A GOOD FRIEND, WHO IS MY AGE, was over at my place a few years ago and we were listening to a recording of some folk group from my early youth: “Today while the blossom still clings to the vine/I’ll eat your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine …” I kind of like that era of […]
Matt Talbot: A better world
I HAVEN’T WRITTEN MUCH IN THIS SPACE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING, partly because I don’t think I have an intuitive grasp of the scope and nature of the problem, and partly because fellow Herald columnist Jerome Page has done such yeoman’s work explaining and advocating on that issue that I haven’t felt the need to add […]
Matt Talbot: Architecture and ornament
THERE ARE SOME BOOKS I’VE READ that have stuck with me, and typically these are books that make me see things in a new way. There was always something about the suburban environment in toto that had always bothered me, but I had a hard time putting my finger on exactly what it was that […]
Matt Talbot: On marriage
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I WORKED IN PHONE-BASED TECH SUPPORT/CUSTOMER SERVICE for a company that made, among other things, custom-printed books that some people used as mementos for weddings. Every once in a while I’d get a call from a newly married woman who was having a … well, “fit” doesn’t capture the flavor of the […]
Matt Talbot: Work to be done
IN JUNE, ACCORDING TO THE U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, payroll employment increased by 288,000, and the unemployment rate decreased to 6.1 percent, the lowest during Obama’s presidency. (When he took office during the bursting of the real estate bubble, it was 7.6 percent and rising fast.) The June report was encouraging, for a number […]
Matt Talbot: More perfect
My Country ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing AMERICA IS A COMPELLING PLACE TO BEHOLD, in both the literal and more figurative uses of that word “behold.” Sometimes I love America as a child loves a father. This kind of love is the very etymology of the term “patriotism,” from […]
Matt Talbot: A second Civil War? Unthinkable. Here’s one step to help avoid it
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” — George Orwell I’VE MENTIONED BEFORE IN THIS SPACE that I have been worried about the long-term prospects for the survival of the United States as a unified and cohesive political entity. I still am. Before I get to the specific reasons […]
Matt Talbot: Why I care about Richmond
MY FAMILY MOVED TO BENICIA FROM RICHMOND when I was 13 ½ years old, on March 11, 1976. Benicia was a much smaller town then — Southampton existed, but only a couple blocks up from Southampton Road had been built out, and even in Old Town my parents’ house up on M Street had almost […]
Matt Talbot: The perils of utopianism
I’VE BEEN ENJOYING A NEW SERIES ON HBO, “Silicon Valley.” It is produced by Mike Judge, the man who made the 1999 cult hit “Office Space.” A running gag on the show is the conceit among the titans of tech that their inventions are “making the world a better place.” This idea ought to resonate […]
Matt Talbot: What happened to the future we were promised?
IN MY CHILDHOOD IN THE 1960S AND ’70S, I remember confident predictions of what life was going to be like in the 21st century: flying cars, sprawling bases on the moon, rocket planes flying from American airports up to wheeling space stations in low orbit, super-intelligent computers, mass production by robots enabling more leisure time […]