Finished reading Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine. Really delightful. The plot: the narrator buys shoelaces at CVS on his lunch break, in 135 pages. I laughed out loud in several places, and feel as if my awareness of everyday reality has been strangely sharpened.

The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming. Your favorite movie can vanish without a trace.

Now we’re talking!! Austin Kleon:

[Mary]Ruefle doesn’t do Zoom interviews or use a computer, so we conducted this interview via our typewriters. I typed a bunch of questions on individual pieces of yellow paper and mailed them to her home in Bennington, Vermont. She typed her answers underneath and mailed them back to me

The content is interesting too, but the process really warmed my heart.

@annahavron

A post: Annunciation.

“She only knows what it is to be herself,” they kept repeating to each other. The rest was about them and what they thought a brain and a baby ought to be able to do. When the neurologist, in that first-ever meeting, had said gently that maybe the baby would one day be able to count to three, she almost turned the table over on her, because who needed to count to three? Look what counting to three had gotten us. I’m warning you.

Lockwood, No One is Talking About This

Video games for parrots. A fun read. It’s for science!

Finished reading Patricia Lockwood, No One is Talking About This. A knockout. I’m shaken.

On April 8th we plan to drive a couple of hours to the ZONE OF TOTALITY of the upcoming solar eclipse. I love to say ZONE OF TOTALITY in my most ominous voice.

Ross Douthat said a while ago: “If you don’t like the religious right, wait till you meet the post-religious right.” No need to wait, they’re here and in control. The picture is just confused by so many of them calling themselves “evangelicals”. (and sometimes “trad caths” or whatnot.)

I’m not much of a self-help reader, but I appreciated this Raptitude post. Basic idea: there are still small, simple changes we can make in our lives that can produce big, or at least disproportionate, gains in quality of life. It prompted me to take care to go to bed with the dishes done and the kitchen table clear. Sure enough, nicer mornings!

It’s the Equinox! For reasons I don’t understand, day and night lengths actually converged a few days ago in our area. But this is the official day. Happiest thought: day length is increasing faster than at any other time (2.5 minutes more daylight every day!).

I’ve been thinking about a critique of blog posts as “performative” and looking at my own. Conclusion: Yes, definitely performative. If I write anything online, it’s because I hope it will be beneficial (maybe enlightening, maybe just entertaining) to readers. So baring my real self, whatever that might be, online isn’t even a goal.

Very worthwhile review/consideration of A Web of Our Own Making. Whoever first called it “the web” said much more than they knew. Re AI etc: > It is not that humans will “lose” to autonomous technologies that will “learn to do without us.” Rather, he despairs, the danger is rooted in the kryptonite of our human nature: “that we will unlearn how to be without them.”

Would like to read: Food in a Just World. Learned about it on Marion Nestle’s always-good site.

“Peace is not made between angels and demons but between human beings.”

Three new family members. Amazing to see them walking around so alertly and realize they’re less than 24 hours old.
Triplets are a bit unusual for sheep: 1 or 2 is the usual lambing.

De-Appification! I just cancelled two online subscriptions: (1) TeuxDeux, which I expect to replace with pen-and-paper journaling in the bullet journal style; (2) Raindrop. I created a text file with urls I want to save, along with brief descriptions of contents.
Both of these apps are excellent at what they do, by the way.

I’m trying (again) to move my to-dos, appointments, etc. to pure pen & paper. Will probably start out slavishly following the Bullet Journal method, then adapt it as needed. Any advice welcome from those on the same path.

So, can Jason Palmer turn this thing around?

Good, detailed history of the new rise of Jew-hatred in the US.

We’ve watched Sound of Metal a couple of times and recommended/loaned it to others. Brilliant movie. I heard about it in a sort of deafness-awareness context. Then I listened to the director say that it’s “really about addiction.” Central to the movie for me was a spiritual seed planted mid-movie that bursts open in the final sequence. So, a spiritual theme wrapped in an addiction theme wrapped in a deaf-awareness theme? I don’t know, but it’s well worth watching at least once, ideally more.

They’re always listening: My daughter-in-law and I were talking about raw milk, and she said you can buy it around here, but it has to be under the table. The six-year-old, who was nearby but not obviously paying any attention, immediately said “What’s ‘under the table’?” Then we had to explain the concept to someone who’s not even clear how money works.

We’ve been feeding the neighbor’s guinea pigs, and I love the way that our vegetable trimmings, which would otherwise end up in the compost, become exciting treats. Carrot ends, oh boy!

Nate Silver: “Gemini is easy to pick on because what it’s doing is so clumsy and the kinks haven’t been worked out. It’s easy to imagine more insidious and frankly more competent forms of social engineering in the future.”
We should be grateful that Gemini is such a disaster.

I dislike drinking milk and used to jokingly call it “cow venom.” (I like cheese, yogurt etc.) After reading this I feel vindicated!
Short summary: 1. Ferment it, don’t drink it; 2. If you’re a dairy farmer, things will only get worse.
I’d feel hopeful (maybe unreasonably) about small dairy operations (the opposite of the way things are going) that focus on cheese & fermented milk products on a fairly local scale.

PS. @JeremyCherfas interviewed Anne Mendelson, author of the book reviewed above, on his Eat This Podcast. Transcript included. Well worth a listen or read.