OMM (On My Mind) – March 2024 – #2
~ a curated selection of discoveries ~
::: The Open :::
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this weekly newsletter (published on Sundays).
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Thank you for reading and for your time.
With Gratitude,
Mark
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::: Personal Notes :::
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You can read a few of my poems in East Ridge Review since A.R. Williams was kind enough to name me Featured Writer for March 2024.
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::: Podcasts :::
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‘The mysterious inner workings of the brain and memory’ (NPR)
I highly recommend this episode of the TED Radio hour featuring neuroscientist & novelist Lisa Genova.
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The Poetry Space_ -- ep. 53 - How to Submit
This features a BUNCH of very kind shout-outs to ONE ART!
Moreover, it’s a terrific episode with TONS of insightful information for poets & writers.
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Enjoying ‘If Books Could Kill’ – a fun listen! Lots of lols.
So far, I’ve most enjoyed the takedown of James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’.
Speaking of James Clear… ‘Three Publishing Veterans Form a New House, Authors Equity’ (Publishers Weekly)
The one on Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’ is a fun listen. Lots of dunks. I often reference Gladwell’s 10,000 hours concept… as something of a shorthand for “putting in the work” when it comes to learning a new skill (such as writing poetry) and, in the context of poetry, learning how to sound like yourself on the page.
I also greatly enjoyed the episode on Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal’. As they note in the podcast, as a person under age 50, I was previously unaware of Trump’s plan for “Trump City”. Missed out on a whole era of Trump… who, evidently, is up there for humans with least personal growth over a 40+ year period.
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::: Music :::
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On March 8th, Bleachers (Jack Antonoff’s band) released a self-titled album that so far I’m really enjoying.
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I’m looking forward to upcoming releases in March from Four Tet, Tierra Whack, the JAMC (!!), Waxahatchee, Beyoncé (obvi), Ride.
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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‘Ancestry reveals Taylor Swift is related to American poet Emily Dickinson’ (Today)
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Abby E. Murray’s stunning poem ‘Supermoon’ won Rattle’s 2024 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor.
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‘9 Things I’ve Learned from 121 Rejections’ (Authors Publish)
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‘Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (no fee)’ (Winning Writers)
“Now in its 23rd year, this contest seeks today's best humor poems. No fee to enter. Submit published or unpublished work. $3,750 in prizes.”
Please submit one humor poem – August 15, 2023-April 1, 2024
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‘What's the Greatest Year in Film History? A Statistical Analysis’
This is a great piece. Covers a lot of territory. My kinda research and writing. I’m here for it.
Trust me, you don’t want to hear from “Young Mark” to go on & on about his film snob days.
Wishing for more on the 80s (Repo Man era).
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Tank Girl is a great movie. Ditto Bio-Dome.
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‘Which Shows Got Their Finale Right, and Which Didn't? A Statistical Analysis’
There are almost definitely going to be spoilers in this piece. I skimmed to avoid.
I really just looked at the charts. (Love me a good chart.)
My major takeaway was surprise that LOST was not on the “Disaster Finales: So Terrible It Hurts” list. I will vouch for enjoyment of the first 3 seasons of LOST. Then, it goes of the rails. I could write a whole spiel about LOST… others certainly have… it boils down to a “too many writers in the room” issue imho. Much like other prestige shows that go on for many seasons, the character development can seem, well, nonsensical. Characters do things that there was no precedent for them doing (based on previous information given to viewers). In real life, people are unpredictable—sure. In fictional tv-land, you expect characters to follow a general guideline of expectations. It’s a little like “magic rules” in speculative fiction.
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‘Which Movies Popularized (or Tarnished) Baby Names? A Statistical Analysis’
“I looked into several other villainous characters—Hannibal, Draco, Freddy—and in all cases, their arrival to the zeitgeist saw an increase in naming popularity or no discernible change in trajectory. Said otherwise, I found no instance where a movie negatively impacted the popularity of a name.”
This is wild to me.
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How to ruin a tv show (or narrative)
There’s on chart in here I like in particular. It’s a two layer circle. In the inner circle, you see that what aspect is believed to have done great harm to a storyline.
There are just a few that seem to be massive blunders:
1. Decline in story quality. (makes sense)
2. The ending is not desirable or, I speculate, doesn’t put the pieces together and leaves too many unanswered questions.
3. A main character stopped being a main character. The audience was in it for this protagonist and the pivot didn’t pan out.
4. Change in narrative. You’re not giving the people what they want.
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Interestingly, you may already have a suspicion.
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‘Five tips for digitizing handwritten data’ (Nature)
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Meta (I mean, like, actually meta)
‘Substack Is Both Great and Terrible for Authors’
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RuPaul's answer to Amazon
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A bit of controversy…
‘V-J Day 'Kiss' photo stays on display as VA head reverses department memo that would've banned it’ (AP News)
Sure, problematize. Complexity is nuance is Art.
It can be both a famous artwork & an example of unwanted sexual advances.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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Sports Betting, Online Gambling, and The Cycle of Addiction (Business Insider)
“The more people gamble — and the more culturally acceptable gambling becomes — the more possibility gambling addiction becomes a bigger issue.”
The article describes something far more insidious than marketing candy cigarettes to children. Much more in the vein of fruity flavors that got a whole generation to start vaping (many if not most of whom would not have been inclined to smoke your father’s cigarettes).
The gamification of many aspects of our lives has become problematic (and we know it).
You can buy stocks on CashApp (for lousy deals) and that’s… odd, right?
SweatCoin just created a memecoin that will probably do nothing. (Not financial advice.)
You can win prizes in various scenarios like filling out surveys or sharing your shopping receipts or giving a large company access to your personal photos.
Where does it end? We’re going to find out and that’s the scariest part.
In the meantime, let’s consider how we train children early to be susceptible to our bizarre and problematic cultural norms. Makes all the jokes you want about Girl Scouts selling drugs—it’s essentially true. NPR reports on get children to sell stuff for school fundraisers. I was personally part of the UNICEF generation who was encouraged to go door-to-door hassling neighbors on Halloween to fork over cash. We were also supposed to try to sell magazine subscriptions which I don’t think I tried very hard to do. An early sign of being a serious entrepreneur, I know. Anyways, in the words of The Simpsons—“Won’t somebody please think of the children!”
Also, adults are really suffering from the current state of play. We need to get this under control. It’s not the wealthy who spend all their money on sports betting and lottery tickets and slot machines. It’s always been the people who can least afford it.
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‘The Covid-19 pandemic killed off one strain of the flu, and that will change the next vaccines’ (CNN Health)
“Yamagata viruses were in decline before the pandemic, and all the precautions that helped people avoid Covid-19 – including masking, staying at home and better ventilation – appear to have finished them off. They haven’t been detected in testing since March 2020.”
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“Women can lower their risk of dying by 18% by exercising about half as much as men need to do to achieve the same benefit, a new study found.” (The Washington Post)
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‘Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy wins FDA approval for cutting heart disease risks, in move that could expand insurance coverage’ (CNBC)
Still feels early but this sounds like a potential gamechanger.
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Is that cheese still safe to eat?
Some are pretty much edible no matter what… (but, you know, trust your instinct… or repulsion factor)
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Red Flags for identifying Ultra-Processed foods. (Info partly based on a Washington Post article)
· Too many ingredients
o Almost always a bad sign when there’s a block of text and multisyllabic chemical names
o Shockingly (in some respects), Fritos contain only three ingredients (corn, corn oil, salt). While I don’t recommend eating Fritos non-stop— a few identifiable ingredients is a good sign
· Thickeners / Stabilizers / Emulsifiers
o “soy lecithin, guar gum, xanthan gum, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, or carboxymethylcellulose” – these are added for visual appeal, texture, or to preserve foods for a longer shelf life
o Generally not a good sign
· Added sugars (or other sweeteners like corn syrup)
o By now, hopefully you’re aware that HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is unhealthy – not unlike how we determined some years back that Trans Fats are rather bad for people
o Added sugars are both unhealthy and make foods more addictive
o “-ose” ingredients: “sucrose, maltose, dextrose, fructose or glucose”
· Fake sugars (aka. artificial sweeteners)
o For a long time, these were touted as being wondrous discovered … you may recall the period where “Devil’s Food” was popular
o Sadly, “aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame-k, saccharin or stevia” are signs of ultra-processed foods
o Stevia, to the best of my knowledge, is the one that is “most safe” as it is naturally derived (but, hey, I’m no scientist)
o Aspartame is now known to have many disturbing health side effects—especially in the long-term
· Beware health claims
o Marketing claims are often disingenuous (this should come as no surprise)
· Low-sugar?
o Sometimes this is a bit of trickery and the company has added artificial sweeteners.
· Instant
o We all know that shortcuts usually come with consequences – the same is true when it comes to foods
§ An example is that it’s much healthier to eat whole fruit and veg vs. a shake. Pre-made shakes often contain added sugars (and other junk, too). Homemade shakes are great, in theory, but your body will naturally stop you from eating several apples—whereas in liquid form you can consume an unnatural amount of fruit & veg before you body catches up to say “Hey, wait a minute, I’m full”
Fat isn’t bad for us. Neither are carbs. We all need these things on a daily basis. Just in the appropriate quantity and balanced. A proper balance of fat, carbs, protein, and fiber, will help maintain a healthy diet.
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‘Treatment for sensitive teeth may prevent cavities in children’ (UPI)
The subject matter for this article may come across as understated but it’s a big deal.
Makes childhood easier and saves money.
I had 22 cavities and teeth pulled before I stopped counting during my childhood and adolescent "dental adventures" – so this hits home.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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‘A Federal Investigation Has Been Launched Into Nex Benedict's School District’
An important story the needs continuing coverage.
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In case you needed a reminder of the disturbing (dare I say— tempting fate in a country built on revolution?) wealth gap in America…
Let’s talk about this some more as we approach the 2024 Presidential Election.
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“From 2018 through 2022, 342 companies in the study paid an average effective income tax rate of just 14.1%. Nearly a quarter of those companies—87 of them—paid effective tax rates of under 10%. Fifty-five of them (16% of the 342 companies), including T-Mobile, DISH Network, Netflix, General Motors, AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, FedEx, Molson Coors, and Nike, paid effective tax rates of less than 5%.” (Heather Cox Richardson)
“Twenty-three corporations, all of them profitable, paid no federal tax over the five year period. One hundred and nine corporations paid no federal tax in at least one of the five years.”
Also, at times, Andrew Carnegie sure was a real jerk. Yeesh.
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Clearly the NFL needs to find better ways to protect player’s knees.
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‘Teen’s Family Struggled to Afford Size 23 Shoes–Shaq Sent a Dozen Pairs, Including Superman Slippers’
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Yet another wild GoodWill find
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Good ol’ Muffin.
“The discovery: Damien Boschetto and his border collie mix, Muffin, were walking in southern France two years ago when Boschetto spotted something poking out of a cliff.”
“What is it? A titanosaur skeleton that was 70% complete, with most bones still connected. Boschetto (and Muffin) have been helping a team excavate the extraordinary find.”
[from] The Washington Post
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France enshrined the right to abortion in its constitution.
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The U.N. believes that Hamas raped and tortured hostages abducted during the October 7 massacre.
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Innocent people in Gaza continue to suffer in almost unimaginable ways. Gaza was in a humanitarian crisis, for a long time, before the war began, and now the situation has become exponentially worse.
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Soon, the first OTC birth control will be sold online and in stores. There will be no age restrictions for obtaining this, which is important. The manufacturer is promising a cost-assistance program that will help low-income and uninsured people in need obtain birth control to protect their ability to make essential life choices about their own bodies and future.
This is a matter of dignity and personal choice. In the age of medicine, this is not a political conversation, this is an internal debate, a decision about taking the reins and deciding the trajectory of your life. No one should be able to make these decisions for you. If you’re reading this and think it sounds unamerican, you misunderstand what it means to be an American.
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The Biden Admin. has worked hard to fight junk fees that get attached to purchases, from airline tickets to hotel bookings to concert tickets to credit card fees.
Credit card fees are a big deal because they are a tax on the poorest among us. As Matthew Desmond points out, free checking accounts are not really free. They are subsidized by the poorest 9% of banked Americans. Capping fees, potentially at $8 in most cases, will the burden of hefty fees in modern times. This is just the beginning.
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In 12 states, you can file your taxes for free. Google it.
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In this post, Seth Godin opens the conversation about how to have a more successful charity action.
It’s interesting to think about + a lesson in exponential growth.
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‘Why You Should Never Buy Crochet Pieces From Fast Fashion’ (The Zillennial Zine)
A reminder why Fast Fashion is bad… especially for the workers.
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‘FBI hunts for suspected Iranian assassin targeting Trump-era officials’ (Semafor)
I’m not saying this is cool by any means. I am saying this sounds like the subject for a feature film.
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‘Scientists Vote Down Proposal to Declare Anthropocene Has Begun’ (Yale)
The Anthropocene is running late, I guess.
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In basketball news…
Caitlin Clark & Lebron James both broke notable records.
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Philadelphians are sad Jason Kelce is retiring. Meanwhile, his brother continues to make the news for different reasons.
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Mike Tyson is 57. Some people on Twitter think they can take him in a fight. This speaks volumes about people on Twitter.
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“Sri Lanka’s fashion industry is embracing sustainable development as both an environmental and money-making tool. More factories in the island country — which controls a small share of the global garment market but supplies major brands like Gap and Patagonia — are implementing green tech such as solar panels and wastewater processing, Nikkei reported. The government is trying to make some of its free trade zones more environmentally friendly, part of a larger push to transition to a clean economy and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. More factories have realized that sustainable manufacturing is “the financially correct choice,” a local garment industry executive said, in part because global shoppers are increasingly looking for ethical brands.” (Semafor)
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In TS news…
“Singapore sparked a regional diplomatic row over its deal with Taylor Swift to perform in the city-state on her Eras Tour — and nowhere else in the region. The Thai prime minister alleged that Singapore offered up to $3 million in subsidies to Swift per concert in exchange for exclusivity, prompting a Philippine lawmaker to say it wasn’t “what good neighbors do.” Singapore’s prime minister confirmed there was an agreement, but added that it wasn’t “unfriendly” to neighboring countries. Swift’s six concerts are expected to bring in at least $260 million into the local economy, CNBC reported, with some comparing the deal to cities bidding to host major sporting events like the Olympics or the World Cup.” (Semafor)
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‘Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal to Star in ‘Othello’ on Broadway’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
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‘102-Year-Old Woman Asks for Donations to a Local Food Pantry for Her Birthday and Her Community Delivers’ (MMM)
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‘Here's what's in Oscar nominees' $100K+ gift bags this year — including things you can actually afford’ (yahoo)
I don’t care what’s in the bags. I dislike the extravagance. As usual, handouts to the already well off.
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A historical rundown of Women’s Rights & how Women’s Liberation movements have been undermined for political reasons throughout American history. (Heather Cox Richardson)
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::: Google Search Trends :::
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“Meanwhile, shipping container-style homes are the least admired of all, garnering just 2.8 median views per day. This style, which sees shipping containers repurposed into homes, is not short of criticism. “[The style is] utterly ill-suited for human life,” writes Professor Richard J. Williams in the New York Times. “They’re designed for things, not people. Dark, damp, and airless, boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter, they’re hopeless living and working spaces. They’re not even particularly cheap.”” (AHS)
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Top 10 Issues Searched in “Red” States ahead of Super Tuesday
1. Crime
2. Health Care
3. Unemployment
4. Economy
5. Immigration
6. Social security
7. IVF
8. Supreme Court
9. Race
10. Abortion
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Top trending works searched with the Bechdel test
past month, US
1. Oppenheimer
2. Barbie
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5. Thelma and Luise
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::: News of the Weird :::
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Wild & fun read… The vibe is a wee bit different than DFW’s ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again’
Oh, the misadventures of the uberwealthy…
Now Boarding… The World:
‘Scandals and secrets’: On board the world’s most exclusive private residential ship
“The World’s itinerary is planned two to three years in advance, says Antonucci. That planning is a “very complicated” process, according to Antonucci. He says there’s an itinerary committee, made up of residents that weighs in, focusing on the experiences available at each destination.”
“Unlike on an ordinary cruise ship, residents are able to make renovations and decorate according to personal tastes. That means “some are decorated with modern furniture and really cool appliances, some haven’t been touched in 20 years,” according to Antonucci.”
“Everybody is fairly affluent, and has made money – everybody thinks they have the smartest opinion and the best way to do things,” he explains. “They’re not used to being told no. And you’ve got a lot of very opinionated people who have opinions on everything from where the salt shaker should be placed on the table, to how far south in the ice in Antarctica the ship should go.”
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Repo Man 2 is in production. Word it it's intense. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31315527/