Monday, March 27, 2006

The Ghost of Fargo...

FargoMy pal Kate has pointed me to a very cool Web site that traces Fargo's story through photographs and beautiful old postcards. I think Kate has done me the favor in return for having reintroduced hotdish to her life.

The author of the site is James Lileks, author of such books as Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice, The Gallery of Regrettable Food, and Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s.

You would not, apparently, be incorrect if you supposed there was a snarky tone running through the these books.

But Lileks is really quite tender toward Fargo, his hometown:This site is not intended as a historical account of Fargo or downtown - just a recollection of Fargo through the medium of postcards. I should note that the city has grown bigger than I could ever have imagined; that I am proud to have been born and raised there; and that I've spent more of my life in Minneapolis than Fargo, but Fargo is home in a way Minneapolis can never be. I remember it when it was smaller, when it seemed alone, and when it was my entire world. Never so big that I felt afraid, and never so small that there wasn't something new to discover.

As a teenager, I thought Fargo was a prison sentence. Consider this my apology.

posted by Tom at 11:46 AM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Snarky" - you should forget law and write for EntertainMe Meekly.

First use of "snarky": 9/16/94, Issue 240: "NOW THAT ARSENIO'S WOOFED HIS LAST, HERE'S JONNY": "Like his 1993-94 half-hour MTV talk show, the hour-long Jon Stewart Show (syndicated; check local listings) will be a shabby-chic affair, specializing in offbeat decor, offbeat guests, and offbeat banter (Stewart once introduced Michael J. Fox this way: "You know him from his very famous role as Tootie on The Facts of Life..."). The new program, which has also imported Stewart's oddball MTV sidekick, Howard Feller, will showcase plenty of baby-buster musical heroes (Sonic Youth, the Meat Puppets) and in general will maintain that same snarky, slackerly attitude that made his original show one of MTV's hottest nonmusical series."

Last use of "snarky": 3/31/2006 Issue 870: "TUBE TOPS": "Pardon the Interruption (ESPN, Mon.--Fri., 5:30 p.m.) Yin-and-yang hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon balance smarts and snark in this breezy affair that makes every day 'happy time!'"

Number of uses in between: 157.

Source: EBSCOHost Masterfile Premier. (They've probably used it since that last citation, but it hasn't hit the online database yet.)

Evidently, all you need to get a job at EntertainMe Meekly is to know how to spell "snarky" and all its variants. So you've passed their bar already.

1:35 PM  

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