But the deeper reality is that I’m not sure if what I do is real. I usually believe that I’m certain about how I feel, but that seems naïve. How do we know how we feel? I’m likely much closer to Žižek’s aforementioned description of Titanic: There is almost certainly a constructed schism between (a) how I feel, and (b) how I think I feel. There’s probably a third level, too—how I want to think I feel.
—Chuck Klosterman
—found in Eating the Dinosaur (2009)
hokum · /HOH-kəm/ · /ˈhəʊkəm/. noun. Nonsense. Rubbish. Originally theater slang for bombastic, melodramatic, sentimental or sensationalized dialogue done for applause. Most likely a combination of hocus-pocus + buncombe (AKA bunkum). See also: claptrap, piffle, poppycock, cobblers, tripe, twaddle, etc.
“Some of the hokum arises from professional jealousy, rivalry, and fear—priest and scientist competing for power and control of human minds.” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
“A sauce not to be confused with those hokum béchamels served over gaily decorated baby hamsters in New York City, home of the most otiose food faddism.” (Jim Harrison)
“…there was never a mite of bum-hokum about Bogart; he was an actor without theories (well, one: that he should be highly paid), without temper but not without temperament…” (Truman Capote)
My Family Saw a Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween. Then I Learned How NYPD Impunity Works.
I Thought I Understood White Privilege. Then I Married a Black Man.
“The coronavirus pandemic has driven many of us even further into the embrace of the internet. But can you live a truly fulfilled life online?” → The internet, mon amour
It’s official: “Exploding Whale Memorial Park” ※ Previously: Oregon’s Exploding Whale – 2012 KATU AM Northwest
This includes some of my favorite illusions of all time (the visual ones, not life, which isn’t a favorite illusion right now) → “Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.
RIP Milton Glaser. Imagine having created even one of his two iconic works (not to mention founding New York magazine): the cover art for Bob Dylan’s 1966 Greatest Hits album or the I ♥ NY logo? And he did a whole lot more besides. ※ This thread of Milton Glaser’s memorable advice is good advice for everyone, not just artists. ※ The Things I Have Learned
Additions to “ragescrolling” for the vocabulary of the longest year ever → Merriam-Webster on “Doomscrolling” and “Doomsurfing” ※ Doomscrolling Is Slowly Eroding Your Mental Health
I love it when ordinary objects hide strangely fascinating history: A Brief History of the Lawn Chair
Quick Bits: Ed Fairburn Transforms Maps into Amazing Portraits // The Beatelles + Lady Kirk, Spock and Bones // Green Onion Chex cereal // Black Lives Matter logo in origami (instructions) // NASA’s ‘smell of space’ is available as a perfume // Explore ‘The Last Supper’ in gigapixel detail // Making fine Japanese paper from food waste
Today in 1975, Arthur Ashe becomes the first Black tennis player to win Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in four sets. Ashe was an amazing man, not just for his journey from handyman’s son living in a caretaker’s cottage with his single father to dominating in a sport no other Black player had experienced significant success in before (or after: he remains the only Black man to win Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open), but for his philanthropy and civil rights work both in the United States and South Africa. In 1979, at just 36, Ashe had a heart-attack, requiring a quadruple bypass, bringing the hereditary aspect of heart disease to the national conversation. Ashe was infected with HIV by a blood transfusion during his second open-heart surgery in 1983, a fact he kept private for his young daughter’s sake until 1996, when a reporter forced him to go public. Ashe subsequently founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, which benefited from his prominence to make significant progress on both fronts. Among many other honors, Ashe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has an ESPY Award, a USPS postage stamp, and a boulevard in Richmond named after him.
“The ► Yamabushi in northern Japan practice a once forbidden ancient religion. While their tradition is at risk of disappearing, it offers a way for those seeking a different path in Japan’s society. ¶ Walking barefoot through rivers, meditating under waterfalls and spending the nights on mountaintops - that is the way of the Yamabushi. They walk into the forest to die and be born again.”
► A decade of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory observations of the Sun in an hour.
Reader B.: “Bravo! ¶ It’s really hard to underestimate the shock of WWI. The more I look into it the deeper and weirder it gets.”
Reader C.: “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument. WOW. Just WOW.”
Reader J.: “Paul Harvey wrote in The Oxford Companion to English Literature that ‘Titivil was evidently in origin a creation of monastic wit.’”
Reader M.: “I just read an excellent movie review of Da 5 Bloods and (literally) the next thing I read is your newsletter’s Work quote.” – Synchronicity!
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