
Lewis Lapham's Antidote to the Age of BuzzFeed - keiferski
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lewis-laphams-antidote-to-the-age-of-buzzfeed-82203134/?all?no-ist
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keiferski
If you haven't read an issue Lapham's Quarterly, I highly recommend it. Each
issue is a melange of writing from various authors on a specific topic, like
Disaster, Fashion, or Philanthropy. The recent Fashion issue was particularlly
interesting to me, especially the story about the popularity of Ivy League
fashion in post-war Japan. An excerpt:

 _Parents in the post-war era felt a particular anxiety about their children
wearing fashionable clothing..._

 _The sensational "Oh, Mistake Incident" of 1950 solidified these
associations. Hiroyuki Yamagiwa, a nineteen-year-old chauffeur at Nihon
University, broke into a co-worker's car at knifepoint, slashed the driver,
and drove off with 1.9 million yen in cash. Yamgiwa then took his girlfriend
on a three-day joyride._

 _The minor crime made headlines after Yamagiwa screamed out in pidgin English
"Oh, mistake!" upon being apprehended. During police interrogation Yamagiwa
continued to drop random English words into his Japanese and revealed a tattoo
that said "George."_

 _In just three days on the lam Yamagiwa spent 100,000 yen--ten times a
university graduate 's starting salary - on clothing in high-end Ginza
stores._

[http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/](http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/)

