Sunday, April 15, 2007

Natalie's last blog posts?

Lords of the Rings

I spent the weekend in Santa Monica with my family basking in California's almost always perfect weather-- when I witnessed what might be just a local phenomenon... A "ring culture." Who they are I have no clue, but what they can do as they swing from ring to ring is most impressive-- like trapeze artists at a circus. Why I write about this is because it's an interesting (at least I think so) observation in human behavior -- and particularly an observation about men... Though there are women "ringers" too.


"A long way gone," but hitting home in this Starbucks nation

As I was ordering my tall skim latte two weeks ago at Starbucks, my eyes -- always looking for something new -- wandered to their CD collection and its latest contribution to the greater global good, a new book called A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I picked it up and started reading, then immediately had to buy it. It was certainly a long way from this Starbucks on Park Avenue to this young boy's tragic story in Sierra Leone during that country's civil war in the 1990s.