Burnin’

Hill’s spitting fire in Ohio. The former First Lady doesn’t like people to criticize her. You’d think she’d be used to it by now, but maybe it’s not something one gets used to.

“I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

According to The New York Times, The Great Gatsby is required reading at half the high schools in the country and resonates powerfully among urban adolescents, many of them first- and second-generation immigrants, who are striving to ascend in 21st-century America.

Thanks to this scholastic market, the books sells more than a half million copies a year.

The article looks at Jinzhao Wang, who has been studying Gatsby in her sophomore English class at the Boston Latin School. She says, “My green light is Harvard,” comparing her longing for an elite education to Jay Gatsby’s longing for Daisy Buchanan.

One of the things that interests me about this book is how it acts as a filter for your own experience. If you’re in high school, the book tends to be aspirational. Gatsby appears heroic in his striving and he’s a charming guy to boot. But that reading morphs into something else altogether when you’re at Bard wearing black turtlenecks. Then the book is pure condemnation. It’s an exposé on the hollowness of the American dream.

I’m not in school, and it’s been a while since I’ve reread The Great Gatsby. But I love Fitzgerald for his language and his choice of subject matter.

Port Royal is a charming community tucked into the marsh between Paris Island and Beaufort. It has an historic downtown like Beaufort, Bluffton and Savannah. Hilton Head doesn’t offer this, and it’s a flaw in their carefully-crafted design, in my opinion.

See more Port Royal on Flickr

One of our favorite restaurants in the area, Bateaux, recently relocated to historic Port Royal from Lady’s Island. Today, we ventured over to try Old Towne Coffehaus and McPhearson’s Serious BBQ, both of which were excellent.

We walked around a bit and saw lots of For Sale signs on homes and business properties. We also saw a new development going in, and evidence of others. Port Royal, like Bluffton, is being discovered. Marshfront living is alluring, there’s no doubt about that.

Before heading back to this side of the Broad we motored up to Boundary Street to find Higher Ground in its new location. Of course, my shoe radar went off and it brought me in direct contact with a pair of Keen’s in my size at 50% off retail. Who can resist a bargain?

Interestingly, there’s a new microbrewery in town in the next retail bay over from Higher Ground. Brewer’s Brewing Co. is a 7 bbl, 90 seat brewpub and claims to be a green operator. I ordered a Brickyard IPA and was impressed with the intense hop profile. Brewer’s says it’s one “for all you hop heads out there” and it is.

p.s. While drinking iced espresso at the Coffeehaus, I picked up the front page of today’s Charleston Post & Courier and smiled when I saw my friend Phil Sellers there. The paper is interested in his CityTrex startup, as well they should be.

This map shows that the population of New York City is equal to the population of four western states and Maine.

[via very small array]

[UPDATE] I also like these maps of Manhattan neighborhoods.

With both candidates claiming victory, I had to click through several sources today to get a sense for last night’s winner on the Democrat side. Finally, I found this MSNBC report which says, “it looks like Obama, by the narrowest of margins, won last night’s delegate hunt. By our estimates, he picked up 840 to 849 delegates versus 829-838 for Clinton; the Obama camp projects winning by nine delegates (845-836). He also won more states (13 to Clinton’s eight; New Mexico is still outstanding), although she won the most populous ones (California and New York).”

Yet, Clinton maintains a slight delegate lead going in to the next round of primaries.

2025 delegates are needed to be nominated.

[UPDATE] The troubling thing about the race being this close is the fact that Democratic Party super-delegates will likely decide the nominee. Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation says the Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system that includes 842 “super-delegates” - un-pledged party leaders not chosen by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.

In a clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure was created following George McGovern’s landslide defeat in 1972. It was designed to prevent a nominee who was “out of sync with the rest of the party,” Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer told MSNBC.