Random musings of the day

Between planning for a trip, reading various 11 September 2001-related articles that might or might not be interesting enough to mention here, watching a surprisingly entertaining early effort by Robert Preston (Big City, also Betty Garrett's first role), and catching up on the rest of the news, I don't find myself much motivated to write about anything in particular. Nevertheless, a few random thoughts came to mind that I'll share because, well, I can.

• I'm slightly befuddled by the air of sentimentality accompanying some of the remembrances of the twin towers. Didn't most people loathe them? I seem to recall that a lot of people considered them sterile, ugly, Johnny-come-latelies to the skyline, undeservedly taking the spotlight from the Empire State Building.
• I wish I hadn't chickened out of asking the cutlery guy how to tell if my kitchen knives are hopelessly dull. I didn't want to find out I needed hundreds of dollars worth of new cutlery, but cutting veggies tonight was a more frustrating exercise than it should have been.
• I like Anthony Bourdain, but it's way past time he dropped the ordinary-Joe pretense. A lot of doors are opened by the lights and cameras, and most of the rest are courtesy of local fixers his producers line up. Stop pretending you're just one of us, Tony: you're a celebrity, however minor, and that gets you places we'll never see and experiences we'll never have.
• I wish I had seen Jonathan Rauch's "Caring for Your Introvert" in the Atlantic back in 2003 when it first appeared. It would have saved me a lot of bad decisions and wasted time. (At some point I'll compose a paean to The Introvert Advantage, easily the most important book I've read in years.) Introversion is so poorly understood, you should read Rauch's piece whether or not you think you're introverted.
• McCoy Tyner is one of our national treasures. He blows me away with every performance. (By the way, to whomever maintains his site: you might want to freshen it up, hmm? He has had releases since Guitars, I'm pretty sure.)