I keep getting these "Be Happy, Ta-Nehisi!" responses to my posts. I swear I'm fine. I'm actually a really happy guy. Not always comfortable. But often smiling, and usually happy.
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I have made this mistake before. I assumed you were down on a post a couple of weeks ago. When I reread it I saw there wasn't anything in it that should have gave me that impression.
When I thought about it...it was because you were ruminating on something with an apparent amount of depth and perspective.
In my years and my experience, a lot of times when I have done the same, in the end it could lead to my conclusion that there was no good answer to that question.
It was what it was.
Sometimes that can be sad or depressing.
Maybe we are putting our experience on what you are writing.
(OK, I glanced at the sidebar before I posted and fortunately Fallows is now showing some sort of tech feature. Earlier it was new human rights violations, which was not going to work for cheery. I really liked his post on notorious fatties of bygone ages Jackie Gleason and Alfred Hitchcock.)
Nah, I'm fine. I think not living in D.C. helps. A lot of folks who cover this stuff are around it constantly--like they see each other on the street or at parties. I have a little more distance. I treasure that.
I was glad to see Sully's posting about his shift in moods. I can't imagine the time/focus it takes to do his blog that way and then as you say to have one's social life just be more of the same. Seems to give more credence to your earlier post today about the need for time/spce/balance, not that it needed it.
What has our world come to when "serious" is mistaken for a mental illness? If you're not Vanna White/Sheri Lewis/pick your favorite Sunshine Girl, you must be suicidal. If you're not who? Bill Cosby, maybe ... Don't you think there's something racialized about this misreading of your mood, too? "Serious black man" doesn't carry the same weight as "angry black man," but both both are A Problem for the dominant culture. When "serious" isn't assumed to be an impossibility, like a dog on his hind legs.
"Don't you think there's something racialized about this misreading of your mood, too?"
Seriously? Don't you think it has more to do with TNC's readers obviously having some affection for him? Doesn't it seem like people are just saying that because comments of Ta-Nehisi's make it seem like he's doing a lot of reflecting on his own mortality. I agree that it never seemed like he was depressed, but your interpretation seems like a pretty big stretch.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I have made this mistake before. I assumed you were down on a post a couple of weeks ago. When I reread it I saw there wasn't anything in it that should have gave me that impression.
When I thought about it...it was because you were ruminating on something with an apparent amount of depth and perspective.
In my years and my experience, a lot of times when I have done the same, in the end it could lead to my conclusion that there was no good answer to that question.
It was what it was.
Sometimes that can be sad or depressing.
Maybe we are putting our experience on what you are writing.
it seems a common error to mistake "depth and perspective" with down. But without them life is one-dimensional.
I think it was all your talk about your own mortality.
Maybe we're all just afraid Sullivan's bad mood will be contagious.
My thought exactly. Though Fallows seems cheery.
(OK, I glanced at the sidebar before I posted and fortunately Fallows is now showing some sort of tech feature. Earlier it was new human rights violations, which was not going to work for cheery. I really liked his post on notorious fatties of bygone ages Jackie Gleason and Alfred Hitchcock.)
Nah, I'm fine. I think not living in D.C. helps. A lot of folks who cover this stuff are around it constantly--like they see each other on the street or at parties. I have a little more distance. I treasure that.
I was glad to see Sully's posting about his shift in moods. I can't imagine the time/focus it takes to do his blog that way and then as you say to have one's social life just be more of the same. Seems to give more credence to your earlier post today about the need for time/spce/balance, not that it needed it.
er, space not spce, should have taken that typing class back in high school.
Maybe you should start using more exclamation points!
Yes!!!!!!
Nah. Only emoticons can solve this comms conundrum.
:)
So I should cancel the intervention? Damn. I already made the guacamole.
What has our world come to when "serious" is mistaken for a mental illness? If you're not Vanna White/Sheri Lewis/pick your favorite Sunshine Girl, you must be suicidal. If you're not who? Bill Cosby, maybe ... Don't you think there's something racialized about this misreading of your mood, too? "Serious black man" doesn't carry the same weight as "angry black man," but both both are A Problem for the dominant culture. When "serious" isn't assumed to be an impossibility, like a dog on his hind legs.
"Don't you think there's something racialized about this misreading of your mood, too?"
Seriously? Don't you think it has more to do with TNC's readers obviously having some affection for him? Doesn't it seem like people are just saying that because comments of Ta-Nehisi's make it seem like he's doing a lot of reflecting on his own mortality. I agree that it never seemed like he was depressed, but your interpretation seems like a pretty big stretch.
"She asked how come I don't smile,
I said, "Everything's fine, but I'm in a New York state of mind!"
--The God
hell yeah.