This American Life repeated a show recently about cringing (Episode 182 from 4/13/01, no way to link directly to this episode). It covered why someone cringes, what it means to cringe, and people's most cringe-worthy episodes. Highlights included a woman's story about dating a hari krishna, and a nightmarish MASH interview by Ira Glass. (It's actually kinda refreshing to learn that Ira is human, but we wouldn't wish his interview on anyone.) Point being that we, too, were once anti-corporate rebels, but unfortunately, most of our anti-corporate memories make us totally cringe. (You should see pics from college.) In his post, Ed Batista points to a larger story about "the end of authenticity (or more accurately, the end of perceived, manufactured and marketed 'authenticity')." We like that phrase, "marketed authenticity." We had that beaten out of us when we worked for a non-profit, and pretty much learned all the lessons that Ed Champion links to. It's harder, sometimes, to let go of "marketed authenticity" when its associated with nobility, as opposed to cool-ness. Spuds MacKenzie was "cool," but we all saw through that easily, or if we couldn't, quickly grew tired of it. But disabusing ourselves of a notion that art was worth putting up with insane amounts of bu11$h!+, because it was for an ideal, was much harder. Which is why, although Burning Man art is beautiful, we can't fully trust it. We want to, we just can't. The pier, on the other hand, we fully support.

Don't get us wrong, it's not like we're suddenly paranoid, metaphor-oblivious conservatives whose only reaction to allegory is literal-minded fear, but we're not, we fear, cool enough for a tattoo either.

This week, the blog that most personifies us is Taxi Vignettes, posed to make a decision, trying to remember how she got where she is, wondering which direction to turn next. On the other hand, if you ask the woman of the house, she'll tell you the blog post most like us this week is Greg's. What can we say? We like the electronics.

Pic from Espied In SF. Don't go out without your smiley buddy!