The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 186, December 3, 2023 (V4 #30)
If he follows this path, the truths will be revealed to him, and whatever shortcomings or uncertainties may exist in the discourse of those who came before him will become manifest.— Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965–c. 1040)
Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America. Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn’t commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.—Ken Buck, R-Colorado
Books Music Culture
Bringing up a baby can be a tough and lonely job. Here's a solution: alloparents, Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR, 12/2/23: “A "mismatch" likely exists between the conditions in which humans evolved to care for babies and the situation many parents find themselves in today.”
Shane MacGowan, Pogues songwriter and Irish music legend, dies aged 65: One of the all-time great bandleaders and writer of Christmas classic Fairytale of New York, MacGowan invigorated rock with the power of Irish folk music, Laura Snapes, The Guardian, 11/30/23
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett: ‘We are obsessed with masculinity as a culture – it’s awful:’ The former Misfits and Utopia star loves pushing boundaries. But, as a drag queen out for revenge, in his new erotic thriller he’s ventured into truly novel territory, Catherine Bray, The Guardian, 11/27/23: “You’ve got to take yourself with a pinch of salt – without being salty.”
Literary Fight Club: On the Great Poets’ Brawl of ’68: Jim Harrison’s Brief Tenure in the Halls of Academia, Nick Ripatrazone, LitHub, 11/29/23: “The Saturday night melee took place on Louis Simpson’s lawn. It was, perhaps, inevitable. Ed Sanders memorialized the night in his poem “Year of Fear.” Everyone was tanked. Sanders “had drunk so much / my liver was feeling like a / Rudi Stern neon.””
Mysterious woman tells school board that Scholastic book sparked porn addiction, Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 11/29/23. DW: Turns out she works for a right wing children’s book publisher. Surprised?
Penguin Random House Sues the US State of Iowa: Penguin Random House, along with the Iowa State Education Association, has sued Iowa for its law against sexual content in books, Porter Anderson, Publishing Perspectives, 11/30/23
New Neuroscience Research Confirms: Print Wins for Information Processing…Again: It’s been a while since we saw new research on how our brains respond to print versus digital communications. This recent study just published in the National Library of Medicine once again finds that processing information in print results in greater comprehension, but unlike other studies, it tells us why, Heidi Tolliver-Walker, What They Think, 11/29/23
The risk of another consciousness winter: Yes, science does affect culture, Eric Hoel, The Intrinsic Perspective, 11/28/23: “…we are potentially poised for another consciousness winter due to the rise of AI.”
The Mourning Moon: From the Midwest to the Middle East, Sarah Kendzior, Newsletter, 12/1/23: “It is against the rules to feel, because compassion opens the door to consequences.”
Who Gets to Play in Women’s Leagues? What a blood test taught me about testosterone, athleticism, and sex, S.C. Cornell, New Yorker, 12/2/23: “And we are not, I think, as scared of minor eligibility changes in women’s sports as we are of the prospect of freeing ourselves from the mandate of fixed, binary sex.”
‘He was treated like a holy figure’: why Captain Beefheart quit music for the easel: He was a musical maverick whose Trout Mask Replica still sticks out on best-of lists, but when he gave up rock to paint, his art was dismissed as doodles. Now his remarkable work is getting its due, Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, 11/28/23: “He was really fierce and uncompromising. He did exactly what he wanted and that was it.”
Frances Sternhagen, acclaimed stage and Sex and the City actor, dies at 93: Tony-winning actor was known for screen roles in Misery, ER and Cheers, and for stage roles in On Golden Pond and The Heiress, Adrian Horton, The Guardian, 11/29/23
How Cave Canem Has Nurtured Generations of Black Poets: The poets’ fellowship, which was founded in 1996, has worked with poets who have gone on to win many of the genre’s most important accolades, Stacy Y. China, New York Times, 11/27/23
… I tell her to write
the poem about being afraid to write,
and we stand for a long time like that,
respecting each other’s silence.
— Toi Derricotte, “For Black Women Who Are Afraid”
Politics and Economics
A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending, Robert Kagan, Washington Post, 11/30/23: “Like Caesar, Trump wields a clout that transcends the laws and institutions of government, based on the unswerving personal loyalty of his army of followers…. we continue to drift toward dictatorship, still hoping for some intervention that will allow us to escape the consequences of our collective cowardice, our complacent, willful ignorance and, above all, our lack of any deep commitment to liberal democracy. As the man said, we are going out not with a bang but a whimper.” (gift article-please read it!)
Change is coming. The question is: what kind of change will it be? The challenges we face are enormous – economic, environmental, political. Our future is at stake, so let’s come together and win, Bernie Sanders, The Guardian, 11/30/23: “The extraordinarily challenges we face are very real, but we can never let them become excuses for checking out of the political struggles that address these crises and will define our future.”
Mad Poll Disease is making Democrats misread voter opinion: Horserace polling can’t tell us anything new about who will win the electoral college – but the existence of an anti-Maga majority is clear, Michael Podhorzer, The Guardian, 12/1/23: “Trying to use horserace polls to project the winner in swing states is like trying to predict the weather nine months from now by taking the temperature outside today.”
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory review: Trump and his evangelical believers: Tim Alberta is a fine guide to the world of conservative US Christians, their dispiriting march to the right, and its ugly cost, Lloyd Green, The Guardian, 12/2/23. Book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run, Molly Hennessey-Fiske, Washington Post, 11/27/23: “Despite long advocating small government and local control, Republican governors and legislators across a significant swath of the country are increasingly overriding the actions of Democratic cities.”
Americans are angry about immigration: It's time to face this difficult fact, understand why it's happening, and deal with it, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/27/23: “So yes, we are in one of our anti-immigration moments right now, and the political impact could potentially be huge — the return of Trump, and all of the institutional chaos that will inevitably entail.”
The Year of the ‘Goldilocks’ Economy, Victoria Cavaliere, Ian Fisher, Bloomberg, 12/2/23: “The price surge since 2020 has helped explain why many Americans continue to register dissatisfaction with the economy and why the Federal Reserve is extra keen to finish off inflation and get it back down to its 2% target.”
Vibes vs. data: It's asymmetric warfare out there, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 12/3/23: “economic facts have limited power against narratives, since narratives can color our interpretations of facts, or entice us into believing things that aren’t true.”
The New Wave of Fake Populists Who Serve Elites While Claiming to Stand for the People: Trump is Part of a Larger Trend, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 11/29/23: “ Promising radical change for the many, while preserving the wealth and power of the few, is how faux populists operate.”
Israel Has Already Lost: The War and the Peace, John Ganz, Unpopular Front, 11/27/23: “Israel’s choices seem to be as follows: continue in a slaughter that will permanently damage or destroy its international reputation and perhaps trigger a wider international crisis or give up on its stated goal to defeat Hamas and thereby face humiliation, domestic turmoil, and the appearance of vulnerability.”
In the Face of Israel’s Terrifying Onslaught on Gaza, It’s Time to Double Down on Anti-Zionism, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Shalom Rav, 12/2/23: “If ever there was a moment for Jewish anti-Zionists to proudly stand up and be counted, this is it. And if ever there was a more terrifying demonstration of the end game of Zionism, it is Israel’s military assault on Gaza.”
Every Liberal Institution Will Support a Ceasefire Eventually, It’s Simply a Matter of How Many Palestinians Must Die First: Short of full blown ethnic cleansing of Gaza, there is only one way this ends. Everyone knows it—especially the White House—but few have the courage to say it, Adam Johnson, The Column, 12/1/23
Liberal women should not marry Republican men: Trust me on this one, Lyz Lenz, Men Yell at Me, 11/29/23: “What women risk by being partnered with men who don’t share our political beliefs is more than just uncomfortable family dinners. We risk our lives.”
Uncharitable Giving, Jud Legum, Popular Information, 11/28/23: “According to a 2019 study, taxpayers are providing 74 cents in subsidies for every dollar donated to charitable intermediaries.”
‘A story of revolutionary deep care’: revisiting the history of radical abortion defense: In the book Deep Care, historian Angela Hume offers lessons from generations of underground activists and clinicians who worked to protect abortion access, Adrian Horton, The Guardian, 11/27/23
The real story of the OpenAI debacle is the tyranny of big tech: The latest episode should jolt us out of our complacency and force us to confront the dangers of monopoly capitalism, Courtney Radsch, The Guardian, 11/27/23
Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism? Alarmed by the rising tide of waste we are all creating, my family and I decided to try to make do with much less. But while individual behaviour is important, real change will require action on a far bigger scale, Chip Colwell, The Guardian, 11/28/23
Ecuador Court Orders Stolen Land Returned to Siekopai People: "This groundbreaking precedent paves the way for other Indigenous communities who dream of recovering their territories within protected areas," said one campaigner, Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, 11/29/23
How a Lawyer, a Businessman, and the Mafia Destroyed Public Transit in the Twin Cities: on the Lost Promise and Possibility of North American Urbanism, Jake Berman, LitHub, 11/27/23: “ In the 1940s, Twin City Rapid Transit had the right ideas: replace streetcars with buses on marginal routes but keep the higher-capacity, more comfortable streetcars running on busy routes.” Book: The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been
What should Ukraine do next? Preparing for a Long War, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 11/29/23: “…it must reinforce the message that this is a war that Russia can never win.”
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
That if God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.
—from “With God on Our Side,” Bob Dylan
Science and Environment
Why the UN climate talks are a moment of reckoning for oil and gas companies: This week’s COP28 meetings in Dubai show how fossil-fuel companies might be able to contribute to climate progress, and what will happen if they don’t, Casey Crownhart, MIT Technology Review, 11/28/23
A Corrupted COP: New revelations show just how bad the oil countries really are, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 11/28/23: “The Saudi government is like a drug dealer trying to get Africa hooked on its harmful product…The rest of the world is weaning itself off dirty and polluting fossil fuels and Saudi Arabia is getting desperate for more customers and is turning its sights on Africa.”
The state of the climate crisis: COP28 takes place against an apocalyptic backdrop. From Appalachia to Malawi, these communities offer a measure of hope, Paige Vega, Vox, 11/27/23
'Unabated:’ A single word can derail climate progress, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 12/223: “Phase out fossil fuels period, and stat. Everything else is just smoke.”
How to end plastic pollution on Earth for good, Tatiana Schlossberg, Washington Post, 11/29/23: “Plastic waste threatens ecosystem health, biodiversity and efforts to address climate change, and it is also a health concern and environmental-justice issue. Microplastics have been found in breast milk and in our blood.” (gift article)
A plane fueled by fat and sugar has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Nicolás Rivero, Washington Post, 11/28/23: “The fuel on this flight was made from waste fats and plant sugars and emits 70% less carbon than petroleum-based jet fuel.” (gift article)
Building Movements for Food and Racial Justice Through Organic Farming: For Iriel Edwards, a decision to take up farming in Louisiana was fueled by a desire to connect to the deep ecological knowledge of her ancestors, Justin Perkins, Joel Bleifuss, Barn Raiser, 11/27/23
The Mangrove Grandparents of El Delgadito: For over a decade, Ana María and David have led their community to restore Mexico’s desert mangroves with dedication, experimentation, and plenty of heart, Gemina Garland-Lewis, Hakai, 11/28/23
Most people don’t realize how much progress we’ve made on climate change: The rapid rise of renewables and EVs has already put us on a safer path, Dana Nuccitelli, Yale Climate Connections, 11/27/23
Waste management hasn’t been thought of as a climate change solution. No longer: In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers calculated how shovel-ready waste-handling technologies could quickly hit the brakes on global warming, Sara DeWeerdt, Anthropocene, 11/28/23
A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy? Firms commercializing perovskite–silicon ‘tandem’ photovoltaics say that the panels will be more efficient and could lead to cheaper electricity, Mark Peplow, Nature, 11/29/23
‘What We’re Up Against’: North Dakota Towns Stand Up to Farm Bureau for Clean Water: Pelican Township gets dragged into a national campaign to upend local zoning rules, Keith Schneider, Barn Raiser, 11/29/23
Scientists show direct link between polluting companies and wildfires in North America: Carbon pollution from 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement makers has left the western U.S. and Canada hotter, drier, and more prone to fires, a recent study finds, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 11/27/23
Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons: For 50 years, physicists have understood current as a flow of charged particles. But a new experiment has found that in at least one strange material, this understanding falls apart, Charlie Wood, Quanta, 11/27/23
The alien hunter: has Harvard’s Avi Loeb found proof of extraterrestrial life? The astrophysicist and professor likes to ruffle feathers – and says his critics are merely jealous. He discusses UFOs, interstellar objects and the risks of his all-consuming search, Daniel Lavelle, The Guardian, 11/29/23: “So finding a partner somewhere in the form of another civilisation that can teach us things that we can imitate, that we can aspire to, will give us a meaning to our cosmic existence. The universe will not be pointless any more.”
The killers came to mutilate the dead
But ran away in terror to search the town instead
But Lorca’s corpse, as he had prophesied, just walked away
And the only sound was the women in the chapel praying
—from “Lorca’s Novena,” The Pogues, written by Shane Magowan
Health and Wellness
A Breakthrough in Gene Editing: A new CRISPR therapy is transforming the lives of sickle-cell patients. What could this mean for the technology’s future? Lora Kelley, The Atlantic, 11/28/23 (gift article)
Sperm Really Is Frazzled by Modern Life, Scientists Say, Pandora Dewan, Newsweek, 11/27/23: "It has been shown that sperm concentration has been decreasing over the past 50 years in industrialized countries.”
Why indoor air pollution can be just as deadly as wildfire smoke and coal plant smog: Household air pollution is a hidden source of death and illness and climate change seems to be making it worse, Ana Clara Faria, Salon, 11/30/23
We’re ‘Processivores.’ How Do We Rebuild Our Eating Habits? Author Chris van Tulleken shows much of what we’re fed isn’t really food at all, Crawford Killian, The Tyee, 11/30/23. Book: Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can’t Stop Eating Food That Isn’t Food
Be good holds no water when the night falls,
dripping with the echo of another
she can’t recall. The sound of time running out
sounds a lot like the word they keep asking her,
sounds like something she can almost string
together. Sounds, a little bit, like surrender.
—from “Old Dogs (Remember),” Diane Cao (Thank you Terence Winch and Best American Poetry for featuring this poem)
Birds
Let’s Go Birding This Winter—Virtually, Andy Capinos, Maine Audubon, 11/29/23: “…you can observe birds in Panama and South Africa from your couch during Virtual Birding.”
Unknown animals left birdlike footprints long before birds existed: Ancient footprints found in Lesotho resemble those left by birds, but they were made around 60 million years before the ancestors of birds split from other dinosaurs, Ryan Truscott, New Scientist, 11/29/23
I posted a new Writerscast episode earlier this week – An interview with Chris Jones about his terrific book, The Swine Republic. I think our conversation worth a listen. At Writerscast.com or your favorite podcast provider.
Every week, I pore over hundreds of articles to choose what goes into TWT. It’s always difficult to decide what to leave out. This week was harder than most, so I omitted a wonderful photo in order to fit in more stories. I know that makes this collection even denser to read through. My apologies if it is too much. I keep promising myself to be a stricter editor, but every week there is just too much I need to report and share. If you have limited time to read, make sure you click through to the Kagan piece in the Washington Post.
My ongoing thanks to all of you who take the time to read this weekly compendium, and special thanks to all of you who have written to me. The weirdness - and approaching dangers - of each week just won’t let up.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, thanks for who you are and what you do. Please keep in touch. Stay well. Share love. We need each other, now more than ever.—David