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Ralph's avatar

In Nov. 1978, I spent two weeks w/ a high school friend backpacking in the Grand Canyon When we came out, we went to a local convenience store near the South Rim for supplies. Out front was a newspaper box (remember those?), with an improbable headline splashed across the front— “900 dead in Jonestown.” The juxtaposition, the obscene dissonance (cognitive and otherwise, then and now) – is dizzying.

Always grateful for your humanizing gaze on our long arc of madness

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Mark Slouka's avatar

“Obscene dissonance” captures in two words what I was trying to get at, what I (and you, and so many others) grapple with daily. This battle for balance may be the new normal, but at least we’ve got company, right?

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David Roberts's avatar

Your essay has inspired me to create a new ratio rule: Seinfeld/News must be greater than or equal to four, where "Seinfeld" is the time spent watching reruns and News is the time spent with the news. Ideally, the ratio should be irrational.

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