I’ve got a new piece up at Slate.com this week, about my decade-long effort to make a home in the heart of the heartland.
My excellent editor came up with the headers, by the way, and though I’ve found the clog response surprising, I love how editors always know exactly how to title a piece to maximize attention. I am no kind of headline writer, myself (though I was proud to contribute the line “What Took You So Long?” for my first Slate piece, last year.)
I remember buying my first Danskos, at a comfort-shoe warehouse store on Broadway and eighty-somethingth in Manhattan, 1994. I bought black, because back then there weren’t many options.
Today, on this chilly spring day, I wear my red patent leather Danskos. They are the sixth or seventh pair I’ve owned (including a misguided flirtation with Dansko boots a few years back, better left undiscussed).
Living in the Midwest: Does it make you complacent and likely to wear clogs?
My husband started a spreadsheet. In it he keeps track of “Things We Like” and “Things We Don’t Like” about the Midwest, where we live. This is part of his ongoing effort to sell me on my adopted hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, where he’s spent almost all of his life. Much of the time, the effort is unnecessary, but every once in a while—like now, as our governor proceeds with his sure-handed destruction of public unions, and what would normally be a quiet race for state Supreme Court grows ever more bizarre by the minute—I need reminding that the “Things We Like” column is winning. By a landslide . . .
