Beatlemania!

I went to Borders during lunch yesterday, and what should I discover there but:
Pretty much the most important Beatles book ever! On the bargain shelf, for $5.99! Three hundred glossy color pages of encyclopedic Beatles knowledge, listing every concert, recording session, TV/radio appearance, movie filming, and anything else anyone might want to know. I can't even tell how many times Allan Pollack refers to this text. Exciting!
What's more, earlier this month, I found in a used bookstore this little gem:

I don't know much about this book, except that it's really cool as well. It's a little-known collection of the Daily Mirror's articles and photographs of the Beatles in the 1960's. Not much information value, but better for photos than Lewisohn.
My collection of Beatles literature has swollen quite a bit while I've been here. But, put a good/rare offer before me, and I'll be forced to take it. When in my life would I have ever found the first book so cheap, or the latter one at all? God only knows.
That was going to be my concluding photo, but now I just have to comment: By their hair, I'm guessing this photo is from late 1963/early 1964. At this time, John would have been 22, Paul 21, Ringo 22, and George 20. These guys were young! They were my age, and on top of the world! I don't know about others, but to me they look very adult. Obviously still youthful, with the ooing and shaking their heads, but the suits just give them so much more dignity. If that's the right word. Anyway, just had to marvel about that and wonder whether if I'd played my cards right, I could be in that same position today. I'll sign off then with this even earlier photo, from (I believe) their September 4, 1962 session recording "Love Me Do."

Why can't we let the people work it out?

Well, I guess my loyal readers deserve another update from me. It's late and I can't sleep, so you're now getting one, much to the dismay of my wakefulness come tomorrow morning.
I've started reading Huck Finn. A few weeks ago, I realized I'd never really read a classic American novel (from that century at least), so it was time. Got a copy at the used bookstore near where we live. I must say, that's one of the most perfect novels I've ever read. It never drags, it has a great story, deep characters, and I've never encountered better humor (in fiction) than Twain. For one of our classes, we have a final paper where we choose any topic that we can relate to Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, and I've decided to do mine as a comparison between Huck Finn and Democracy in America: showing how what Tocqueville sees with regards to race, individualism, literature, morality, family, and religion is also observed by Twain through Huck Finn. Or something like that.
Work is okay. It's kind of fun working there, but I think it may be only because I have the assurance that I won't be working at AAAS past a certain date. It has been a good experience, and I've seen a lot of the stuff I wanted to when coming here, but this internship has also shown me that I really don't want an office job for some fifty-odd years of my life--but I think I already knew that.
I write as much as I can in my free time. I need to really "sharpen my craft," as I call it, and hopefully get some more things published, so I can at least have some kind of portfolio to show for myself whenever I hit the career market. Whenever that will be.
This writing here doesn't count. This writing here sucks. This is single draft 3 AM writing.
I want to learn Chinese. Once I've done this, I'll go to China, and start a travel blog there. I will have 5 entries for 10 months.
My economics professor here is the best teacher I've ever had in my life. Seriously. Thomas Rustici, econ professor at George Mason. Before coming here, I had never really formed any strong thoughts about economics, but now I'm becoming a semi-psychotic libertarian. And I like it. Not libertarian like Philip Brooks (that term probably is too socialistic for him, he once defined himself on his facebook as "anarcho-capitalist"), but very disenchanted with the way the government handles economic policy. I'll amend that, it's too weak: I'm extremely baffled and upset and frustrated by politicians' eternal habit of putting needless regulations and taxes on the market, saying that they're helping the people, and oftentimes just needlessly killing a few unlucky citizens and making everyone else's life much, much worse. Professor Rustici has quite a few personal stories that relate the subject to him very ... personally.
In the lecture on minimum wage (hands down the best class lecture I've ever sat in), he told us through tears about his grandfather who immigrated here from Sicily, and while providing the money for a middle-class existence in the '30s, lost his eyesight. He lost his job, and in a few months, the family had spent all their savings, sold all their furniture, taken their older son (my professor's father) out of fifth grade to work 16 hour days in a bakery, and were still so hungry they at one point had to ask their neighbor for the weeds they picked out of their garden to eat. Eventually their catholic church set up a collection for them, and congregation members provided the parents with enough low-paying work to pay for putting meat on the table one night per week (the son never returned to school). But these jobs they were working paid below minimum wage, and when the federal government found out about it, they harassed the family and threatened to put them in jail for making less than minimum wage. They finally had to go do the work secretly in the basement of the church, and were able to make it through the rough years.
Well the class actually applauded when he finished that lecture, and it's certainly been the most powerful one, but he always has the best personal anecdotes and historical examples to back up his points. I'm serious: if everyone in this blamed country even just heard one lecture of this, so many terrible politicians and government economists would lose their jobs that, why, we'd have money! Imagine that. I think I may try to put this class into book form one day. Seriously.

Youth and its uses

Last week I went to meeting being held at a law firm about the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Normally these things are a speaker behind a podium giving a lecture to a crowd of people who are there because their company is watching what's going on with the policy in question. This one was totally different: the twenty or so of us in attendance sat at a big executive table, and the guy at the head was just kind of leading a discussion.
Problem with this was, everyone else in there was some kind of gray-haired lawyer or professional. Not to mention that it was a meeting held by the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. And Matt Brandenburgh. And these guys really looked Jewish. Like they might own CNN and FOX and New York Times, and that's just one of em. Talk about intimidation.
But really, it wasn't that bad. Before the talk began, everyone was just casually chatting and getting to know each other, which was very friendly. One guy, on finding out I go to UGA, said that was his neice's first choice, but she's having trouble getting in because she's out-of-state and three or four others had already gotten in from her high school. This basically began a discussion by everyone of how good state schools are, which made me feel kinda special.
But being in these kinds of settings has caused me to reflect on my age and its meaning here in Washington. Everywhere I go, I'm easily the youngest person there. This really has a lot of special uses. Whenever I meet some foundation head or vice president of something or what have you, there's always an obligatory sort of "I'm still undergrad, so don't expect me to know anything about anything." It feels sheepish at first, but really this makes things a lot easier; suddenly no one expects anything from you, and they're just impressed that you're up here at 20 years old hobnobbing with congressmen and other sundry politicos. It seems like my age really has a disarming effect on experienced professionals. They seem to be actually interested in what I'm studying, what my plans are, what I'm doing up here, where I'm living, and how I like it. A lot of them offer whatever help they can, giving me their card or whatever advice they think would be most useful.
At this age, I'm too young to be their competition. In their eyes, I may just be the next JFK or Bob Woodward or *gasp* Bob Dylan. Their future's pretty set in their minds--they know where they're going to be when they retire. With a 20-year-old, there's no upper limit to where I might go, it's all there for the taking. They might just want to be a part of that. All they can tell is that I've taken the initiative to come here and get started.
What's more, being a college student allows you to look scruffy and be late. I usually have hair that is outside the Washingtonian look. That's okay for a student. If I was 23 and starting my career, I'd have to look as serious as possible all the time. Now, I can be late and everyone just thinks, "Oh, he's young and carefree, how wonderful!" And if I'm ever looking really sharp or being very punctual, it makes an even better impression. You can almost do no wrong. There's some magic about that.
I just had to post about that cool feeling. I'm going to have to enjoy it while I'm here; next time, I'm sure this won't be the case. I'll have joined the race, hopefully not to fall on my face, and make a big disgrace. As I've always said, that's just the way the breadcrumb crinkles.