Tuesday we learned that Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes. As so often happens in these situations, that initially came as a relief but then was even more heartbreaking. I’ve been sitting on this very good remembrance of her by people who knew and admired her for a bit. Seems like the right time to finally share it.
Yes, she was controversial and ahead of her time, but aren’t all our favorite artists controversial and ahead of their time?! Isn’t that what art is for? To challenge us, to disturb us, and to break open our hearts?
The Unwavering Sinéad O’Connor
I love quizzes like these, especially since my results seemed perfect. My top three cites were Kansas City, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. I lived in or around Kansas City for 23 years and have lived in Indy for 20+ years. St. Louis? Well my first four years of school were in towns where the closest big city was St. Louis. While I might not have picked up the St. Louis accent – “Farty. Farty-far.” – it did have an influence on some of my vocabulary.
How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk
A great, multi-section, multi-media breakdown of the year in Twitter.
At first I resisted this article. Can we really learn anything new about the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Eventually I had to read it, though. This piece suggests that the official record points to clear CIA involvement. I believe the full, honest-to-goodness truth will never be discovered, as every person who could have answered that question is long gone, and their knowledge was, most likely, never fully documented.