|k| clippings: 2018-02-11 — slip slidin' away

My thanks to those who welcomed the newsletter after my unscheduled break. I want readers, not just subscribers, so it was gratifying to hear from you!

WORK

1. Be patient. No matter what.
2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.
3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
4. Expand your sense of the possible.
5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
6. Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.
7. Tolerate ambiguity.
8. Laugh at yourself frequently.
9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.
10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
11. Give up blood sports.
12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.
13. Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)
14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.
18. Admit your errors freely and soon.
19. Become less suspicious of joy.
20. Understand humility.
21. Remember that love forgives everything.
22. Foster dignity.
23. Live memorably.
24. Love yourself.
25. Endure.

—John Perry Barlow (RIP)
—from: unknown, to me, but dates back to at least 1977

WORD(S)

tribology /triy-BAWL-ə-jee/. noun. The study of fiction, lubrication and wear between interacting surfaces. From Greek tribos (rubbing) + -logy (suffix indicating science, study, theory).

“Individual trolls live for a long time, hibernating during the summertime and sleeping during the day, since heat affects them and makes them slow. They have a fascinating geology. One could talk about tribology, one could mention the semiconductor effects of impure silicon, one could talk about the giant trolls of prehistory…” (Terry Pratchett)

“…many thousands of recent unbound periodicals to which the library subscribes—serials with titles like Welding Design & Fabrication, Nutrition Reviews, Journal of Tribology, The Canadian Journal of Soil Science, Car and Driver, and Bee Culture—were secretly tossed into recycling bins this past February, March, and April; but no books were.” (Nicholson Baker)

WEB

1. A study that documents how people with depression use language differently (note the first finding and #16 in Barlow’s list above).

2. Some interesting reading, fully available online: Manly P. Hall’s Secret Teachings of All Ages, an “esoteric encyclopedia.” || Pairs with (kind of), a trove of Victorian magazines.

3. JC Debroize’s Organic Typography is…unsettling.

4. The New York Times explores our possible Post-Text Future…which might be a good thing given that we human paper users are losing “an elemental struggle between the natural and the mechanical” in the form of the ever-present—and possibly eternal—paper jam.

5. The Disconnect is the online magazine you can only read offline. I love playful publishing experiments like these!

6. How Facebook Is Killing Comedy is really about how Facebook’s omnipresence is crushing independent entertainment of all kinds.

7. Thanks, Reader B. for a pointer to a conversation about consciousness, particularly the “Where Are Words?” entry.

8. If you appreciate Iain M. Banks “Culture” series, Joseph Heath’s essay “Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks” is worth some time. If you don’t…I can only assume you haven’t read them.

9. I don’t want to be a Linear Lungs, so without further ado, the Wikipedia list of the moment: CB slang.

10. Today in 1990, Nelson Mandela, African political leader and symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, is released from prison after 27 years. Mandela served much of his time in the notorious Robben Island Prison and refused at least three offers of conditional release in those years before newly elected South African President F. W. de Klerk ordered his release as part of his dismantling of apartheid.

WATCH/WITNESS

“► Leo and Laura traveled the world together, but now in their 90’s it’s become much smaller.”

WHAT!?

Honestly, at least half of these “unbelievable” kitchen gadgets, from the “head knife block” to the “Banana Surprise Yum Station,” seem at least as desirable as they are bizarre.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader T. comments on my radio segments: “Dude! You sound like This American Life meets The Writer’s Almanac. Well Done!”

• Reader D. on ruction: “When I was growing up in Indiana back in the ’40’s, the Hoosier grandmas and grandpas had ruction in their active vocabularies. I assumed it was somehow an offspring of ruckus. ¶ If it were new today, we’d naturally figure it must be related to erection, eh?”

• Reader B. with a flurry: “What a fantastic pause in Grossman’s dynamic tale. ¶ Lindy West on Twitter – no, I’m still not seeing it. I think this is a case of people using the tech wrong, to be frank. ¶ PS: ruction->rumpus brought to mind the catchphrase ‘what’s the rumpus?’ from the very great Miller’s Crossing.”

• Reader S. writes in: “Liked the piece on marginalia. I had forgotten about twine which is a neat tool. We have so far to go when it comes to the web – I am not sure if it will be possible to have our ‘representation theory of truth and singular points of view’ cake and eat our ‘knowledge as socially constructed act on the world’s biggest copying machine’ too. I guess time will tell.”

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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