When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.
How did everything suddenly become “curated?” I was happier when curators did the curating. Now the instructor at spin class curates the play list. The publishing imprint curates its titles. The waitress explains how the menu at the farm to table restaurant is carefully curated. The summer festival is curated. The boutique is curated. The pickles are curated. The cupcakes? Curated! The wine list, the pearl jam, the french macaroons. I sing the body curated. Collections, selections, groups of things, bunches of stuff beware. You, too, could be curated.
How does it happen?
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Betsy Lerner 
The speech patterns of the lemming.
Interesting Poem, Betsy. Let us count its virtues. It Rocks, like a babe who’s been around the block, it socks, like in your face where do you belong it time if time does not exist and there is no museum of words to explain shit, and fuck it, that was down and dirty polite assassin. Thanks.
Perhaps now that things are curated they can stop being aspirational?
One of the first signs of an authoritative regime, I read recently, is the ability to make completely outlandish and irrational, dangerous things seem like the norm. Eventually we become accustomed to even the basic infringements on our freedoms and rights and start to expect and, even worse, accept them. I’m not saying curating falls into the same category as racial hatred, but as Tetman noted above, lemmings will follow. To be cognizant of trends helps recognize absurdities. And when things get weird, the weird get weirder.
Buzz words. Like that overworked phrase, “it is what it is.”
And it’s true…someone will hear a word, and like it, and repeat it and next thing you know, it’s “in.” It’s the thing to be saying in order to seem like one is with it, and in the know.
It makes the ordinary seem special.
I’m about to go curate some words, but I’ll leave you with this one. My brother was a lepidopterist. That box reminds me of what he did when he was around 10 through 16. He donated his collection to the NC Museum of Sciences when he lost interest and transitioned to girls/cars.
Alas, this curating business appears to be the newest job slot for folks who don’t quite know what to do with themselves from 9 to 5. During the past 5 years, the art-related “curators” I have met are mostly young, clueless to trivial matters such as building codes, liability and the word “budget”, yet quite adept in the tactics of bullying and tantrums. These days, I’m quite content with avoiding most curated events and menus. The excitement of the, truly, unexpected and not-so-perfect suits me just fine.
Liminal.
You’ve read _The Merchants of Culture_. The mechanics of the curator are inherent to the affirmation of their self-esteem as curator. The act of curation suggests taste and implies knowledge.
No matter those are the only rutabagas in two counties, the “Inbred Farms” rutabagas are organically nurtured and represent the best available in this area. Chef Trever has obtained the exclusive supply!
Wow. Root vegetable supply as accomplishment.
Diploma for fourth grade completion. Diploma.
We’re all special and posses unique insights … just like everyone else.
As a young woman, with a 1 in front of my number, my dream, my aspiration – the job/career/life I longed for was to be an investigative curator of art, for The Smithsonian.
What the hell is that?
Instead, I nixed college and went to South Africa for a year. To say that choice changed my direction is like saying even though the bridge collapsed I crossed the river without getting my feet wet. Huh?
Drenched the rest of my life.
I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved your book, The Bridge Ladies, just finished it. Also, “curated”. I suspect it’s a bit like “artisanal” was back in its heyday. Do people still use “artisanal” for things? I guess they say “craft” now–“craft” beer and the like.