{"id":2688,"date":"2021-07-20T11:06:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T18:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2021-07-20T11:20:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T18:20:06","slug":"more-joys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2688","title":{"rendered":"MORE JOYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Weather here was record-setting and almost intolerable for 3 days, but Charlie stretched out on the exercise equipment in the AC-ed\u00a0 gym and I read (Val McDermid’s latest Karen Pirie mystery, Still Life<\/strong>.) liked it, and wilted\u00a0 and we survived.\u00a0 My dad’s hassock fan from the 1940′ s moved a lot of canal breeze and made a lot of noise and the nights were almost good.\u00a0 Best thing about the 100 degree heat was it made this week’s 80+ days welcome.\u00a0 Ah-h- h- h!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0IDEA ALERT;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0So many thoughts, so little tolerance for dragging finger-pads and\u00a0 resulting typos that lead to emails.\u00a0 So I am blogging and YouTubing this group email.<\/strong>\u00a0 Just skip over any ho-hummers and wonder who on earth would be interested in THAT?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ah, summertime!\u00a0 When the days are hot, hot, hot, and so are the books. Sigh.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Some joyful notes or noise:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Two of my NYT faves, Zeynep Tufecki and Siobhan Roberts, with food for thought:<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Zeynep Tufecki <\/a> noted how viruses move, evolve, and spread through scientists, labs, production facilities, testing, delivery, and, finally, guarded captivity, all\u00a0 within a cloud of government policy and funding.\u00a0 Life doesn’t get much better than this for a perpetual\u00a0 student of moving information.\u00a0 \u00a0 An unexpected but equally pertinent treasure is Errol Morris’s essay on Donald Rumsfeld’s memos<\/a>\u00a0which, can support or refute a point, as need for evidence demands\u00a0 \u00a0This is good, but nothing beats his book, Seeing is Believing,<\/strong> which is about photographs and perception and the search tactics such an analysis requires.\u00a0 \u00a0So-o-o important in this era of screen time and multi- or mixed media reporting.<\/p>\n

Siobhan Roberts<\/a> wrote lucidly, again, about math, this time about MIT ‘s “Artist in Residence” (I love that MIT has one,) and his computer scientist son who make fonts from in this case, a math provocateur’s completed sudoku puzzles.\u00a0 I love fonts and the colored graphics.<\/p>\n

My latest favorite reader is Bill Bratton, former NYPD Commissioner.\u00a0 His “By the Book”<\/a> interview reveals a raised, maybe born, reader of all kinds and matters broadly related to policing\u00a0 He is a lifelong, if varied user of public libraries.\u00a0 He reads 3 or 4 different books at any one time.\u00a0 He always finds time to read, especially with his Kindle in his pocket\u00a0 He\u00a0 likes murder mysteries, and his favorite detective is Harry Bosch.\u00a0 Oh my.\u00a0 Swoon.<\/p>\n

I love Nina Katchadourian’s art.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0At it’s heart, this mega-mutlti-mediated artist’s work\u00a0 gathers, sorts and arranges information “into projects that are witty, sometimes even guffaw-inducing. But underneath the playfulness lurk some pretty fundamental questions about how we organize knowledge to make sense of our past and present.”\u00a0 It reminds me of rearranging my books as each became differently important.\u00a0 She clearly agrees with my downsized, story-filled art that covers my walls and that, for lack of Larry, is often askew.<\/p>\n

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Pictures, pictures everywhere,<\/p><\/div>\n

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And all with tales to tell.\u00a0 Vlog?\u00a0 Charlie, HELP!<\/p><\/div>\n

Three fret-ables: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Aesthetic evolution:\u00a0 <\/strong>Who decides which art is fittest to survive?\u00a0 “Here [at Cranbrook Museum, holdings ] are loosely arranged by curators to tell stories of aesthetic evolution.”<\/a>\u00a0 How about telling stories of aesthetic expansion instead?\u00a0 I don’t want to miss something that someone else deemed “less fit.”<\/p>\n

Group laughs<\/strong>:\u00a0 “[P]eople laugh five times as often when they\u2019re with others as when they\u2019re alone.”\u00a0<\/a> Good grief!\u00a0 I have always laughed alone, especially at my own jokes.\u00a0 My mother thought it was a good thing and meant I was okay.\u00a0 I just hope grumpy others don’t use this as an excuse to remain grumpy.<\/p>\n

Group think<\/strong>:\u00a0 What is wrong with people?\u00a0 ‘The problem,” writes Zeynep Tufecki, ” is that when we encounter opposing views in the age and context of social media,…\u00a0 [w]e\u00a0bond with our team by yelling at the fans of the other one….\u00a0\u00a0In an ecosystem where that sense of identity conflict is all-consuming, belonging is stronger than facts<\/a>.” Arise, I say ARISE, public libraries and share your multi-faceted information and air conditioning with the hot and hungry crowd.\u00a0 Re-create the independent thinker.\u00a0 This is your time.<\/p>\n

My fingers are threatening evermore errors.\u00a0 So I have YouTube-d the rest:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Charlie’s least favorite ways of being awakened,<\/p>\n