A bookmarklet that always finds its way to all of my browser toolbars is Alisdair McDiarmid’s Kill sticky headers bookmarklet. For web sites that have header or footer elements that obscure part of what I’m trying to read, clicking this bookmarklet instantly clears the page display. And if you ever need those elements back — …
Author Archives: brownstudy7975
RIP, Leon Redbone
Variety published a wonderful, respectful, and damn interesting obituary on the mystery man of 20th Century Americana music, digging up his real name and enjoying his piquant patois. We spent a pleasant evening tonight listening to the songs he left us and the mood of the mythical time and place he evoked. Shine on, Harvest …
Is Mercury in Retrograde?
I was swimming upstream most of the day, having trouble with all my tech (software, phone) and wondered, “Is Mercury in retrograde?” Must have been just me, I guess. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Three times a year, it appears as if Mercury is going backwards. These times in particular were traditionally associated with …
Recent Enjoyments
An acquaintance asked for recent books or movies I liked. This is what I wrote.
Shopper’s Dilemma: Technology
Daniel Lemire ponders whether to take advantage of today’s technology or wait till the technology improves. He postulates that people who buy now are actually betting against the future (your smartphone won’t get any smarter) whereas technophiles may be best served by delaying their purchases since they believe the future will be better (look at …
Nasty Character Traits Need an Outlet
Time passes slowly at the old folks home in Amsterdam. If you don’t have anything special to do all day long, a molehill can turn into a mountain. A person’s time must be filled with something; one’s attention has to have a focus. Nasty character traits need an outlet. In contrast to what you’d expect, …
Hunger or Craving?
Michael Graziano rather persuasively argues that the body’s mechanisms for managing hunger work just fine. Eating high-carbohydrate food products, calorie-counting, snacking, etc. mess up the body’s default mechanisms and lead to obesity. Graziano makes the case that hunger, for many people, is a psychological state. The hunger mood can make a small plate of food …
The Magic of Utility, the Utility of Magic
Wonderful summing-up final paragraph from Stefany Anne Golberg’s essay on The Long Lost Friend: There’s a mood of disorientation and longing in The Long Lost Friend‘s title that strikes a different note than the confident claims to be found inside. Maybe this is the book’s “Long-Hidden” message, its essence, and the essence of all the …
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A Colossal Self-Satisfaction
Walt Whitman: It does a man good to turn himself inside out once in a while: to sort of turn the tables on himself: to look at himself through other eyes—especially skeptical eyes, if he can. It takes a good deal of resolution to do it: yet it should be done—no one is safe until …
Dream-child
Walt Whitman tells a story: A woman I knew once asked a man to give her a child: she was greatly in love with him: it was not done: he did not care that much for her: he said to her, “all children should be love children”: then he thought she might repent if the …
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