Youtube star

The Internet is quickly defining my generation. Perhaps it already has. Our attention spans are shorter then ever and our shock tolerances are through the roof. I am sent links to videos on youtube by friends and colleagues regularly.

The anonymous people that appear in these two-to-four minute clips I rarely recognize. (Unless, of course, they are famous; Crispin Glover on David Letterman, for example.) But often one wall of a bedroom is the only clue one has to a back-story.

The other day, I was sent a video by an old college friend. I recognized the face, lip syncing “Down in Mexico” in the small youtube box, immediately.

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When compromise is a recipe for disaster

By JOE LEVINE

Everybody has to compromise sometime. Most of us, most of the time. But sometimes you can’t, because the stakes are too high. Times like when your family’s health or property are threatened, you can’t compromise. Don’t be mistaken; this is one of those times. We’ve been told by friends out West that if the gasmen come, it will never be the same.

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