of puppy Dolomite and treating Carey's other Jack Russell terriers, Cha-Cha and JJ. The diva paid a fraction of the bill, but she still owes a hefty chunk of change. Bressler is suing.

Salon.com > Terriers

“Terriers”: One of this fall’s only gems

Vet blows dog whistle on Mariah Carey in unpaid bill lawsuit