Sidewalk Rating: Idyll
Had the renovations to the minister’s house on Basinghall Street followed an accelerated timetable, it’s likely that Priestley would have never stumbled across his “delightful Pyrmont water”; without the brewery, it’s possible the Priestley wouldn’t have thrown himself into the study of gases that dominated the next decade of his research. We tend to talk about the history of ideas in terms of individual genius and broader cultural categories – the spirit of the age, the paradigm of research. But ideas happen in specific physical environments as well, environments that bring their own distinct pressures, opportunities, limitations, happy accidents to the evolution of human understanding. Take Joseph Priestley out of Enlightenment culture, and deprive him of the scientific method, and his legendary streak no doubt disappears, or turns into something radically different. . But take Priestley out of Meadow Lane, and deprive him of his hours at the brewery, and you would likely get a different story as well.”
[Stephen Johnson, The Invention of Air.]
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| [Girl atop a duct tape and flowerpot guerrilla bus stop on East 7th Street in Saint Paul.] |
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I ride my bike instead of taking public transit because I’m too lazy to go to the store to buy bus tickets, and I am far too lazy to dig for loose change under my couch. I am also too lazy to transfer from the bus to the subway to the streetcar, preferring to ride directly to my destination without transfers.
Instead of walking 15 minutes to my destination, I ride my bicycle there in 5. Yes, I ride there because I am too lazy to walk.
I ride my bicycle past dozens of cars at rush hour because I’m too lazy to be stressed out sitting in traffic and too lazy to explain why I’m late all the time.
[this.]
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nyc
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treasure
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cycletrack
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japan
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theif
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It was a public space and I was right next to them and everyone in this city knows some English, but fine. If she wanted to keep talking to this guy, which nothing about her body language said she did, I’d leave it alone. I went back to my flashcards. They were silent for a couple more seconds before she added quietly and almost sadly, without looking at me, “We’re practicing. It’s a play.”
I do not know what this lie was for.
She went no further and continued looking nervous the whole time as he refused to leave her alone. I got off at Adenauerplatz like I meant to. I tried to do the right thing. I hope I did the right thing. I hope she is okay.
I want to talk to someone about this because I have no idea what the hell I just witnessed and I am kind of shaken up about it in a way I can’t really explain. Am I overreacting? Was this none of my business? Should I have done anything differently, or nothing at all?
[this.]
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