The New Yorker, 2006-12-25 & 01-01-2007

[fiefoe]

"Sign Me Up Dept: Joiner" / Ben McGrath

__ There are about ten New Yorkers—the Meetup Mafia, they call themselves—whose convening enthusiasm transcends subject matter. They are "high-volume attendees," as Lefty says, and Lefty is their don.
__ David and Lefty are co-organizers of the Leftonred and Greene Meetup, which they founded on a whim when, two years ago, they met a hermaphrodite at a vegetarian dinner, were interested, and needed an excuse to see her again. "She asked us what the group was for," Lefty explained. "We said we do female-body finger painting. We've got about thirty regulars now."

"The Gift Right Out" / James Surowiecki

__ The recipients usually spend more than the amount on the card - a phenomenon that retailers tenderly refer to as "uplifting" spending.

"The Past Conditional" / Julian Barnes

__ I, to assert my difference, had announced that I would therefore specialize in a category that I named, with what seemed like logic to me, Rest of the World. The category was defined solely in terms of what my brother didn't collect. I can no longer remember if this move was aggressive, defensive, or merely pragmatic.
__ According to him, Grandma and Grandpa each kept diaries, and in the evenings would sometimes read out loud to each other what they had recorded five years earlier. The entries were apparently of stunning banality but frequent disagreement. Grandpa would propose, "Friday. Fine day. Worked in garden. Planted potatoes." Grandma would reply, "Nonsense," and counter-cite, "Rained all day. Too wet to work in the garden."

"Demolition" / Louise Erdrich

__ the lost architecture of her bones
__ the bees collecting the last sweetness before they go to sleep for the winter  {I'd thought she meant 'the last sweetness went to sleep' at first.}

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