Say it again: September 2006

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sayitagain.jpgA review of my favorite posts from September …

(Plus highlights of my other blog, Wade on Birmingham.)

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Lone star | seeing Texas for the first time

You won’t see much beyond the thin sliver of highway winding along hills and the occasional mesa. Even the cattle and deer shy away from the road. Above, the sky yawns blue with streaks of wispy white clouds. It isn’t too hot yet, and we are heading to meet ranchers. Fence, mesquite, cactus, repeat.

For hundreds of miles, this is the pasture land of West Texas.

Mr. Shawn Colvin | the singer-songwriter of my dreams

I started with “Fat City,” then began to track down her previous discs. And I’ve been adding to the collection just as fast as she puts them out.

She talks openly about her 22-year battle with depression these days, along with her career twists and turning 50. As always, I am taken by her frankness, her toughness, her lyricism.

It’s who I am | 41 things you now know about me

6. I exude confidence, though it can appear to others as cockiness or arrogance. This is not the case.
7. I open up after a while. It’s usually worth it.
8. I have made peace with my nerdiness.
9. I speak the language of machines.

Flying 2006 | Random vignettes from the world of passenger air travel

The worst part of US Airways’ decline is the nonstop shill foisted upon us passengers. The sad male flight attendant didn’t offer snacks or drinks. Instead, he walked up and down the aisle, always facing the back of the plane, with a fan array of application brochures for the airline-branded credit card.

Complex-city | my hometown in three words

On my travels through North Carolina this week, I met someone who had worked in my hometown, Birmingham, on temporary assignment.

He brilliantly summed up our fair city in one short observation: “Birmingham, it’s complicated.”

Make it up | you’re more creative than you think

Mike asked me during our regular smoke break about the ties that bind. What was it that loosely connected our group: same alma mater, smarts, working in media?

But it’s not that.

We’re all bound by our creativity, our passion to express ourselves in innovative ways.

Kiss and tell | recalling the first time we kissed

To me, every first kiss is a first kiss. T. counters that only one kiss can be the first kiss. Mine was age 13 or 14, at a summer camp that was really an enrichment program in small town Georgia.

To teach his own 3 | passionate teachers are successful teachers

Engaging students is what teachers do best, or worst. If a teacher doesn’t care about the topic — or worse, the students — it shows.

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