Sidney Awards

[Update 12/30/09: A second batch of Sidneys has been chosen.]

Every year, David Brooks, an opinion columnist for the New York Times, gives out Sidney Awards to the best magazine essays of the year. I spent at least an hour reading Matt Labash's "A Rake's Progress" yesterday and laughed out loud from the writer's expert analogies. Take, for example, this description of Washington D.C.'s Ward 8, the poorest ward in the district.

For decades, Ward 8 has been the crime and poverty and every-other-dubious-statistic headquarters of D.C. It is the land that the real estate bubble forgot. Amidst the check-cashing places and screw-top liquor stores, it contains such tourist meccas as the reeking Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment plant and St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital, where Ezra Pound sweated out his insanity plea for treason and John Hinckley Jr. can compose rock operas for Jodie Foster in peace. While only minutes from Capitol Hill, and from the more prosperous black suburbs in Maryland's Prince George's County, Ward 8 might as well be in Burkina Faso to the commuting class. The only reason to pull off there is if you needed to buy a quick fifth of Hennessey for the ride home, or possibly something less legal.

I had to look up all the references in that paragraph.

Most of the other articles are not so humorous. Regardless, it's a joy to simply be reading for pleasure again, [1] and especially quality writing. With only music humanities classes this semester, the extent of my literary exposure was xkcd comics and the occasional Tech article. I'm bundled up in pj's and a fleece in my room now with a mug of hot water at my side, the heat on and shades down (to hide the gray sky outside), reading good articles. This could make a great vacation.


[1] Admissions officer Ben Jones warned pleasure reading would die, in #26 on his classic list of advice for college. I re-read the "50 Things" maybe once a year for an injection of perspective.