Back The Underminer
Chapters (21)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Bright Young Things campus of Clarkwell College, graduation in the town of Clarksville, somewhere upstate, 1990
  6. Cool Days open mike night at Kafka-fe, after band "2 Much" plays, 1991
  7. New on the Scene utside in front of Club Hush, for a film screening party of Kill Fee, 1993 o
  8. Single in the City at a French bistro, 1995
  9. Hangover brunch, the morning after, 1995
  10. Natural Health a chance meeting at Jasper’s Yoga Studio, 1996
  11. The Fat Flush ’90s in the foyer of a friend’s renovated brownstone, 1997
  12. Art Stars at Bonwyck Gallery, 1998
  13. Inner Odyssey the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, 1999
  14. Life After Death facedown in the dirt of the desert, next morning, 1999
  15. Loyal Companions catching up at the dog run, 2000 catching up at the dog run, 2000
  16. In the Real World a run-in at the ShopShape magazine launch party sponsored by Senor Strawberry Liqueur, early 2001
  17. Wartime spotted at Kinko's, late 2001
  18. Office Job in the cafeteria of the Conde Nast building, 2003
  19. Settling a yard sale on an obscure block in the outer borough, 2003
  20. Starting Over in a remote village tavern on the farmlands of New Zealand, 2004
  21. Epilogue a gathering of friends

Weeshta? It's part of the Ayurvedic system? I studied it in India when I was there. Of course it is a much more vast modality than this but essentially there are three types of people into which we learned all humans can be divided:

Shpashta—long, thin, naturally toned bodies, problems with small pores and emotional generosity, occasional soreness in the hands, from having them too open all the time, trying to offer themselves to the world.

Oooch! My palm really needs to be stretched out today!

Vashtas—muscular, rough, dark people who are strong and unusually attractive. They have problems with their pecs, eyes, and biceps. Also they tend to get overly devoted to people, but once things go wrong they are quick to hate. Like Jasper or your ex-boyfriend Carl.

And then there are Weeshtas—who tend to have, um, wider body types. They are the people who usually need drugs and socially sanctioned ''life-helpers" like Prozac or Askalar. And they tend to have loud voices and problems with gas, skin eruptions, allergies, rashes, psoriasis, flaky eyebrows, seasonal affective disorders, depression, digestion, alcoholism, drug addiction, attention disorders, social acceptance problems, public place panics, family conflicts, twitching anal canal syndrome, bulimia, body dysmorphia, acid reflux . . .

And sore necks!

But these three modalities are all really equal. It's Eastern, so it's not about any hierarchy.