"The picture was a picture of an octopus (suspended on a clothesline, hanging against the Aegean Sea), but it was also a subtle message that the person behind the camera was (1) traveling, (2) traveling to Greece, the summer-vacation spot of 2024, and not Puglia, the summer-vacation spot of 2023, and (3) not taking a selfie, but (4) you know, not just taking a picture of the Aegean Sea, which would be basic, unlike this one, which (5) managed a sort of high-low effect, given the octopus was dead and clipped to a clothesline. It would have been the perfect picture of an interesting summer, except everyone else was taking it too, stuck replicating one another in an effort to be perfectly interesting."
From
"Going Dull/Being interesting is a burden. Is there relief in choosing to be bland?" (NY Magazine).
I think the problem here isn't being interesting. It's trying to be interesting, AKA trying not to be dull. Just stop trying. Ironically, that's your only real shot at interestingness. Let the chips fall where they may.
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When do they announce the summer-vacation spot for 2025?
…and why is there a dash?
Angela Hayes: Yeah? Well, at least my vacation posts aren’t ugly!
Ricky Fitts: Yes, they are. And they’re boring, and they’re totally ordinary, and you know it.
Big deal. MY octopus photo was taken in Seoul, South Korea back in 1988 where the sidewalk snack vendors sell dried octopus on a stick.
So there.
On the other hand, I guess I prefer to see a picture of an octopus than yet ANOTHER picture of their French Bulldog.
Back when we had magazines, it was not unusual for all those on display at the local news stand to have the same or similar cover photos. Today every family has at least one SUV. And we all plant grass in our front yards. And we pay for our burger and fries with credit or debit cards. And the president of the United States of America is determined by majority vote.
We are no different than a herd of deer or a hive of bees.
Where do they hang their clothes?
That just made me think of the "turkraken" picture making the rounds this pre-Thanksgiving week.
My wife took a picture of an octopus on a clothesline in Greece, way, way back in 2021. Long before the cool kids were doing it.
I think she's responsible for the trend.
I understand TAKING vacation pictures. I do not understand PUBLICIZING those pictures beyond friends and family.
I've knuckled under on Christmas cards and we now do the awful "Christmas letter" and a card that's a photo of all of us (I used to make my own Christmas cards, some with like 20 steps, so local friends didn't get one because I only had so much time); my husband insisted. But my vacation pictures are private.
And oh geez, we wouldn't want to take a picture of JUST the Aegean - must have a sort of high-low effect!
Hrmph. I'd better have my coffee.
Kamala Harris was paying Instagammers literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to post 3 "influencer" posts supportive of her candidacy in order to falsely make it appear that she had grassroots support out in the country.
Do you understand now? These people are making BANK by first becoming influencers, then selling out to the highest bidder.
So, showing off by NOT showing off. Nothing new. Walk around Ballsbridge in Dublin, and you will notice that the most expensive Mercedes autos have no model numbers on them, certainly no AMG badges (unless it's the well known British MMA fighter Conor McGregor). If you know, you know.
They're trying to convince themselves that they are interesting and their life is full of joy.
Humblebragging is an old, old, old activity. Go into the major catehdrals of Europe--big donor memorials on the walls, in the floor, etc. Go to former Roman cities--big cemeteries along the roads just outside.
Their souls tell them to show off but their heads try to stay grounded. Actions speak louder than words.
Interesting would be going to Detroit, attending a hockey game there, and watching octopuses be tossed onto the ice from the 3rd deck.
Has it ever been different, anywhere, anytime?
They're trying to convince themselves that they are interesting and their life is full of joy.
A guilty pleasure of mine is the new version of Jumanji, the one with Dwayne Johnson et al. In an early scene, the beautiful girl character, fully done up, meticulously rearranges her cappuccino, her hair, her position, and then takes a selfie that she posts with the caption (I'm recreating the quote from memory as it's not coming up quickly on YouTube) "Just woke up #nofilter #lovemylife."
Eventually - spoiler alert - she is inserted into the Jumanji videogame as a dumpy middle-aged dude played by Jack Black, and remarkably cute hilarity ensues, and you end up rooting for her.
The lesson I take from from this is that even the most shallow person may have, or be able to develop, depths that make knowing her* rewarding. Live in hope!
(*As usual, I'm employing my personal grammatical convention of using my own pronoun as the generic pronoun.)
Also: I feel uneasy about eating octopus these days. They're so smart. Sentience in my foodstuffs bothers me...
octopus suspended on a clothesline
That looks like multiple octopuses on meat hooks.
"It's trying to be interesting" Is it? Or is it trying to be coolish in just the right way to fit in, be recognized, and belong?
Gosh, the writer knows a bunch of idiots.
Dating apps are filled with this crap. Every other profile is taken on the same Greek islands, or some mural in Nashville, or a hiking picture.
back when i went to Glacier Natl Park (in 2005ish?), the was -- i Swear to GOD --
a sign that said; "if you take a picture RIGHT HERE, it will look like ALL THOSE POSTCARDS, that you've seen a HUNDRED times.
I'm actually SURE, that i imagined the sign; because otherwise i would have taken a picture.. Of The Sign.
But Still.
If you're taking a pic that you've seen professionals take.. WHY are YOU wasting your time? Really think You'll do it better?
people only think something is happening, *if* they can see it on their phone. It's happening RIGHT in front of them, but NOPE.. Gotta look at the phone, while taking a snap.
Protip: put your phone DOWN, and Try using your eyes.
the latest (post election) trend; is crying and screaming out of control, on your tictok page.
We're supposed to believe, that the poor little girl was SO RACKED WITH GRIEF; that ALL SHE COULD DO is cry and scream..
that is, all she could do is cry and scream, After during on her key lights and turning on her phone.
Staged things look staged
"why is there a dash?"
To make "summer vacation" into an adjective.
Compare:
I feel good.
This is a feel-good blog.
The blog this morning is a tribute to the Dylan song "Clothes Line Saga":
The next day everybody got up
Seeing if the clothes were dry
The dogs were barking, a neighbor passed
Mama, of course, she said, “Hi”
“Have you heard the news?” he said with a grin
“The Vice-President’s gone mad!”
“Where?” “Downtown” “When?” “Last night”
“Hmm, say, that’s too bad”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” said the neighbor
“It’s just something we’re gonna have to forget”
“Yes, I guess so,” said Ma
Then she asked me if the clothes were still wet
I can’t eat octopus any more because they seem sentient, much more intelligent and self-aware than any other animal I’ve come across. I can’t imagine hanging one from a clothesline for a photograph. I wouldn’t even do that to a dog or cat, let alone another sentient creature.
In my experience, the old rich (the old, very rich) place a value on their privacy and anonymity that far exceeds that of common man. A good part of it is defensive in nature, not wanting to attract the wrong sort of attention and interest.
Oh, my friend, we are very, very different from herds of deer and hives of bees. Those things you list are all amazing and unusual. You should thank God you live a life where you can forget that fact.
Tomorrow is a special day set aside for doing just that.
Classic NY neurosis...the desperate pursuit of appearing to be different, edgy.
I know what you mean. That's why I only eat the tentacles.
Mine was taken in 2024 at Bolhao Market, Porto, Portugal. Octopus snacks.
When I went to Greece I took a picture of the Parthenon — from an angle that show how the columns in the outer row look vertical but actually slant inwards to help handle the weight of the roof. Outstanding combination of aesthetics and engineering from 2500 years ago.
An octopus may be sentient, but it's not cute. I don't think that they're at all photogenic. If I ever went to the seashore in Greece, I'd take a lot of photos of girls in bikinis.
Interesting. I didn’t go to Greece in 2024 nor Pulgia in 2023. I still don’t have a desire to do so.
I do agree with the F1 drivers that the marijuana smell in Las Vegas is out of hand.
Whats the "2025 vacation spot"? Has NYT's told us yet? I'm on pins and needles.
And everyone I know voted for Harris. I don't know a single person who voted for Trump. /s
How clueless are these people?
Nobody I know went to Greece this summer.
I guess i don't know the right people.
…but the descriptors work without the hyphen. Can they be misread without the hyphen? I say no but will hear oral arguments. Using it for the sake of grouping looks pretentious or like AI wrote it following a rule in a line of code…
summer spot, vacation spot.
Summer is actually a descriptor for vacation, not spot.
After everything has been said and done and nothing and no one is original anymore, the demand to be original and unique continues to mount. This will come to a head someday, and either we will content ourselves to be as regimented and indistinguishable as our robots, or we will rise up and destroy the entire technological system, so that we can think of ourselves as individuals again.
How do we know that octopuses/octopi really are that smart? Are there things that they can figure out that other animals can't? Are there things that they could teach us?
Why does Greece still let wealthy tourists grab it by its octopussy?
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
I'm in SoCal for thanksgiving. It's cold and overcast. I'm here for the people not the views. Cool little restaurant here called "American Grub" good food. Reasonable and I told the owner I'd mention it on the interwebs.
I'm in SoCal for thanksgiving. It's cold and overcast. I'm here for the people not the views. Cool little restaurant here called "American Grub" good food. Reasonable and I told the owner I'd mention it on the interwebs.
Is it the same octopus?
In Greece, 40-some years ago, I was in an oceanside campground sipping Retsina with the Greek couple who were camped next to me. The guy got up and walked off to the beach holding a fishgig, came back twenty minutes later with an octopus in hand. We spent the next hour taking turns beating the tentacles against a rock to tenderize it. He grilled it on the fire and we ate it, with lemon. Fantastic. No photos.
The octopus seems to be the aquatic version of the shmoo.
My theory is that octopi are really aliens who came to earth from a water world.
I prefer to go on vacation in November/December when it is is nice and cool and quiet.
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