OMM (On My Mind) – January 2024 – #1
~ findings & research ~
::: 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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::: ONE ART: a journal of poetry – Call for Subscribers ::::
I only realized recently…
There’s a vast disparity in regular readers vs. subscribers…
I’m pleased to say that ONE ART now averages 5000+ unique visitors each month. By stark contrast, there are only ~250 subscribers to the ONE ART newsletter that sends daily poems.
I’m wondering if it’s not clear how to Subscribe to daily ONE ART poems.
Did you know that, on the website, where it says, “News from ONE ART”— if you enter your email address and click “Subscribe” then you will receive the daily poem posts right in your email inbox?
Please let me know if this is news. Or, if subscribing on the website seems confusing.
I am aware that if you view the website on your phone, then you’re unlikely to see the subscribe button.
If you scroll down on the Contact or About pages… then you’ll see “News from ONE ART” and a place where you can enter your email and subscribe.
I’m going to try to remember to send out reminders more often asking readers to subscribe and to consider asking their friends who love poetry to subscribe, too.
Subscribing to the ONE ART newsletter is 100% Free!
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INYMI – Last Week: 10 Poems of the Week
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::: Podcasts :::
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I’m struggling to find time/headspace/bandwidth.
My lack of time spent listening to podcasts is also a sign I’m (a) not spending as much time in the car & (b) not going on solo walks
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::: Music :::
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‘The Worst Songs of 2023’ (Variety)
Variety is on the pulse.
“It’s a hip-hop song that comes Marjorie Taylor Greene-endorsed, so you know it’s gotta be good.”
I do have to disagree about Fall Out Boy’s cover of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. No one was going to do a “perfect” job at living up to this task. They were an appropriate band to take up the challenge.
Reminds me of the quality job The Ataris did of covering “The Boys of Summer”
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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‘The Other Side of the Desk: Becky Tuch’ (Authors Publish)
“My mom used to say that when I grew up I should be a professional Letter Writer.”
So cute!
“I find the work for my newsletter helps me write more freely in my creative writing, and to feel free to be voicier in the work.”
I love the use of “voicier” here!
Read the interview for great thoughts and insights.
Here’s Becky’s substack— LitMagNews
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‘Writing “Women of a Certain Age.” A Roundtable on Crafting Older Female Characters in Fiction’ (LitHub)
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The cross-section of poetry & self-help continues to appeal. (Guardian)
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‘Here are the Highest-Rated Books From Every Country’ (Book Riot)
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‘40 Best Elevator Pitches for Books in 2023’ (Writers Digest)
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‘29 Writing Organizations for Writers to Check Out’ (Writers Digest)
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I LOVE this:
‘A Brief Guide to Submitting’ (Cease, Cows)
You’ll see why when a forthcoming post of mine comes out from Becky Tuch’s LitMagNews.
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‘60+ Lists of Submission Opportunities for Writers (2023 Catalog)’ (The Sub Club Newsletter, Chill Subs)
Pleased to say that ONE ART is named in several of these lists!
Dear Writers: If you haven’t signed up to support Chill Subs and receive their “Sub Club” emails yet, I highly recommend doing so. It’s very little to pay for an obscene amount of generous and invaluable content.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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Access to affordable produce has long been a problem in the U.S.
I have known too many (and for much of my life, myself included – I’ve ever written a poem about this), who felt “priced out” of the fresh produce aisle.
Prices have only continued to rise… It’s not just inflation. As this article notes, “There is a very tight link between the price of food and how healthy it is for you.” + “The data very clearly says, there is this fixed high cost for fresh fruit and vegetable, which is not there for other products,” Thijs Van Rens, one of the authors of the Warwick study told CNBC. “This market is inefficient in setting the right prices.”
“Speaking more broadly, 3.14 billion people around the world — around 42% of the global population – couldn’t afford a healthy diet in 2021, according to the World Bank.”
There are many possible ways to address this problem.
The SNAP benefits program (aka. “food stamps”), designed for low-income individuals and families to have access to necessary sustenance could easily be expanded. Why? In part, because it is so heavily stigmatized. Your average middle or upper-class person is not likely to take advantage of these entitlements (which they are likely to see as “handouts”).
Pennsylvania also has a Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program which is another way to access fresh foods. Not sure about the stats on how much use this gets.
How much would it cost? Well, let’s say you added $50/week to each recipient’s benefits card that they could swipe at the register to cover the cost of eligible foods (a limited list under SNAP, WIC, and programs across the country). So, $200/month. This is very low, overall. I’m not sure what it cost you the last time you bought tomatoes or, god forbid, apples.
Thoughts on how to improve your local, state, or our national system? Please share.
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NPR’s LifeKit – New Year’s Resolution Planner’
Choose-your-own-adventure.
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‘The Most Dangerous Time to Drive in Each U.S. State’ (Visual Capitalist)
The times are somewhat surprising and vary considerably state by state.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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‘The 24 Universal Character Strengths’ (Visual Capitalist)
Wonder how others would order the importance of these overarching (and somewhat oddly named) categories. I’m thinking:
Humanity
Knowledge/Wisdom
Temperance
Transcendence
Justice
Courage
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‘Robert De Niro Says His Gothams Speech Was Censored, Anti-Trump Comments Removed Without Notice’ (Variety)
Worth reading his words.
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‘33 Problems With Media in One Chart’ (Visual Capitalist)
More than a year old. This article holds up.
Got a favorite?
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Miles vehicles can go… theoretically.
Here’s the problem… There are approximately 6 million car accidents annually in the U.S. (2022 data).
Before the pandemic, 17-18 million new vehicles were put on the road annually. We haven’t recalibrated yet and the market data is skewed. Regardless, you can see the issue. A large number of vehicles, some old and some new, are in accidents annually. People get hurt or killed—the main problem and the obvious tragedy. The collateral is that a bunch of vehicles are destroyed and never make it anywhere close to their theoretical mileage lifespan.
A tree can live for hundreds of years… but only if you don’t cut it down.
…or it gets struck by lightning… or taken down in a wildfire.
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‘Not so fast: You could toss your poinsettias, or help them 'bloom' again next year’ (AP News)
Well now I know what it would take... and that's way too much work for your average casual plant caretaker.
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Did you get the memo?
Amazon (Prime Video):
“We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership. We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here.”
Amazon then goes on to share a litany of services they offer in, I suppose, their defense. No one insisted they do this so clearly they believe that this $2.99/month increased for ad-free video is going to cause quite a lot of upset.
Some of these services are “free”. If I’ve learned anything by now it’s that when something is “free” it means you are the product.
Amazon will host all your photos for free. Why? I don’t really want to know. They may even technically own them if you store them in Amazon’s cloud. This, and other reasons, are why I refused to accept a mere $15 for Amazon to store my photos and instead pay a monthly fee for cloud storage…through what is hopefully a less malicious company… but we really don’t know until we know.
Seeing so much of what Amazon “offers” in one space… is unsettling. Big surprise.
A reminder of why we have tried to prevent corporations from becoming so large in the past.
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Not financial advice.
“According to their estimates, $100 in cash is forecast to grow to $133 over 10 years, while a 60/40 portfolio is projected to be worth $197.” (JP Morgan / Visual Capitalist)
A tricky game.
And, yes, as well we know, life isn’t fair.
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“The Corporate Transparency Act will take effect on January 1, 2024” (Heather Cox Richardson, December 26, 2023)
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Loneliness is tricky to tackle.
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Negativity bias may have a frustrating connection with depression.
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South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun killed himself over alleged drug charges.
This says something about a culture…
South Korea has one of the highest rates of suicide globally.
This is unacceptable.
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“Today President Joe Biden used the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act to reclaim the spirit of the era in which it was written, urging Americans to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, “honor all the progress we have made toward protecting endangered species,” and to “come together to conserve our planet.” He noted that thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration has been able to invest billions of dollars in forest management, ecosystem restoration, and protection of watersheds, as well as making historic investments in addressing climate change, and that, as president, he has protected more lands and waters than any president since John F. Kennedy.” (Heather Cox Richardson, December 27, 2023)
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‘NASA's supersonic passenger flights are getting closer’ (CNN)
So, they mention environmental impact... This speed... That's gotta burn quite a bit of fuel.
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Which agenda? (Seth Godin)
Reminds me of what feels like a now “classic” adage— you have to plan your own schedule or someone else will plan it for you.
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‘For transgender youth in crisis, hospitals sometimes compound the trauma’ (AP News)
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::: Questions :::
Bearing in mind that GDP is not the best metric in many respects… Is there a correlation between U.S. state GDP and sway (influence) in Presidential elections?
The highest ranking states in Real GDP:
1. California
2. Texas
3. New York
4. Florida
5. Illinois
6. Pennsylvania
7. Ohio
8. Georgia
9. Washington
10. New Jersey
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‘Afghan schoolgirls are finishing sixth grade in tears. Under Taliban rule, their education is over’ (AP News)
What can the U.S. do about the situation in Afghanistan now?
What will it take for Afghan citizens to push back and overtake the Taliban? I’m fairly confident this is the will of the people.
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