(The structure of this post is inspired by some carpet samples I picked up today — if you could see them, you would know what I was talking about. But really, how many of us think that much about carpet samples?)

I'll confess: I'm conflicted about quirk. I listen to and love This American Life, but many a quirky movie has caused me to roll my eyes. (I was more than a bit annoyed by both Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State, and The Life Aquatic was the only Wes Anderson movie that really won my heart.) If the choices are quirk or snark, though, I'll take quirk any day.

Quirk and wonder must be cousins, or at least frequent the same coffee shop in Brooklyn. Melvin Jules Bukiet takes on Brooklyn writers at The American Scholar. (via The Guardian) I would never have thought to put Alice Sebold in a category with these other writers, but fair dues. I'm not quite sure I'd go along with the public shaming, though. I wasn't a big fan of the Sebold book, but I'm afraid I'm more than guilty of this type of writing myself, even while it makes my skin crawl elsewhere. I wonder how many of these writers cringe at their own wonder, at their own nostalgia?

Andrew Womack does not make me cringe with his nostalgia. He's up to 1986 (did I miss a year?) in his retrospective of great albums for The Morning News. Go listen to one of my favorite Smiths songs. I think this has been the best year so far... who knew 1986 was so great?

Possibly not the Estonians, who were busy worrying about how to free themselves from Soviet oppression. But they're nostalgic too, in their own way. Why is Estonia stuck in the past? As the Hungarians, Poles, and Balts become more successful and more self-confident, it's natural that they want their stories told, their issues discussed. A brief look at the fog of history that has settled over Eastern Europe.

Out of that fog, two great old friends of mine have been doing pretty well for themselves in Latvia, one in the hip-hop scene, and the other as a video director. So of course it makes sense that one would do the video for the other. The result is a fantastic animated clip. (via Onkulis, indicating I owe my friends an e-mail)

Lastly, a loose thread: I started cultivating the soil in my little patch of the internet a year ago today. This makes this blog a year old, and a Libra:

Your way with words is helping you in every aspect of your life from career to romance. Whatever you need to say, you can find precisely the right phrasing to get your point across perfectly.