better late?

I know that I'm supposed to admire the structure of stacked-slightly-off-kilter boxes, but it didn't do anything for me. The interior irritated me, starting with the pretentious-because-it-declares-itself-to-be-unpretentious concrete floor (complete with cracks). Then there were the harsh, industrial-style lights; the gift shop behind a mesh curtain of the kind you find in pawn shops; the cattle-car elevator; and the tiny café, intended, it would seem, to be inadequate to any conceivable occasion. Everything was making a statement and issuing a challenge: Do you get it? (Obviously I didn't.)

that's stanley fish, on the new museum. i love stanley fish and his bitingness. and i love that i'm pretty sure he's talking about some of my friends. it's always awkward when you have to figure out if someone is being ironic or not, you know? how do you win that contest?

- he was quoting john mayer, i think.
- what? without irony?

i mean, it's the difference between being cool and uncool. clearly. [or, not at all clearly.]

also, this is my favorite thing ever. even though i'm super late posting it. i love it. i mean, i love obama and i think it's a good thing that he's wanted to be president for a long time. but i also love a good one-up.

“I have not been planning to run for president for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for,” said Obama in (where else?) Iowa.

“He says that day after day,” said Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s spokesman. This sounded to the Hillaryites like a diss, and, indeed, Obama did appear to be suggesting that she was the product of long-running crass ambition while he, reluctant soldier, was simply responding to his country’s call.

“So we put out a document, finally, that had all the instances of his saying he wanted to run for president,” Wolfson explained.

The evidence began with a magazine article that claimed that Obama started planning his campaign when he became a senator in 2005. This was followed by quotes from friends and relatives attesting that he had mentioned his aspirations in 1992, 1988 and the third grade. Finally came the coup de grâce: testimony from his kindergarten teacher that back when he was 5, little Barack had written an essay titled: “I Want to Become President.”