A Tale of Two Exurbs

Interesting article in The American Prospect about new urbanism and the right (and wrong) way to build suburbia.

A Tale of Two Exurbs
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_exurbs

This article fits nicely with Christopher Leinberger's Atlantic Monthly article I cited last year (and actually quotes Leinberger.)

Frankie Manning: 1914-2009

Somewhat uncharacteristicly for me, I became heavily involved with social dance a little over ten years ago. More specifically, I fell into the Lindy Hop scene in Chicago, and after I moved to Boston, I quickly infiltrated the scene there as well. I met my wife that way as well as many of my good friends.

Although no one person can claim to have invented Lindy Hop, arguably Frankie Manning did more to popularize it back in the 1930-40s and then more remarkably help repopularize it in the 80s and 90s when I was introduced to it. This guy was still dancing in his 80s and 90s with two artifcial hips and the same infectious enthusiasm for the dance that he had over 60 years prior.

Even at the end, he was planning on attending a Lindy Hop Festival in honor of his 95th birthday. What a wonderful, well-lived life. I can only hope I'm still actively doing what I love at that age.