search for signs of intelligent life

for many years (little-known fun-fact that restaurant years are about the same as dog years) i worked in a cossetted environment with people who knew too much. they read widely and voraciously, saw all sorts of movies, theater and museum shows; they were curious, educated, well-traveled and sharp of wit. yes, we tend to surround ourselves with those most like ourselves, but our co-workers obviously are way more of a crap shoot.

my next job presented some viable sparring partners. and i still had the agile pillow talk of the g.c.

short trip, but next stop on the job pike offered slim mental pickings. crumbs, really. those my age were more concerned with golf or the style network. mostly the staff was young, and a truer representation of who winds up waiting tables and tending bar. nice and funny enough, but more concerned with after-work shooters than ballot initiatives. some of them even seem to be pursuing degrees, but they appear so utterly unconcerned with the general world, i'm too often dejected by their blithe obliviousness. lol, when i was their age, i worked summers going door-to-door for liberal political action committees, convinced i could make the water cleaner, or more people vote. i really truly thought *i* could make a difference. these kids don't even read the paper.

after asking just a few about their voter participation tuesday, i quickly grew disgusted by the apathy and lethargy. i stopped asking and shook off the anger. i guess.

the reservation was in her date's name, and we initially thought it would be his fairly powerful brother. she looked familiar. i circled once and then i was certain. anita hill. the madly coiffed hair was the key. not one other person recognized her face. worse still, nobody knew her name. i understand if somebody who was 9 or 10 at the time doesn't have total instant recall of current events from 1991. they were probably playing video games, and i hope their parents weren't discussing errant pubic hairs at the dinner table. but when i prodded those *old enough to know*, none of them did either. apparently i'm foolish for assuming people have an awareness of the world in which they live.

am i so old, or is she such a footnote? to me thomas remains such a figure of polarization, such the archetype of the politicization of the supreme court, (hellooooooooooooo #43!) i refuse to believe his judgeship remains the state of *normal*. or ... has it become so?

whatever it is, i'm sick to death of the brain-dead state in which most people seem to live.

(downtown the other day, a man was reading the plaque on the old state house, and i heard him say, "i always thought new england was a state.")

ack.