We went to church this morning. It was packed, as always, with all the Irish and Italians in our town. Jonah scampered off to church school, and we kept Ian silent in the pew with a bowl of dry cheerios.

The sermon today was about social justice. A man from the Knights of Columbus came forward to talk about caring for the less fortunate in the community and virtue of volunteer work. Yeah, those religious types are so conservative.

After that, we headed to the mall to catch up on chores. Steve needed new Rockport shoes for work. I exchanged an unfortunate skirt at the Gap for a shorter one at H&M. Pull-ups were purchased at Target. The kids road some quarter-eating purple cars and played computer games in the back of the Apple Store. And we ate pasta at the Macaroni Grill with a $3.99 kiddie menu.

The Palisades Mall is as huge as it is ugly. A monumental concrete slab that immediately sunk eight inches into the ground just after it was built. It’s over the border of New Jersey in Rockland County, NY. Though Rockland has a mix of people, it has enough working class stiffs to make it a draw for the Fox crowd. Last time I was there, Sean Hannity was giving a rousing speech for the crowd in the food court.

Our last stop before we went home was Barnes and Noble. Jonah got a book on ancient Rome, his latest obsession. And I got What’s the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.

Fifty pages into the book, I’m having a love-hate relationship with it. There’s some interesting theories about class in America. However, Frank writes with journalistic flair full of opinion and florid adjectives, which is fun, but sometimes grates against my formal, academic training. He also isn’t shy about displaying his aversion to suburban, middle class America. Sometimes I’m guilty of those same snobberies, but I at least fight them.

I’ll probably give a more thorough review of the book after I finish it. But here’s a quote:

Cupcake Land is a metropolis built entirely according to the developer’s plan, without the interference of angry proles or ethnic pols as in nearby Kansas City. Cupcake Land encourages no culture but that which increases property values; supports no learning but that which burnishes the brand; hears no opinions but those that will further fatten the cupcake elite; tolerates no rebellion but that expressed in haircuts and piercings and alternative rock. You know what it’s like even though you haven’t been there. Smooth jazz. Hallmark cards. Applebees. Corporate Woods. Its greatest civic holiday is the turning-on of the Christmas lights at a nearby shopping center — an event so inspirational to the cupcake mind that the mall thus illuminated has been rendered in paint by none other than Thomas Kinkade.