“California is a garden of eden. It’s a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot,
If you ain’t got that do re mi.” -Woody Guthrie
Despite Narayan Nayar’s best efforts, he now regularly uses the word “dude” in conversation and even in writing. Academics tend to shy away from such colloquialisms, but living in Santa Cruz, CA can break down a person’s natural defenses, even a well educated person’s.
The local lexicon is far from Nayar’s only issue with the place.
There’s many things to like about (northern) California, but in no way do I consider it the pinnacle of civilization that its real estate prices would suggest. The fact that real estate prices in the Bay Area rose 22% last year evinces the kind of self-delusion a place which serves a tofu-everything can induce. It won’t be too long until the only people who can afford to live in the Bay Area are the CEOs of Apple, Oracle, Google, Adobe, Industrial Light & Magic, and Yahoo, all of whom will feast daily on a diet of ego and wheatgrass, and use the houses of regular schmucks like myself as mere parking sheds for their fleet of Segways.
I wonder if the dude’s watched Joel Coen’s The Big Lebowski, a movie which appeals to coolest of all dudes (male and female).