My Favorite Pass Time

My favorite pass time has very quickly become reading the New York Times online.

While in the states I did this daily, this habit has quickly taken on a far more prominent role in my day to day sanity. And it has evolved. I greatly prefer reading the Style section, particularly Fashion & Style, for obvious reasons, but also for causes less expected.

Fashion is fun. The world is poor, it's crumbling, it's all politics and death. The appeal here is less, shall we say, magnetic? Rather than reading about the spread of TB in the rubble that was once Port Au Prince, or how little money 911 workers are going to receive for their injuries sustained durring cleanup without proper safety equipment, I like to hear about the latest at Lanvin, at Balenciaga, the cutbacks at Zac Posen, the Chanel sword. (I know, brilliant: a veritable confection created for American born musician William Christie's induction into Académie des Beaux-Arts, the highest French cultural honor.)

I read the Home Page, the World page, and the New York/Region too. That's how much time I have on my hands. But it is regimented: first the serious stuff, the scary and the bad. Then, I linger, for hours at a time, in the Style section, Fashion & Style, before jumping to Arts. Books, movies, theatre, I read it all even if I won't read or see it really. I skip back to Style for Dining & Wine, Home & Garden, Weddings/Celebrations. (I can't help it, Weddings/Celebrations is the guiltiest of all my online pleasures. I don't know any of those people so I don't feel the least bit guilty hating them, the stylish pigs.)

Weddings/Celebrations is the only link I don't post to friend's emails. It is undoubtedly me alone who delights in this slight section of the publication. Everything else is fair game.

Before I know it, I've remembered about my other favorite afternoon pass time, internet television, were I can get caught up on Big Love and find new programs to add to the regimen.

Before I know it, the time to exit the house has come, and another afternoon has passed in a haze of American politics, French fashion, and Haitian despair.