OMM (On My Mind) – February 2024 – #4

~ a curated selection of discoveries ~

::: The Open :::

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy this weekly newsletter (published on Sundays).

If you’re a subscriber, please consider reaching out to a friend you think may enjoy this newsletter and encourage them to sign up.

If you can, please consider signing up as a Paid Subscriber.

I’ll be just as happy if you donate to ONE ART: a journal of poetry.

Thank you for reading and for your time.

With Gratitude,

Mark

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::: Personal Notes :::

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It’s been a busy week. I have started to host workshops and I’d like to think it’s going pretty well so far.

I have several workshops upcoming this week:

Tuesday 2/27 – 7:00-8:30pm (EST)

Workshop Session: Unpacking Poems

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Wednesday 2/28 – 2:00-3:30pm (EST)
Workshop Session: The Burroughs Walk

Note: This exercise involves leaving your house/apartment. Ideally, take a stroll in your neighborhood. You can also do this while on your daily commute (car or public transportation). 

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Thursday 2/29 (LEAP DAY!) – 7:00-8:30pm (EST)

Workshop Session: Linda Gregg’s ‘Six Things’

This workshop session is scheduled for this particular evening because I want workshoppers to spend the day observing atypical behaviors that sometimes occur when we have "unique days" such as a leap day or eclipse. This workshop involves Linda Gregg's 'Six Things'. More on this if you express interest.

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Please email me (markdanowsky@gmail.com) in advance if you’re interested in attending a session.

Suggested fees for workshops are $15-25. 

Methods of payment include: Venmo / PayPal / CashApp 

Please contact if another payment method is needed.

I look forward to hearing from you! 

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::: Music :::

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MGMT and Real Estate have released new albums… and I don’t know if I need to hear them. Your thoughts?

Potential meh for MGMT

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A.G. Cook announced a new album. Will it actually be 8 albums? Hard to know in advance.

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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::

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‘Writing Rules That Beg to Be Broken’ (Jane Friedman’s blog)

It’s a mixed bag piece but, I suppose, that aligns with the assignment.

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‘There’s A Word For That: Our Dictionary Additions For Winter 2024’ (dictionary.com)

Some of these are not remotely new. This is understandable… we don’t add every short-lived buzzword or slang term to a “standard” dictionary… though they should live somewhere and, hopefully, Urban Dictionary has you covered.

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Erika Dreifus writes about the disturbing rise of antisemitism in the literary community (and more) in her newsletter.

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Benjamin Davis (Chill Subs) responding to a question in the comments about university-affiliated lit mags:

“If you think of a university-affiliated lit mag as an assignment for the editors and readers, their job is to create the best lit mag with the best content. Not simply publish their peers. I have been published in several university-affiliated lit mags and my student days are…long gone. I think MFA students tend to populate university lit mags more because those are the ones they target, and what they’re writing tends to be similar to what those running the lit mags are taught is “Good.””

[from] Mid-Course Q&A Round Up for 'A Submitter's Guide to Lit Mags' (Plus Write or Die 101 as a whole)

If you click the above link you’ll see that I weighed in a few times and Ben included his responses in this write-up.

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“Looking for the trick → Want a trick? Cut a Kiwi in half, take a baby spoon, and eat it like two little ice cream bowls. That's a trick. There is no trick to getting accepted. Be good. Be on time. Be a little lucky.” – Benjamin Davis, How to Match Your Writing to the Right Lit Mag (without your head exploding)

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Wild story. (Smithsonian)

The stars align to bring together a famous Canadian artist and the Barenaked Ladies.

I’m very much burying the lede.

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Take a breather. Have a laugh.

‘Really Hard to Understand and Even Harder to Follow Submission Guidelines for Our Literary Journal’ (LitMagNews)

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Here’s a post where Seth Godin is missing the mark… at least in one way I’m certain the literary community can agree on.

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‘Why I hope my parents won’t read my novel’ (Guardian)

“People laughed, parents included, and so did I, as though I spoke in jest. But I didn’t, or if I did, I joked as one might when telling the most urgent kind of truth.”

“During the nine years I worked on it, my previously tolerable anxiety hit baffling new heights. I had panic attacks lasting, at times, for hours. Fits that could turn almost comically violent, absurd. I wept. I gasped for breath. I told friends, laughing at the histrionics, that I felt as though a giant had me by my hair, flinging me back and forth. In the grip of a panic attack, I can’t help half-believing the maudlin idea that I’m about to die. Once, after a physician said most people’s bodies can’t handle panic attacks that go on past 15 minutes, I noticed a slight, ludicrous pride: I had outlier panic attacks. Look how tough I could be!”

“I’m hardly alone in writing what I can barely tell.”

“In a 2022 South Korean study, four in 10 queer and trans people between the ages of 19 and 35 said they’d seriously considered dying by suicide in the past year, a number much higher than among the general population. The numbers aren’t better in the US: according to a 2022 Trevor Project study, 47% of Korean queer and trans people under the age of 25 in America had also, in the past year, considered dying by suicide. In the US, we live in a time of alarming book bans targeting, in part, queer and trans writers; bad, old ideas suspecting queer and trans people of posing a threat to children, labelling us as predators, are thriving.”

Highly recommend reading this essay in full.

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Hugo House continues to have problems.

I’m sad to see that it’s been this tricky to figure out how to move forward.

‘Executive director of Seattle’s Hugo House resigns’ (Seattle Times)

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Phillip B. Williams has a new book out.

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Is it underappreciated or… adequately appreciated?

After all, most things (in pop culture) are overappreciated.

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‘Wawi Navarroza’s Self-Portraits Contain Multitudes’ (Hyperallergic)

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‘Women and Spiritualism in Art’ (Hyperallergic)

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::: Health & Wellness :::

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‘ADHD-like traits could make humans better at foraging.’ (The Washington Post)

“The findings: Traits like impulsivity and distractibility may be an advantage in finding food sources, helping hunter gatherers and nomadic tribes to survive, according to a new study.”

“What they suggest: ADHD symptoms are considered negative only because of the context of modern society, one expert said, and could prove beneficial in other environments.”

It’s worth pointing out that the same is true for autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) and, likely, many other developmental and neurological “disorders”.

Some disorders are considered persistent because they work under certain frameworks we’ve developed in society. Think about how we’re seeing extreme versions of narcissism play out (Trump) or mood spectrum disorders (many people in The Arts including music, comedy, and film).

In our society, we often focus on treating the symptoms. ADHD does not align well a middle school teacher struggling with classroom management. However, ADHD can function just fine if a person is empowered to make decisions in an entrepreneurial position.

These are important considerations as humanity has a bad track record when it comes to extreme measures such as eugenics for “solving” the “problem” of different brains that don’t quite align with the status quo.

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‘15 Easy Ways to Eat a Little More Fiber Every Day’ (Self)

I already do a bunch of these and recommend most of them.

Aside: I learned recently that (unfortunately) nutritional yeast can be a problem if you have gout. This shouldn’t affect most readers (I hope).  

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Research indicates the total covid death toll is likely 16% higher than previous reports. (Guardian)

The study calls attention to undercounting due to the healthcare system being overloaded. Also, not enough testing.

There remains speculation about covid-adjacent deaths. It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely why some deaths are not entirely accounted for. Between 2020 and 2022, there were 163,000 deaths in the U.S. that were not attributed to covid but also were not related to natural causes or common [and yes, disturbing] causes of death (accidents, firearms, suicide, overdoses).

Those on one side of the political spectrum will likely agree that polarization of the Covid-19 crisis including misinformation related to the safety of vaccines resulted in avoidable deaths.

The impact of covid, and the lessons we failed to learn as a society, remain very front of mind.

While the official pandemic is over, we will be dealing with the fallout for decades to come.

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‘Zyn, the nicotine pouch at the center of a brewing culture war, explained’ (Vox)

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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::

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When Metaphor is Misused or Abused

‘Metaphors make the world: Woven into the fabric of language, metaphors shape how we understand reality. What happens when we try using new ones?’ (Aeon)

What follows are a series of excerpts though I highly recommend reading the essay in full.

“When used properly, metaphors enhance speech. But correctly dosing the metaphorical spice in the dish of language is no easy task. They ‘must not be far-fetched, or they will be difficult to grasp, nor obvious, or they will have no effect’, as Aristotle already noted nearly 2,500 years ago. For this reason, artists – those skilled enhancers of experience – are generally thought to be the expert users of metaphors, poets and writers in particular.”

“Unfortunately, it is likely this association with the arts that has given metaphors a second-class reputation among many thinkers. Philosophers, for example, have historically considered it an improper use of language. A version of this thought still holds significant clout in many scientific circles: if what we care about is the precise content of a sentence (as we often do in science) then metaphors are only a distraction. Analogously, if what we care about is determining how nutritious a meal is, its presentation on the plate should make no difference to this judgment – it might even bias us.”

“An oncologist review article urges nurses and doctors to rethink the usefulness of this militaristic metaphor. The alternative proposed is to use the conceptual metaphor CANCER IS A JOURNEY to frame the patient experience. Reconceptualising it in this way leads to different thoughts: cancer is not a battle to be conquered, but an individual and unique path to navigate; the experience with the disease is not something that ends (as war typically does) but an ongoing neverending process (with periodic hospital visits to monitor any recurrence).”

“At first examination, war metaphors might seem to convey the gravity of the situation and mobilise people for action. But it is important in such cases to consider the unintended consequences that come with a choice of metaphorical framing. War, for example, generally requires intense nationwide mobilisation for action, whereas plagues require the majority of the population to stay home and do nothing. The war metaphor is also known to increase racist sentiments, something we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“As an alternative, some linguists have suggested that a more fitting metaphor would be to reconceptualise it as the PANDEMIC IS A FIRE, since this emphasises the urgency and destructiveness of the health crisis, while avoiding some of the drawbacks of the war metaphor. This is not to say that it is wrong or unethical to have in mind the PANDEMIC IS A WAR – it could be that the war framing is in fact the best to mobilise people and motivate them to stay home during pandemic emergencies. The point is, rather, that knowing its potential problems should prompt us to use the metaphor with extra precautions.”

“It should be clear that the power a choice of metaphor(s) has in structuring our thoughts makes the tool vulnerable to be hijacked by grifters and politicians to advance their own agenda. To take but one example, in 2017 Donald Trump used a version of Aesop’s fable of The Farmer and the Snake to metaphorically frame immigrants in a negative light. The fable recounts a farmer who, on her way home, finds a freezing and ill snake. Taking pity on the creature, the woman brings it home and keeps it warm. On her way back from work the next day, she sees that the snake is healthy again. Consumed by joy, she gives the snake a hug. The snake, in turn, fatally bites her. The farmer asks the snake why it would do such a thing; feeling no remorse, the snake says: ‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.’ By reading out this story in a speech, Trump primed the audience to conceptualise that IMMIGRANTS ARE SNAKES, and the UNITED STATES IS A WOMAN. The philosopher Katharina Stevens makes a convincing case that Trump used this fable to lend support to the belief that immigrants are a national security threat (just as the snake is a threat to the woman).”

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"Navalny's return to Russia, knowing he faced “certain imprisonment and possible death,” The New York Times’ former Moscow bureau chief wrote, was “almost a classical Greek tragedy: The hero, knowing that he is doomed, returns home anyway because, well, if he didn’t, he would not be the hero.”

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Seth Godin on Tipping Culture

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Who do Americans trust? (Brookings)

The answer: Corporations

But… not quite as much as a few years ago.

But… still more than A LOT of institutions you’d think we’d trust more…

It’s all VERY unsettling.

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‘Universal Basic Income Has Been Tried Over and Over Again. It Works Every Time.’ (Gizmodo)

 I believe UBI is long overdue. We need this now. We’re really going to need this in the near future. We should make it happen before political gridlock causes delays when it becomes truly essential for large percentages of the population.

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Leo B on his vegan lifestyle. (ZenHabits)

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A setback in lab meat. (Wired)

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‘Despite a national spike in homelessness, some US regions are finding solutions’ (Brookings)

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‘1980s Cars Were Great. Here’s Why’ (The Drive)

The 90s have cooler builds… but, yeah, the Honda Prelude is a badass looking ride.

Here’s a Beemer from 007’s Tomorrow Never Dies

Here’s the one you might have been expecting

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‘I Never Thought I Could Fall In Love With a Woman. Then Came Prison.’ (The Marshall Project)

“Some of the women told me they were just curious and wanted to experiment with their sexuality. A few said they did it simply to adapt to the environment because it was one way to fit in.”

“Perhaps this shows how desperate we are, that we are willing to take these risks just to feel like a woman again.”

“I had been raised to believe that only a man could love, provide for and protect a woman, but the man I had married provided none of these things, and I divorced him. A. showed me I did not need a man to make me happy, and she introduced me to a world I never knew existed. She showed me how I was supposed to be treated. And I learned how to love just when I thought it was impossible.”

“We should never be ashamed of who we are or with whom we fall in love.”

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‘Poverty in Argentina hits 57%, highest number in 20 years, report says’

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Taking Americans’ temperature on immigration. (Gallup)

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‘First GM banana approved as food’ (Nature)

Very exciting news given the banana monoculture problem we face at present.

There has long been the potential that we would lose bananas (again).

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Burning Man Temple… Why is Burning Man a thing… I’ve read articles. It’s still… a strange subculture to me. If you’ve been there, write me a thoughtful note explaining the value.

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TikTok continues to be a mystifying platform that defies any sense of normalcy amidst the never-ending chaos.

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A saw an article suggesting it would be “radical” to pay teachers six figures.

No… no, it would not. It would make perfect sense.

A common comparison, I’ve seen repeatedly over recent years, has been that we should value teachers as much as other essential positions. Shouldn’t a teacher earn a similar wage as a pediatrician?

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I don’t think you can even call U.S. defense spending a flex. Next level.

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“The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) receives 0.003% of the federal budget in 2022. This is less than 1/2 of one hundredth of one percent of the budget.”

This is up just slightly, I think (?)…

“The FY 2024 Budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come and includes $211 million for NEA.” (arts.gov)

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The Approval Ratings of World Leaders in 2024

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“The House” continues to win big. This should come as no surprise.

‘U.S. casinos won $66.5B in 2023, their best year ever’ (ABC News)

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‘On The Record with Vlad Tenev’ (Semafor)

Good interview.

It’s about Robinhood and crypto though so if you don’t want to hear about that, I’d skip this.

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‘Scientists Just Discovered The World’s Biggest Snake In The Amazon Rainforest: Biologists spotted a northern green anaconda that was 26 feet long and weighed 440 pounds.’

Terrifying. And I’m not even afraid of snakes. At least, not in any serious way.

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‘Philly Among Nation's Noisiest Cities, New Study Says’ (Patch)

Is this just about Eagles fans?

Also, Boston is more noisy. And we dislike their socks… so… yeah.

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::: Google Search Trends :::

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Oh this is comforting… though, troublingly, relatable…

“Why is my eye twitching?” is at an all time high in search.”

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This should be breaking all-time highs daily…

“Overrated relationship advice” is a breakout search this week

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Who is ghosting whom?

“job ghosting” is the top trending type of ghosting over the past week in the US

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U.S. Top Concerns (ranked)

1.     Crime

2.     Social Security

3.     Health care

4.     Unemployment

5.     Economy

6.     Immigration

7.     Minimum Wage

8.     Race

9.     Abortion

10.  Congress

11.  Supreme Court

12.  Homelessness

13.  Senate

14.  Media bias

15.  Poverty

16.  LGBTQ+

17.  Climate change

18.  SSI

19.  Caregiving

20.  Cost of living

21.  Opioids

22.  Affordable housing

23.  Russia-Ukraine war

24.  Renewable Energy

25.  Inequality

26.  Trade

27.  Suffrage

28.  Voter registration

29.  Parental leave

30.  Antisemitism

31.  Tariffs

32.  Criminal justice

33.  First amendment

34.  US-Mexico border

35.  Israel-Hamas war

36.  Foreign policy

37.  Gun Control

38.  Second amendment

39.  Same-sex marriage

40.  National debt

41.  Gerrymandering

42.  Early voting

43.  Gov’t spending

44.  Gender equality

45.  China’s gov’t

46.  Islamophobia

47.  Tax policy

48.  North Korea’s gov’t

So, notably, these issues are not ranked the same state-to-state. Also, they tend to shift as we approach a Presidential Election. Let’s check back in soon and we’ll see…

You can make your own personal judgments about how our attention might be misguided given the rankings.

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“grape milk” is the top trending flavor of milk searched over the past week in the U.S.

Frankly, this makes me deeply concerned for the longevity of humanity.

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People want to know how to lower their cortisol levels.

Sounds like our society is pretty stressed out. Go figure.

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People are worried about attention spans. Particularly for Gen Z. Go figure.

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::: News of the Weird :::

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‘A loophole got him a free New York hotel stay for five years. Then he claimed to own the building’ (AP News)

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‘AI Imagines New Dog Breeds To Represent Each of the 50 U.S. States’

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“Abraham Lincoln pardoned Biden's great-great-grandfather after Civil War-era brawl, documents reportedly show” (CBS News)

That’s one way to be connected. Biden should put this on his LinkedIn.

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“Trump's high-top sneakers sell out hours after launch” (Axios)

Stop giving this fool money.

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