More long reads than usual in the mix today, since it’s possible there won’t be a newsletter for a few weeks.
Hans was never good at giving proper answers. He always had different answers in his head, odd answers, answers that his teachers and his parents and his grandmother and even his crazy grandfather seemed to think were wrong. But they weren’t wrong answers, they were just his answers. He wondered suddenly what the Ice Maiden would do if he gave her a wrong answer. And, thinking this, he found he couldn’t open his mouth at all.
—Jane Yolen
—from “Andersen’s Witch”
—found in The Emerald Circus (2017)
smaragd · /SMAR-agd/ · /ˈsmaragd/. noun. An emerald or any bright green gemstone resembling one. From Latin smaragdus, from Hebrew bāreqeṯ, from bāraq (sparkle, flash). See also: smaragdine, smaragdite. Trivia: smaragdine was the winning word in the 1961 U. S. Spelling Bee.
“But we aren’t through yet, no, we haven’t had the fancy words. Eldritch. Tenebrous. Smaragds and chalcedony. Mayhap.” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
“I move in strange tropics and deal in high explosives, embalming fluid, jasper, myrrh, smaragd, fluted snot, and porcupines’ toes.” (Henry Miller)
“There is you dancing, and the million yous who persist in matter, echo, weep, cry, exult, in flower powder, smaragd, Italy, moon, veins of rock. There is the cadenza of flesh here naked, and the you who run to the conclusion of autumn, selfless and melancholy, or smoulder on the beach savagely. ” (Lawrence Durrell)
“And she knew things I didn’t, that every shade of that green had a name, some shades of green I’d never heard of before, that she pointed out to me: cinnabar, Aubusson, smaragd, cobalt, Hooker’s, palmetto, Véronèse, teal, gamboge, shades of green that only an artist would know but that would come in handy if you wanted to remember the difference between a frond of fern and a bough of cedar.” (Donald Harrington)
“Wishes are usually reserved for the future. I have no future. But I find myself still wishing. ¶ I wish…” → A beautiful, harrowing and moving last letter from a terminal cancer patient on his final day.
This: “This fear concerns the manner in which the enormity of a library’s collection forces me to confront the sheer magnitude of all that I don’t know, all that I will never know, all that I can never know.” I felt the same the first time I went into the stacks of a large library (and, with the Internet, every day since). → A Fraternity of Dreamers
@Kim Kierkegaardashian ※ Ask Kim Kierkegaardashian: Worldly Goods vs. the Greater Good
The Top 100 winners gallery of Close-up Photographer of the Year
This funny essay also resonated with me, though I got over the shock of the difficult quickly, only to be overcome by my failed search for the one interest to rule them all and end the constant enticement of the other/new thing. → How ‘The Karate Kid’ Ruined The Modern World
The universe is indeed strange. → The Dark Matter Enigma ※ Pairs well with another long read on why we need an Atlas of the Cosmos
An interesting economic model hiding behind a playful name (and don’t hate it because there’s a TED Talk). → Doughnut Economics (Quick Overview) ※ About Doughnut Economics ※ Doughnut Economics TED Talk (Kate Raworth)
“The question of who killed Takaya, British Columbia’s famous solitary wolf, goes far beyond who pulled the trigger.” → The Lone Wolf That Was Loved to Death
Today is the PEN International Day of the Imprisoned Writer, created to draw attention to the “need protect writers and journalists across the globe, who increasingly find themselves targeted for their peaceful free expression work.” Check out the five writers they are highlighting this year, read the letters to those writers, and perhaps consider how you can help through social media and donations (I never recommend donations to organizations I haven’t donated to myself). PEN’s action in this area is more important now than ever.
EXTRA: As I shared here in November 2014 (!?), today is the anniversary—the 50th!—of the infamous exploding whale incident in Florence, Oregon. They already created a memorial park, and now they have remastered the legendary exploding whale news footage for your enjoyment.
A firecracker of a short film! ▸ MONDAY “follows a day in the life of a young hustler who ‘code-switches’ through disparate cliques while being everyone’s one-stop-shop for all things illicit.”
Meet ▸ Musou Black, newly crowned champion as the world’s blackest paint, absorbing over 99.2% of visible light. It really is amazing to see how it makes every other black look gray…and the effect it has on a light inside a “room” painted with it.
NYC fight clubs (because the first rule…) ☡ The Mandalorian (because Disney channel I do not have) ☡ PS5 (because I still miss my Mattel handheld football)
I ran out of time to sort through email, so a double-dose of smart readers showing me up in my own newsletter is on tap for the next issue. Please stack the mail higher!
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