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Culturally Speaking #65

By Sarah Stodola

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Paul Krugman explains the United States' economic dependence on China.

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I was until now unaware that once upon a time The Ladies' Home Journal "sandwiched the work of W. H. Auden, Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath in between 'Is Your Marriage a Masquerade?' and 'Bing Crosby's Kitchen for His Bride.'"

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When one returns to the United States after a long trip in a foreign land of a different language, he looks forward to the ease that comes with speaking one's native language. New York, then, comes as quite a shock, as he quickly realizes that he can't understand his cab driver, and that the neighborhood in which he is staying speaks more of the language of the country he just left than it does English. (I really thought I'd be leaving Spanish behind for awhile.) I suppose sometimes we forget that 36% of the city's residents are foreign-born.

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There are a couple of companies (at least) -- Vonage and Lingo -- that offer phone service through ethernet lines. It's cheap and it's flexible (you can have a local New York number in Paris, or Buenos Aires, if you like). I signed up yesterday, and I suggest that you do the same if you are one of the dwindling numbers of people who still have a traditional land line. For expats, this is a godsend.

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The Morning News offers their version of "best of the web." Warning: it's way MP3 blog-heavy. But there are some good sites on there that they have helped me discover.

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Merriam-Webster offers us a dictionary of words that aren't in the dictionary. "Ginormous" is the only one I've heard before.

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Malcolm Gladwell's book on fads is meeting friendly reviews. I'm sure it is good and all, but I really feel like there have been an excessive number of books already written on the topic. I thought the mystery had already been solved. So I am wondering if Gladwell's book actually does bring anything new to the table.

 

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This Week's Lesson: Keeping up with life in New York City is close to impossible without a cell phone. So, um, hey everybody, email me!!

Click here for the last week's Culturally Speaking.

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Sarah Stodola is the Executive Editor of Me Three. She can be contacted here.

© 2005 Me Three