Last night on second avenue and sixth street i ran into a guy i went to high school with. Let's call him D. D and i were in the same math class in 7th and 8th grade, and then he went to public school for two years, and then came back in 11th grade. He and i were never particularly close, but when you are part of the same small collectivity (a grade of 120-130 people) for so long you tend to feel like you know someone better than you actually do, and we got into a lot of the same colleges and wound up moving as a mob at some of the "admit weekends" that private universities hold to try to convince prospective students that they aren't as right-wing, depressing, union-busting, or boring as they actually are. D went to a school in California i had decided was too isolated and apolitical for me, and I hadn't seen or thought about him in a very long time. (Ultimately, my choice came down to Yale and U. Chicago, both of which were in cities and at both of which i'd seen exciting sweatshop activism. I chose Yale at the last minute because i was a big dumbass. I'd tell you it all worked out in the end, but i don't have a job, i live with my parents, and there are carcinogenic bacteria in my stomach.) Seeing D on the street yesterday was odd. he used to be all east village druggy genius, now he's working for the city and he's gained like twenty pounds and seems mildly yuppidied in that public sector, Shonuesque kind of way. And of course i had to say "well, i was coordinating a boycott, and now i live with my parents." What in god's name was i thinking?"



On an unrelated note, i'm curious about the process by which one defines oneself as a pundit. Did david brooks wake up one day and say "i am a pundit, i want to spout inane oversimplifications and get paid big bucks for endless pages of worthless crap?" Does someone else have to brand one a pundit in order for one to have truly arrived in the hallowed halls of punditry? If i were to change the title of this blog to "the problem of pundit," would that make me a pundit (not that i want to be a pundit under any circumstances.) Do you get health care with that? Is Josh a pundit?



I like the Comets on Fire record much more on second listen than i did the first time i listened to it.