OMM (On My Mind) – January 2024 – #2
~ 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
*
::: Personal Notes :::
*
If you go to the ONE ART website homepage there should be a pop-up now that will let you subscribe to receive daily poems in your inbox. (Success!)
*
An essay I wrote for Becky Tuch’s Lit Mag News: Dear Lit Mags: Stop Making Submission Guidelines So Complicated
Mentioned in Erika Dreifus’ ‘Finds for Writers’ newsletter
*
Poems of the Week (published Mondays)
*
::: Podcasts :::
*
Hidden Brain – What Would Socrates Do?
*
::: Music :::
*
Recently getting into Anderson .Paak
Check out his Tiny Desk Concert.
*
“According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, enjoying music could even be called a “total brain workout.”” (Inside Hook)
*
Pitchfork made this ‘150 Best Albums of the 1990s’ list.
Amazingly, I think it’s a pretty good list. The ordering is another story.
In any case, here’s the thing— how many of these albums do I really want to listen to these days? What about you?
I’m not saying they don’t “hold up”, I’m just saying there’s a lot of good music that I just feel kinda “done with”… at least for now.
*
What are your thoughts on this Pitchfork list?
‘The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s’
*
‘Taylor Swift Passes Elvis For Most Weeks At No. 1 On Album Charts For A Solo Artist’ (Deadline)
*
::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
*
‘Print Journals that accept unsolicited reviews’ (Diane Lockward)
*
Readers continue to debate the ethics of Blake Butler’s ‘Molly’. (CNN)
“But if some people considered “Molly” to be a hatchet job on Brodak, I couldn’t find the hatchet. I couldn’t even find malice, just gaping bewilderment and circles of grief.”
The Plath/Hughes story is an inevitable discussion point given the circumstances.
Anyone who knows anything about my personal life knows why I’m following this story closely. It’s not because I have the intention to write a book like ‘Molly’. It’s because I don’t.
*
‘Stop Making Excuses’ (LitHub)
We often want to believe there will always be more time.
*
Go Figure.
‘Complex, unfamiliar sentences make the brain’s language network work harder’ (MIT News)
*
A bit of fun:
‘Why Do Authors Cross Out Their Name When Signing Book?’ (Writers Digest)
I have always disliked this practice, by the way.
It’s trained into new writers as being a “pro” move.
The reality is that there were historical reasons.
Book Riot offers some theories.
*
‘Neil Postman’s advice on how to live the rest of your life’ (Austin Kleon)
*
Sadly, this is to be expected from terrible situations. It's never worth the cost to human life.
‘‘It’s a golden age’: poetry flourishes in Ukraine – but at a terrible price’ (Guardian)
*
::: Health & Wellness :::
*
Our planet’s population is believed to have surpassed 8 billion.
*
SIDS / SUDC
‘Seizures during sleep are a potential cause of at least some cases of sudden unexplained death in childhood, or SUDC, researchers at NYU Langone Health reported Thursday after analyzing home monitoring video that captured the deaths of seven sleeping toddlers.’ (AP News)
*
“Texas doctors do not need to perform emergency abortions, a court ruled.” (The Washington Post)
*
‘It keeps people with schizophrenia in school and on the job. Why won't insurance pay?’ (NPR)
*
Lots of ideas to consider—
‘How to Find a Great Therapist You Can Actually Afford’ (Self)
*
‘Americans on Medicare now get better access to mental health care. Here's how’ (NPR)
“18% of Americans receive Medicare, and they're going to overnight have access to so many more providers. So it's really exciting, particularly when you think about the rural areas, where one in three people receive Medicare services, and there's such a severe shortage of providers, it's really going to be helpful to them.”
*
Some sensible advice:
‘How to Feel a Little Better in 2024’ (Self)
*
‘January Is National Thank You Month: Here Are 7 Ways to Express and Increase Your Gratitude’ (Nice News)
+
‘ Seven Reminders for How to Live Well in 2024’ (Greater Good Magazine)
*
‘2023 in 7 minutes’ (Vox / YouTube video)
*
‘These 8 habits could add up to 24 years to your life, study finds’ (CBS News)
*
“Damp” January, anyone? A call for moderation if cold turkey seems, well, unfeasible. (Body+Soul)
At least they didn’t say “moist”, right?
+
Some Americans drink less, some more. (Pew Research)
Lots of recent stories about Gen Z drinking less. Is it possible they have… other vices?
*
‘Wearing hearing aids could reduce the risk of dying earlier’ (The Washington Post)
“What to know: For people with hearing loss, regular use of hearing aids could reduce that risk by 24% compared with those who don’t wear them at all, new research shows.”
“Why? It may be because they help people stay socially connected to others, and because they help stimulate the brain with more sound.”
*
::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
*
2024 is off to a comforting start…
‘North Korea's Kim says military should 'thoroughly annihilate' US, South Korea if provoked’ (AP News)
*
‘Okay, so what is actually inside the insane Golden Globes 2024 gift bags worth $500k?’ (The Tab)
This is insane/obscene. While I realize starving children don’t need these products… neither do successful already-wealthy-celebrities.
*
‘24 things we think will happen in 2024’ (Vox)
It will be scary if some of these prophecies come to fruition…
Other predictions are more positive…
I’ve long been following the progress of studies and clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. This looks extremely promising.
*
This should become part of The New Normal:
‘New Orleans landlord gifts tenants 1 month of free rent for holidays’ (CBS News)
*
‘Nikon, Sony and Canon fight AI fakes with new camera tech’ (NIKKEI)
*
‘Take a look at these astonishing new images of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io’ (NPR)
*
‘A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals’ (NIH)
Surprisingly, this is understudied in any truly scientific manner.
Discussion about “approach- versus avoidance-oriented goals”:
“A Chi-square test revealed that participants with approach-oriented goals were significantly more successful in sustaining their New Year’s resolutions compared to those with avoidance-oriented goals. Several studies have reported approach-oriented goals as being favorable to avoidance-oriented goals, although previous studies primarily concern academic goals. The current study reveals that this may be true for other personal goals, as well—in this case, for New Year’s resolutions.”
Check out the success rates.
And challenges.
“Success for a person striving to “take better care of themselves” may, however, be highly subjective, and possibly impossible to measure.”
I thought this was particularly noteworthy:
“Participants in Group 3 were also asked to set interim goals throughout the year. While interim goals, similarly to specific goals, clarify what we are supposed to do, they provide even more possibilities for failure; for instance, if a participant sets six interim goals, he/she has six possible deadlines to miss.”
*
‘Introducing Gen Alpha’ (Axios)
If you follow my writing, you’re aware by now that I’m super interested in the evolution of generations. The guidelines (who falls in which category) and what these generations are interested in and what they are like change – fairly constantly. Eventually, they tend to simmer down. Gen Xers are fairly stable in the mindset at this point, for example.
I think about this concept fairly often now: I heard a behavioral economist say that if you gave them access to a person’s bank account they would be able to tell you everything about them. It’s a strange truth in a consumer-capitalist culture—but “know me by my purchases” actually seems realistic.
*
For the gamers in the house—
The video game industry over the decades. (Visual Capitalist)
*
‘Study: From NYC to D.C. and beyond, cities on the East Coast are sinking’ (Virginia Tech)
Emphasis on slowly sinking… luckily.
*
City, unsurprisingly in Bhutan (known as the place with the world’s “happiest” people), is working on creating a particularly chill space. (Design Boom)
*
‘Florida teen accused of fatally shooting his sister in argument over Christmas gifts’
No Florida Man jokes here… this is just extremely sad… and is a reminder that we have a gun problem in this country (NBC News)
*
‘Why Stylish Guys Are Suddenly Obsessed with Ballet Flats’ (GQ)
Because they are, in fact, incorrect… this is not stylish. And never will be. Sorry bros.
*
Middle-aged man and the fish (Daily Mail)
*
Asheville is the only place I can vouch for. Are these other small towns/cities cool? (Travel Curator)
*
‘A 13-year-old wunderkind is the first human to 'beat' Tetris’ (PopSci)
This kid will have Tetris dreams forever
*
‘Stop Asking If the Universe Is a Computer Simulation’ (Scientific American)
*
Dang. It would be neat to make a list like this… #goals
‘From me to your inbox: 33 of the best Substack newsletters’ (Guardian)
*
‘The Events that Defined 2023: Visualized’ (Visual Capitalist)
*
"We're not prepared for this."
‘The year of social media soul-searching: Twitter dies, X and Threads are born and AI gets personal’ (AP News)
*
‘New Year's Resolutions Statistics and Trends [2023]’ (Drive Research)
*
‘What were the death tolls from pandemics in history?’ (Our World in Data)
*
“The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee today released a 156-page report showing that when he was in the presidency, Trump received at least $7.8 million from 20 different governments, including those of China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Malaysia, through businesses he owned.”
“According to the report—and the documents from Trump’s former accounting firm Mazars that are attached to it—the People’s Republic of China and companies substantially controlled by the PRC government paid at least $5,572,548 to Trump-owned properties while Trump was in office; Saudi Arabia paid at least $615,422; Qatar paid at least $465,744; Kuwait paid at least $300,000; India paid at least $282,764; Malaysia paid at least $248,962; Afghanistan paid at least $154,750; the Philippines paid at least $74,810; the United Arab Emirates paid at least $65,225. The list went on and on.”
“The committee Democrats explained that these payments were likely only a fraction of the actual money exchanged, since they cover only four of more than 500 entities Trump owned at the time.”
(Heather Cox Richardson, January 4, 2024)
*
‘Those jobs you’re applying to? They might not be real.’ (Marketplace)
*
“This is the first national election since [the] January 6th insurrection placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy,” Biden said. “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is: Who are we? That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?”
(Heather Cox Richardson, January 5, 2024)
*
“The January 6 insurrectionists were fond of claiming they were echoing these American revolutionaries who created the new nation in the 1770s. The right-wing Proud Boys’ strategic plan for taking over buildings in the Capitol complex on January 6 was titled: “1776 Returns,” and even more famously, newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6, she wrote: “Today is 1776.””
3 years later, these words from Boebert give me chills.
“The insurrectionists at the Capitol were not patriots. They were trying to overthrow the government in order to take away the right at the center of American democracy: our right to determine our own destiny. Commemorating them as heroes is the 21st century’s version of erecting Confederate statues.”
(Heather Cox Richardson, January 6, 2024)
*
::: News of the Weird :::
‘Woman sues dentist after 4 root canals, 8 dental crowns and 20 fillings in a single visit’ (AP News)
In fairness, it’s not really weird. It’s terrible. Also, there’s a dentist I saw in West Virginia that badly deserved a whole lot of lawsuits. I’m sure this is far too common.
*
A chess player was fined €100 for wearing Burberry sneakers deemed too "sporty" (Quartz)
*
::: Questions :::
What do you think about a remake of the 1953 classic ‘Roman Holiday’ that features Taylor Swift in the role of Audrey Hepburn?
*
I’ve thought before about how Drake would make an excellent feature to The 1975’s ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’
My newer thought would be a reach-across-the-pond moment of having Bill Clinton on sax featured on a 1975 track.
*
Favorite podcast episodes of 2023?
*
Favorite TED talks released in recent years?
I fell off with TED talks… and TED Radio Hour… I’m not entirely sure why… They don’t feel like “deep dives” and are maybe a bit surface-level, oftentimes? Maybe that’s it? More focused on a well-rounded talk and less on a thought-provoking or insightful or nuanced lesson. In fairness, there is only so much you can do in a limited amount of time.
Here’s a talk that is less than 8-minutes that I found “feel good” / endearing and worth watching:
Liana Finck – ‘Life is hard. Art Helps.’
*
Favorite articles/essays you’ve read in the past year or three?
*
Poetry collection that you’ve re-read the most since 2019?
*
Book you’re most looking forward to reading this year?
*
Forthcoming book release you’re most excited about?
*
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.