Word: firstly
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...interesting that you use that word. It seems like there is a ritual, in a sense, to the way conversations play out. You identify stages that conversations go through. When people meet each other for the first or second time, there is a sort of architecture in their talk. People are tentative at first. There's a certain kind of greeting formula that takes place as things develop. People become aware of things in common. Sometimes it's meaningless, like they both spent a week in the Ukraine, or neither of them has ever seen a football game...
When I was first started working in New York, I had a friend who convinced me that the best way to become a better conversationalist was to spend a lot of time in bars. Part of the rationale was that other than drinking or maybe playing pool, all you do at a bar is talk to people, many of whom you don't actually know. Is this a valid strategy? The problem is, it depends on what kind of person you are. If you like that kind of slightly alcohol-fueled intimacy or quick sharing, it's fine...
...excellent) essay on ChatRoulette, New York magazine's Sam Anderson approaches his first foray into the video streams with "an open mind and an eager soul," seeing the Whitmanesque potential in the "ecstatic surrender to the miraculous variety and abundance of humankind." Sorry, Sam, but I'm no Internet naïf. I've plumbed the depths of the Web, and one thing I've learned is that when you give anyone an open platform with anonymity and no moderating, it inevitably gets overrun by the lowest common denominators: trolls, exhibitionists and an endless stream of hopeful men prodding women...
...wasn't a flattering comparison. In the meantime, Kissel can apply to be released on bail, and her lawyers have already started to argue publicly that the media circus surrounding her first trial will make it impossible for her to get a fair hearing. As he told reporters last week, "Can the milk-shake murderer get a fair trial in Hong Kong? Probably not." In the end, that might just be her strongest argument...
...time of 3 min. 13.085 sec. over four runs, 0.679 faster than his fellow countryman David Moeller. And while the event retained its festive feel - a giddy Loch hoofed it up and waved the flag like, well, a 20-year-old kid who was his luge-obsessed country's first men's gold medal in a dozen years - the awful memories of last week's accident still loomed. "It's always there," said Moeller after winning his silver medal. "Lots of my teammates say they can't look at the pictures from the accident ... It was a dark...