RING IN THE NEW: The WaPo's Hank Stuever lets us know what's in and out for 2007, though let's be clear, Hank: Jay-Z is never out.
One thing that's very in, and still world-changing in ways we won't contemplate for a long time, is this whole internet thing. We're wrapping up our vacation in the Nayarit region of Mexico, and there's this tiny town -- the pueblo pesqueros of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (pop. 2000), that's got a guy selling carnitas and bbq ribs at the side of the road, a small rosticeria de pollos, a stand for tacos con mariscos, a few bodegas and a butcher's shop that's still half-abbatoir . . . and a dingy little stall with three computers where the sign says punto de connecto internet.
And you think about it, knowing that Thomas L. Friedman and others already have, but it really hits you -- any teenager here can set up a free email account and research the world around her, have the expertise of the globe brought to her monitor, and learn of the world's possibilities; she can set up a store online so that his grandmother's handicrafts can be shipped around the world to people who've never known this place; she can design a t-shirt and have it sold on CafePress.com; etc. She can find this blog and join our community, and none of us need know that she's not another thirtysomething overeducated attorney riffing on pop culture for the heck of it. And she can set up her own blog, and tell her story to the world. For free -- to her and her readers.
It's a heck of an interesting world in which we now live. Welcome to 2007.
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