The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 125, October 2, 2022 (V3 #21)
“It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility”.—Albert Einstein
“When my body won't hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Where will I go?
Will the trade winds take me south through Georgia grain?
Or tropical rain?
Or snow from the heavens?”
—from “No Hard Feelings,” sung by The Avett Brothers, written by Robert William Crawford/Scott Yancey Avett/Timothy Seth Avett
“Diamonds and pearls
tumble from my tongue.”—Sandra Cisneros
Bookish Kulcha
The British Socialist Who Rewrote the World for Children: How E. Nesbit used her grief, her politics, and her imagination to make a new kind of book for kids, Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 9/28/22: “As a writer and as a mother, and likely as a child, Nesbit saw kids—siblings, especially—as self-governing, faintly anarchic communities unto themselves.”
David Milch on Language and Obscenity in Deadwood: The Series Creator on Westerns, Civility, and Iambic Pentameter, David Milch, LitHub, 9/28/22: “… there’s no rule that can stop art, though there are plenty that will change it.”
In Praise of Physical Books: From Symbols of Cultural Capital to… Cultural Relics? On Why Reading Offline Remains Essential, George Prochnik, LitHub, 9/29/22: “More than any particular political message, reading imparts a sense of solidarity in solitude across time and cultures that can strengthen our courage, even when it validates our foreboding.”
Press On: Black Sparrow Is Back, Josh Sherman, LA Review of Books, 9/19/22
Sandra Cisneros on the Private Act of Writing Poetry: “I find writing poetry a most subversive act,” Sandra Cisneros, LitHub, 9/30/22: “Every day, poetry summons me in the same way that the minarets let loose their silk call to prayer.” Woman Without Shame: Poems
Lorraine O’Grady Has Always Been a Rebel: The eighty-eight-year-old artist and critic, whose profile has risen in the past decade, examines her role in the art world then and now, Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 9/29/22
What Do We Really Know About the History of the Printing Press? To get the whole story, you’ll need a particle accelerator, Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing, Atlas Obscura, 9/16/22
The TikTokization of Everything: The Great AI Reckoning, Rex Woodbury, Digital Native, 9/28/22: “Perhaps the most compelling—and the most likely—force to power tech in the 2020s is artificial intelligence.”
‘You cannot be what you cannot see’: Conservatives ban 'Girls Who Code’ books, Aysha Qamar, Daily Kos, 9/26/22
Banned Books Week: As book bans become ‘more numerous, more organized, more effective,’ Brooklyn Public Library fights back, Drew Richardson, Brooklyn Paper, 9/26/22
Nothing compares: how Sinéad O’Connor’s fearless activism helped change the world, Sylvia Patterson, The Guardian, 9/30/22: “No one could do jack shit to me that hadn’t been done already.”
Live! at the Library: U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Opening Reading, Library of Congress, 9/29/22 (video)
I don’t know how to hold this truth,
so I kill it, pin its terrible wings down
in case, later, no one believes me.
—from “What Rough Beast,” Ada Limón
Politicalization of Everything
Why Do So Many Americans Believe the Lies Pushed by the GOP? How the science of the Big Lie & propaganda works to the GOP’s advantage, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 9/27/22: “Republican lies haven’t changed a lot since FDR’s era, although they’re more focused and now repeated daily by thousands of rightwing websites, bloggers, podcasts, Fox “News,” and talk radio shows.”
US supreme court to decide cases with ‘monumental’ impact on democracy: Many fear the potential for extreme rightwing rulings on topics ranging from affirmative action to voting rights, Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 10/2/22: “At its most dystopian, an extreme ruling in Moore v Harper could wreak havoc in presidential elections in 2024 and beyond.”
GOP Vows to Impeach Biden, Will Get Back to Us When It Figures Out What to Impeach Him For: Has Joe Biden committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” since becoming president? No, but that’s not going to stop Republicans from trying to remove him from office, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 9/27/22
January 6 changed America. Here are two directions the country could go now: Whether or not the assault on the Capitol actually failed is yet to be determined, Thomas Zimmer, The Guardian, 9/27/22
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Last Seen Obliterating Abortion Rights, Wants Liberal Female Colleague to Shut Her Mouth: The archconservative, who authored the opinion ending the national right to an abortion, apparently thinks critiquing his actions, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 9/29/22
How much will beating inflation hurt American workers? The question on a lot of people's minds, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 9/26/22: “In general, my view is that macroeconomists tend to focus too much on wages as a driver of inflation.”
Putin’s push for a new USSR reawakens the bloody chaos of Soviet collapse: The Kremlin wants to return to the age when Russia dominated its neighbors across Eurasia. Instead, it’s driving them away, Gabriel Gavan, Politico, 9/19/22
How the War in Ukraine Might End: In recent years, a small group of scholars has focussed on war-termination theory. They see reason to fear the possible outcomes in Ukraine, Keith Gessen, New Yorker, 9/29/22. “… the West may be tempted, finally, to retreat. Slantchev urged them not to. “This is it now, this is for all the marbles.”
Putin's Annexation and Lyman's Encirclement, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 10/1/22: “The question now is how long the Russian people and, most importantly, the members of the power elite, put up with this recklessness.”
Unrest across Iran continues under state’s extreme gender apartheid, Haidar Khezri, The Conversation, 9/27/22: “With the exception of bland condemnations, the discrimination against women in Iran is often overlooked while the world focuses on limiting the country’s nuclear capabilities.”
Thousands of Virginia Students Walked Out Over Anti-Trans Policies: The walkout, which included nearly 100 schools, was entirely student-organized, James Factora, Them, 9/27/22
Billionaire-backed legal group sues to block student loan forgiveness, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 9/28/22: “In this case, PLF's suit to block student loan forgiveness aligns with Koch's economic and political interests.”
A concrete vision of the liberal democratic future: The free societies must once again show what kind of world they want to build, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 9/30/22
So here we lie against each other
And these four walls can never hold us
We're looking for wide open spaces
High above the kitchen
And we're strangers here
On our way to some other place
—from “World Where You Live,” Crowded House, written by Neil Finn
Science and Environment
Floridians hit by hurricane face gridlock, flooding, extensive damage: Hurricane Ian has left at least 44 people dead and caused an estimated $60 billion in property damage in Florida alone, Tim Craig, Paul Sonne, Matthew Brown, Washington Post, 10/1/22
Hurricane Ian is no anomaly. The climate crisis is making storms more powerful: Ian is one of the five worst hurricanes in America’s recorded history. That’s not a fluke – it’s a tragic taste of things to come, Michael E Mann, Susan Joy Hassol, The Guardian, 9/30/22
The World Has Left Mujeres Amazónicas Waiting: Indigenous women rise up to protect the land, Patricia Gualinga, Orion, 9/27/22: “Living Forest means that the forest is alive, with all its trees, the jungle, the hills, the rivers, and the beings that live within it, all of the invisible beings. And it must be us who send this message so that everyone can understand what a Living Forest is.”
Earth is under threat, yet you would scarcely know it, George Monbiot, The Guardian, 9/28/22: “Most of the media, most of the time, either ignore our environmental crisis, downplay it or deny it. The reason is not difficult to discern. Most of the media are owned by corporations or billionaires, who have a financial interest in sustaining business as usual.”
Time to charge the true cost of fossil fuels, Robert Taylor, Craig B. Smith, The Hill, 9/26/22: “Rapid decarbonization is possible. Clean affordable renewable energy is available. The economic policies to speed the transition are ready to use. All that’s needed is the political will to do it.”
Western Forests, Snowpack and Wildfires Appear Trapped in a Vicious Climate Cycle: A new study probes how extreme 2020 wildfires affected the water cycle in key mountain forests that store water in the form late-melting snow, Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, 9/26/22
US installs record solar capacity as prices keep falling: It's often cheaper to build and run solar than to buy gas for an existing plant, John Timmer, Ars Technica, 9/21/22
Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started: You can’t completely banish fossil fuels from your home in one fell swoop, but some achievable plays are within reach, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 9/29/22
Native Tribes Are Bringing Prairie Land Back to the Pacific Northwest: The S’Kallam Tribe is investing in the future of food sovereignty through ecosystem restoration and bringing back the camas plant, a once-popular source of carbohydrates, Claire Elise Thompson, Civil Eats, 9/16/22
Electric planes are coming: Short-hop regional flights could be running on batteries in a few years, Gökçin Çınar, The Conversation, 9/19/22
Tiny Oregon town hosts 1st wind-solar-battery ‘hybrid’ plant, Gillian Flaccus, AP News, 9/28/22
Best-Selling Author Jeff VanderMeer Finds That Nature Is Stranger Than Fiction: The novelist attained fame with gripping works of eco-fiction. How hard could it be to rewild his own backyard? Jessica Bruder, Audubon, Fall 2022
Annie Proulx on the Lost Ecological Paradise of the English Fenlands: A Story of a Tearing the Infinitely Complex Web of Life, Annie Proulx, LitHub, 9/27/22
Hotter, more humid, but cleaner: How LA’s air has changed, Caleigh Wells, KCRW, 9/29/22: “the average day in Santa Monica 50 years ago saw about four hours of marine fog. Today, it’s more like two hours.”
Climate change is a public health emergency: We need to recognize what is becoming rapidly apparent. Our health is wrapped up in the health of the planet, Andrew Lodge, CBC, 9/30/22
Bucking Convention to Track the Upside of Invasive Species: Some scientists want to document the positive impacts of alien species. Not everyone thinks this is new — or worthwhile, Asher Elbein, Undark, 9/27/22
On the Origins of Reef Fishes: Fossils pulled from the quarry of an ancient Maya city reveal the dawn of reef fishes, Jesse Kathan, Hakai, 9/26/22
If You Wish to Make a Toaster from Scratch, You Must First Invent the Universe, Hillary Predko, The Prepared, 9/29/22: “there's definitely something apocalyptic about the Toaster Project as well – it reveals how the availability of resources has changed and how, for example, we couldn't restart the Iron Age today.”
You get discouraged, don't you, girl?
It's your brother's world for a while longer
We gotta dance with the devil on a river
To beat the stream
Call it living the dream, call it kicking the ladder
—from The Joke, Brandi Carlile, by Phillip John Hanseroth/Timothy Jay Hanseroth Brandi M. Carlile/ David W. Jr Cobb
Birds Birds Birds
These male hummingbirds evolved to be tiny so they can do cool dives: Male bee hummingbirds evolved to be much smaller than females, possibly because their diminutive size allows them to make faster and more elaborate courtship flights, Jake Buehler, New Scientist, 9/22/22
Half world's birds in decline, species moving 'ever faster' to extinction, Agence France Press, France 24, 9/28/22
Emergency plan to save the capercaillie bird launched as numbers plummet: Cairngorms national park drawing up plans as RSPB says latest survey shows population at critical level of 540, Severin Carrell, The Guardian, 9/30/22
Millions of Migratory Birds Stop in Beijing Each Fall, Study Finds: The study — which recorded the night calls of migratory birds flying over the Chinese capital — underlines the importance of protecting the city’s disappearing bird habitats, Li Pasha, Sixth Tone, 9/30/22
When Goshawks Ruled The Autumn Skies, Scott Weidensaul, All About Birds, 9/22/22: “Some scientists think climate change and habitat loss have made these big accipiters permanently scarce. But others see a complex pattern of cycles within cycles, and the possibility that the mega flights will return.”
No Melpomene
Re: Lone poem, pen nomme
Pommel pope poop
Olé, Olé, Ol' Pop Pomp
Pelé mope
Mono men pole, lop me
One pen open poem
Peel 'em:
La Pomme, pome, pommelo
Moon pone mole
—Lee Ann Brown
Trailblazer Hector Lopez dies at age 93: Two-time World Series champ was Triple-A's first Black manager, Julia Kreuze, MLB.com, 9/30/22
Recommended watching: Amy Schumer’s Love & Beth, which has gotten me thinking about how memory shapes the present – and inevitably, the future. Schumer is amazing and brave, her show both funny and painful, and very rewarding to stay up late with.
Recommended reading: Ruin: A Novel of Flyfishing in Bankruptcy, Leigh Seippel “Side by side silent in our waders, rods laid together. Watching the stream open its evening lamps for those who can see inside.”
An apple serves as well as any skull
To be the book in which to read a round,
And is as excellent, in that it is composed
Of what, like skulls, comes rotting back to ground.
—from “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” by Wallace Stevens, born 10/2/1879
Today I picked what are likely the last from this year’s garden: three green peppers, two yellow squashes, and a full bucket of purplish tomatillos. Despite the ongoing drought, it was a good year for vegetables. Collecting articles, poems, and songs for TWT is another form of gardening, providing me with sustenance. Thanks for allowing me to share my harvest with you, and thanks for sending your notes and stories. Love to all as the season turns. —David