The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has just gotten quite a bit of company: As many as 6,600 graves at the country’s hallowed Arlington National Cemetery for fallen U.S. service members may be mislabeled, one lawmaker said on Thursday.Political movements are becoming ever more like a match tossed into a room full of dynamite: No matter which stick you are aiming for, chances are a lot of others will fire off, too.A drama about a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer doesn’t exactly sound like the most entertaining new series on the fall prime-time slate. But there is more buzz surrounding Showtime’s “The Big C” than perhaps any other series premiering this season, and the incomparable Laura Linney is a major reason why the series is high on critics’ must-see lists.Although facts on the famed Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding, which is rumored to happen this weekend, are tighter than Hillary Clinton’s smile, some details have leaked out. Sources report that groom Marc Mezvinsky has “hurt” his father’s family by not inviting them to the wedding (Ed Mezvinsky pleaded guilty in 2002 to swindling investors out of $10 million.For Paul Rudd, the decision to star in Jay Roach’s new comedy, “Dinner for Schmucks,” was an easy one. “I thought the script was really funny,” he says. “That was it. It was kind of a no-brainer.” Of course Rudd, who’s built an impressive resume of smart comedies, was just as enamored of the man behind the camera. Subletting in NYC typically involves some kind of covert transaction. Try to find a budget traveler who hasn’t enjoyed the risk of Craigslist’s lease-free rentals. But thanks to a bill Gov. David Paterson signed into law last Friday, renting an apartment for less than 30 days isn’t kosher. Fortunately, there’s a saving grace for those in search of short-term living: Jersey City.New claims for unemployment benefits slipped last week, but stayed at a stubbornly high level that underscored the labor market recovery was having trouble gaining traction.Could nail mats like the Acushakti be the next Snuggies?Unless the locals covered you in meatballs and sang “Nessun Dorma” upon arrival, this vacation could hardly be more Italian. For this is a “Vespa vacation” — a two-wheeled tour of the nooks and crannies, the winding back roads and the off-the-beaten-track hidden gems of breathtaking Umbria, a beautiful region located in Central Italy.For many job-hopping careerists, smuggling a resignation letter in their bag like a guilty secret, there are few workplace rituals so hard as saying so long.
What makes it so strange is that we already know so much about other people. And that we want them to know so much about us. Almost everything in fact. Yet when it comes to questions of money, we clam up and shut down.
Facebook rules the roost these days but there are Myspace and Friendster and a host of other equally insipid and rapidly reproducing “networking” options doing much the same vapid things. Every Joe Bloggs has a blog, and some very gung ho folks have their own Web sites. We are a generation of voyeurs and exhibitionists. And we want to see pictures. We’ll post the most deeply personal stuff — from laments about lost loves to found purposes to sexual proclivities.
Not a lot is personal or private in these online and digital days. Until, that is, you ask someone how much they earn. Then you’d think you had asked them to eat their own young in a Yankees hat on the Bunker Hill monument on July Fourth and burn the flag afterwards. It is as though the question was the most offensive thing they had ever heard and you are at best inappropriate and at worst socially inept to have even considered posing it.
And it’s not just income. Ask someone how much rent they’re paying or how much they bought their house for and they’ll either make a painful attempt at avoidance or offer a vague figure with a mumble. Ask about their latest sexual conquest and you can get a treatise in color. Utterly backwards we are, but why?
A friend of a friend was lately gushing to her girl chums about the boy she’d started sleeping with. “He works for a hedge fund,” she added. “A hedge fund? He must be loaded,” said one pal. “Hmm. Well, I don’t know actually. I can’t really ask him that yet.” Right. Of course. I can share with him the most intimate physical encounter possible between two human beings, unite my body with his, but to ask about a number on a check would be much too personal altogether.
Does what we’re willing to talk about least reflect what we care most about? Have we so lowered sexual intimacy and so elevated money? Or are we just not good with numbers? I’m off to update my Facebook smiley to “confused.”
Thomas Keown is a freelance writer living in Somerville.
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In the July MMMpod, Young Veins talk about breaking away from Panic! at the Disco, Keith Lockhart talks about Buckwheat Zydeco throwing the Boston Pops for a loop, Zooey Deschanel talks about how Roy Orbison inspired a She & Him song, Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells talks about how awesome Funkadelic is, and we talk about how awesome Jimmy Cliff is, who in turn talks about Sam Cooke and divine intervention. An explosive show for July! Oh yeah, and we also test your knowledge of America songs in the MMMPod medley.
