There is a pair of jeans hanging off a chair in my bedroom right now; they haven't been washed in a while, and I really should take better care of them (perhaps, even, by giving them a proper hanging-up instead of draping them over furniture).
I love jeans. They're comfortable, durable (I don't own a pair these days that is less than four years old), and are a staple of American leisure. And I don't know a damn thing about them. I don't know their history, their physical make-up, or why it was decided they would be blue (an audacious color, especially for menswear). As I thought about these deficiencies in knowledge, I realized that there are so many things I don't know about things I (and everyone I know) take for granted: how books are bound, who invented the spring-loaded umbrella, the genius who decided that art and photographs look better with frames behind them, and just what on earth an air conditioner actually does and why it does such a bang-up job of cooling things down (and this, just from looking around my bedroom).
This little blog, then, is an attempt to train myself out of taking things for granted; we now live in an incredible age, with a cornucopia of marvels that were unthinkable even fifty years ago (for instance, who would have ever thought that we could turn something like sight or sound into pure data, that could then be stored in tiny discs of plastic and metal? Someone did think so, and that, of course, changed everything). I hope this is as informative for you as it undoubtedly will be for me, and I hope it is entertaining as well.
