Comments on: Welcome to the Green Zone, The Happiest Place on Earth.

By: flea

flea — Wed, 16 May 2007 04:02:04 +0000

Hi SJ! I’ve been a fan of your blog for a long time. There really is no better title for a blog’s archives than “Old Asshole.” I saw that years ago and fell in love for life.

By: SJ

SJ — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:34:56 +0000

Yay! Fun! I’m glad you’re here.

By: little cabbage

little cabbage — Tue, 15 May 2007 21:58:20 +0000

OT: Also, if you’re not reading any Julian Barnes, please please start. He’s fantastic.

Sorry, just gotta second this. His A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is one of the most insightful political (and everything else) commentaries I’ve ever read.

By: hp

hp — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:03:43 +0000

You might be old :D but from what I heard in the late 1990s (when at college, with actor-buddies who did the Disney thing over the summer) nothing much has changed. Maybe that bar is gone, but drinking yourself blotto enough to be able to coast half-conscious through the next day still goes on.

By: Bolo

Bolo — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:58:04 +0000

The Green Zone is certainly a strange little slice of America that is being exported into Iraq. Similarly, try looking for information on what some of our other bases in Japan, etc. are like–very similar. We export our way of life for our soldiers and build bases with shopping malls and golf courses.

I don’t know what it’s like now, but I’ve heard that the Panama Canal Zone that the US owned and operated until ~1999 used to be run like a high-class resort community for the workers and soldiers there.

By: Linnaeus

Linnaeus — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:36:44 +0000

And in this way, it’s not really so different from the midwest. I mean, I’ve only been in suburban Ohio for a year, but the notion that folks “have come to an agreement to believe that what they want life to be, is what life actually is” just about sums it up ’round here.

I’d say that sums up much of suburban America, regardless of location.

By: zuzu

zuzu — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:36:07 +0000

Conservatives love to wax nostalgic about the glorious ’50s, even though it’s clear, if you’ve read The Way We Never Were, that what they’re longing for never really existed.

I just picked that book up (and by “picked up,” I mean literally — it was set out on someone’s stoop for the taking). I’ve been meaning to read it for a while.

Great post, and welcome aboard!

By: Tapetum

Tapetum — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:25:50 +0000

I always knew there was a reason our little rural Iowa town had a) a tremendous number of churchs, and b) roughly twice that number of bars. They loved to think of themselves as a lovely, simple little town with old-fashioned values, merrily ignoring the teenagers drinking themselves into oblivion trying to avoid the stultifying lack of anything to do, and the meth labs in various houses scattered throughout town.

And they thought I was weird.

By: Djinna

Djinna — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:19:26 +0000

Apologies for the tangent, but Chumbawumba did a great song about Celebration, FL. Not going to be able to get that one out of my head today, but that's ok, because it's beautiful AND subversive.

By: Jen in Ohio

Jen in Ohio — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:49:57 +0000

Celebration is a town for people who do not want to deal with American Reality, so instead they’ve created “American” “Reality” and have come to an agreement to believe that what they want life to be, is what life actually is.

And in this way, it’s not really so different from the midwest. I mean, I’ve only been in suburban Ohio for a year, but the notion that folks “have come to an agreement to believe that what they want life to be, is what life actually is” just about sums it up ’round here.

Apparently preserving the magic is hilarious once you realize that both Prince Charmings are gay and Snow White is screwing one of the mice back at your apartment.

Similarly, not so different from the midwest!