Monday, August 7, 2006
Suggestions For Eternal Lodgings
The setup: The house and garden section of a newspaper runs a critical story about a cult favorite 1950's housebuilder (Eichler houses).
The outcome: The spirit of the age intrudes, in all its fury.
The editor was so shocked she wrote a funny column about the response to the article:
The following epithets — pathetic, spoiled, whiny, ignorant, peasant, pampered, self-centered, garbage, sophomoric, juvenile, snide, stupid, rude, moron, idiot, offensive, bum and the other b-word — were hurled at both the writer and editor. Allusions to bodily functions and suggestions for where we should spend eternity were not uncommon… “With articles like this, the continued decline of this newspaper to complete garbage seems inevitable…”
She concludes:
We welcome feedback, pro and con, on the articles and photos we print, but I hope readers will remember it's the Home&Garden section. In the greater scheme of things, the topics we cover aren't paramount… “Eichlers are houses. Period. They ain't splinters from the Cross.”
As animals, we are both cats and dogs. We are independent, roam our private realms, keep our own counsel, detached and often predatory; but we are also gregarious pack animals, given to manias of accreted feelings when triggered by our fellow hounds. Tocqueville said Americans are particularly prone to consensus, but it isn't just Americans that are sensitive to group-think. The above linked article presents more barking dogs than skulking cats, with the internet, this genius invention, raising the din exponentially. Over trivia.