Worthwhile reads

[strawman]

Stuff to read and think about or enjoy. Clone of the awesome videos thread, but for text. Please include a snippet or lead-in so people know what they're about to read.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/126619568.html

Short, thoughtful, sad - description of one truck driver's day and some of the problems and pressures they face.

Let me tell you a little about the truck driver you just flipped off because he was passing another truck, and you had to cancel the cruise control and slow down until he completed the pass and moved back over...

 

[Philosopher B.]

http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/07/wf041307.htm

The Big Space Fuck, by Kurt Vonnegut, is about a rocket ship with eight-hundred pounds of freeze dried jizzum in it its nose.

 

[PatrThom]

The ever-popular Pearls Before Breakfast asks the question: If an internationally-renowned concert violinist plays in a subway station, will anyone care?

--Patrick

 

[sixpackshaker]

The ever-popular Pearls Before Breakfast asks the question: If an internationally-renowned concert violinist plays in a subway station, will anyone care?

--Patrick

That was actually fairly sad. But, most commuters would miss their train/bus if they stopped for a few seconds.

 

[strawman]

White Tiger

The story about an indian businessmans driver.

Linky: (wow, the paperback is cheaper than the kindle edition...)
http://www.amazon.com/White-Tiger-Novel-Aravind-Adiga/dp/1416562605/

 

[Chad Sexington]

The ever-popular Pearls Before Breakfast asks the question: If an internationally-renowned concert violinist plays in a subway station, will anyone care?

--Patrick

Yeah this annoys me. There are a lot of buskers with talent, who sound great who I just can't spare the time to listen to. It's not because I'm cultureless and uncaring; I'm not in the damn subway to station to listen to music! I have somewhere to be. If I have time and I like the music, I stop, throw in some change and listen for a bit. But this article acts like every commuter has guilty thoughts while walking by. Ridiculous, I never do. I didn't invite them, I'm not taking something for nothing, they're giving something in hopes I'll pay, but we haven't got some contract to honour. There's no guilt to be had! He then moves to explain that, okay, fine it's not because we don't appreciate beauty, it's because we don't appreciate life. But he's caught all of these people at their time to go to work. He's passing the judgment that they don't have leisure time at all, which is silly. We can't all afford to be late for our jobs; most of us think that's disrespectful at best and at worst it's lost money. People know how to enjoy their lives, and they also know when to enjoy them.

 

[fade]

THANK YOU. That was my first thought the first time I saw that story. You can see great talent in the subways all the time. When all you catch is a few bars in an overcrowded subway station, you can't possibly expect to know the difference.

 

[fade]

If you remove the highly biasing dead sister part, the truck driver story could be quite similar to the story of the angry car driver. Maybe he or she is rushing to work because being late means losing profit, but he left late because that was the only time he could see his daughter, etc. etc.