Good Airs, Good Reads

Perfect Match: Brazilian Kids Learn English by Video Chatting With Lonely Elderly Americans FCB's touching work for a language school

Because: In high school I volunteered weekly at a local nursing home. Some residents had frequent visitors. With others, not one family member, friend or acquaintance ever came to see them. These were the ones who asked to be wheeled to the threshold of their room to watch and wait for the person they said today—every day—would be coming. 

Martha Stewart

Because: Martha Stewart might falter as an exemplary role model in a certain area, or two, but I can really get behind this advice she doled out. The bit was re-quoted in the Refinery29 piece 14 Late Bloomers Show Us Why The Wait Is Worth It. With my 26 birthday approaching in mere days and an ominous, pressing feeling of late to match that I should be saying/writing/creating more, reading this now was very heartening. Because at the bottom of it, I still feel as though I could use some broadening, that I myself don't really have enough material yet, that I need to keep experiencing. And for now I'm very content with this dabbling at life, or whatever it is. 

Here's The Best Advice From A Single Guy Who Spent A Year Interviewing Couples

Political Hatred in Argentina: An interview with Uki Goñi

or, The Most Incredible Interview I've Ever Read

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/world/americas/the-influential-minister-behind-argentinas-economic-shift.html?_r=0

Because: Come for the sideburns, stay for the psychological.

"Ignore the barrage of violent threats and harassing messages that confront you online every day." That's what women are told.

Where Is The Love?

Because: If you have not yet read this piece, which is Kristof's most-shared ever, I highly recommend you do so. We, the United States of America, an underdog, self-made country, love the rags-to-riches tale likely more than any other place in the world and firmly, uncontrovertibly believe that a mix of hard work and determination leads directly to success. (And conversely, that those who fail do not work hard enough.)    Well, we're delusional to think that stands as a truth. 

An Argentine woman, documenting her relationships, begins an intimate investigation searching for love and answers: must she settle down or continue to be a free spirit in order to be happy?

Because: A friend who works for the U.S. Foreign Service drew my attention to this with a comment about how it has much to do with being someone who travels or moves constantly. The short is by an Argentine woman (incidentally, a friend of mine plays a major role in it, which I discovered when I watched it through) though the subject, concerns and message are surely transcend national boundaries.

The afternoon sauntered on, and even by 3:30 most of the tables were still filled, customers lingering over coffee or, in the case of the couple behind us, a bottle of champagne. Toward the end of the meal, Ramon Couñago, Sabot's owner for the past 41 years, joined us. "Ninety percent of my guests come here to talk business," he said. "No one eats for less than two hours. Sometimes coffee can last an hour alone!"

Most countries abandon leaders with physical or emotional weakness. In Argentina, it’s the other way around.

Rakib Islam, In the beginning, Man created god...

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/why-a-summer-as-a-chambermaid-can-be-more-valuable-than-an-internship/?_r=1

Eat, Pray, Love, Get Rich, Write a Novel No One Expects

Because: As a quote collector, I was quick to click this piece when it appeared on my Twitter feed. I'm not an obsessive Thought Catalog follower like a number of other 20-somethings, but this one I found worth sharing, especially since I could call to memory a similarly "unintentionally profound statement" I had encountered in recent memory.