E specially about the personal details of our lives. There is a lot that OUGHT to be kept more private in 2022 than has become the accepted norm for many. With the conscious and intentional cultivation of classic style in mind, however, we want to avoid oversharing and keep a bit more of ourselves to ourselves. Exactly what personal information and how much of it to keep private seems to be a slippery concept though. Here’s my take based on what I was told and observed as a child and young person at home. Basically, one should keep oneself to oneself in all respects (finances, personal worth, accomplishments, politics, sex, dirty laundry, etc.). As my late father used to advise when we were very small, and I am talking preschool and kindergarten, there were particular subjects that were not discussed outside the immediate family. There is a time and place for sharing certain details of one’s life, but most of the time, those should be played very close to the chest,
Here's a seasonal tune by the late Julie London (yep, Nurse Dixie on the old NBC TV series Emergency) from 1957. This is a song I had never heard before until my first December in Minneapolis (late 2000 saw a particularly frigid and snowy start to winter that year) at the University of Minnesota. During the last two weeks o the semester after Thanksgiving and Final Exam Week, I used to listen to the ex-KLBB on the radio, which had a nostalgia format (artists from the 1930s-1970s), and each December played nothing but old Christmas tunes for the entire month. This song turned up several times a day and in the evenings as I wrote my own final graduate papers, a final exam for my Norwegian 1001 students, and then graded everything. Anyway, whenever this tune came on the radio, it always brought to mind this crazy chick in my teaching assistant office who was preparing to defend her doctoral dissertation. She sat just two desks away and had the bluest eyes, freckles, and an intoxicating laugh. We spent that entire semester chatting about nothing much whenever we were in the office that we shared with six or seven other grad students. We later went skiing together one cold Saturday morning in February 2001 right before Valentine's Day (she invited me), spent the entire afternoon and evening talking at my place over hot tea and then Ukrainian food from Kramarczuk's Deli nearby until she had to go home late that night. We eventually got married in June 2006. So, this one is especially for my wife. . . The Grand Duchess. Here's I'd Like You for Christmas!
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