alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

November 19, 2005

An Evening With Tom Toles

by @ 8:26 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

A year and a half ago when I moved back to the DC area I had an idea for a website: the perspective of someone who had grown up in DC coming back to the area. I also had the living history of my mother. The story of her life includes Washington during the depression and World War II. My grandfather’s role was not exactly parenthetical, so that figured in, too. Technically, I’m a fourth-generation Washingtonian, but I’ve spent enough time in other parts, that I still say that I just moved here. Or, other times I’ll say I’m just coming back.

I had this odd moment when I was at the Sears at Montgomery Mall getting my car fixed (it’s technically called Westfield now, but the lingua franca still has it at Montgomery Mall) when the guy at the counter asked me how come I didn’t take my car to a shop in DC.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “it’s because my family has taken their cars to this very same Sears for roughly twice the amount of time you’ve been alive.” But aloud I said: “just wanted to shop.”

It was one of those moments when all memory of the past is open and available to be re-lived. When you say to yourself: “Of course, I’m here.” And then right afterwards: “How did I get here?”

In theory, you’re supposed to have moments of intense recollection when you’re at the Louvre, the Sphynx, or the Parthenon. In my case it was at the Sears auto shop, Montgomery Mall.

………………………………..

When I moved back to DC I had a personal aim to meet three people: Josh Marshall, Dan Froomkin, and Tom Toles. To badly paraphrase Bush, badly paraphrasing Al Gore, I didn’t know that I would complete the trifecta.

Last night, Tom Toles was at Politics&Prose talking about his anthology Now Who Do We Blame? I put together my recollections of Toles’ talk, which I have to put in the genius category, here. I hope you check it out.

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