Twenty years ago, on March 23, Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried was published. I read this marvelous, moving book last year. The things our solidiers carried in the Vietnam War…the guns, the boots, the rations…and the fear and anger and confusion and pain. O’Brien spoke on NPR this week. He talked about how hard it is – still – to talk about the war. “We don’t know how to talk about these things — where to start and where to end.” Read The Things They Carried.
MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, has acquired the @ sign for its collection. @ will be silk screened on to the wall, with its own museum sign explaining the origin. Fascinating. MOMA’s collection also includes ball bearings. @ and ball bearings, examples of good design. My art museum brother gave me a ball bearing for Christmas once. Big and heavy and hard to get through airport security. But there it sits, the ball bearing, amidst the ceramics in my house.
