Of course an amateur is simply a person / who loves, who brings love to bear / on a particular subject.

“Orpheus in Spring”, Jenny George

Via Courtney’s IG stories.

Unrealistic expectations such as having the “perfect neck” or “perfect life” are not helpful to healing.

The informational packet on my mom’s upcoming spinal surgery

In context, it’s very funny that the author of this document threw in the phrase “perfect life” relative to expectations on critical surgery results; out of context, “perfect neck” reads like a great non sequitur. Also, this week I have to go take care of my mom after she has this surgery and I’m really stressed out about it so I’m trying to find laughs where I can.

Once the essential repairs are taken care of, from fixing roofs to unsticking windows, you can put away the hammers, saws and trowels and become a detective, a cannibal and a mixer of magic potions.

The Old House, Time-Life Books

Submitted by Kit B. Feel like cannibals might have some use for hammers, saws, and trowels depending on the circumstances.

As the study underscored, parrots are finicky about which fellow birds they will respond to—unmediated interactions could lead to fear, even violence and property damage; larger parrots have beaks more than capable of cracking an iPad into pieces.

“Parrots learn to make video calls to chat with other parrots, then develop friendships, Northeastern University researchers say”, Schuyler Velasco for Northeastern Global News

Submitted by Sha. I’m not sure how I feel about a sentence with an em-dash and a semicolon, but calling a parrot beak “more than capable” is very good.

Bill Shockley being a eugenicist has ramifications on the creation of Fairchild Semiconductor, insofar as race science nerds are terrible bosses.

Me, writing the script for the next episode of the RIP Corp podcast

Apologies for the self-promotion, I was just very pleased with this line. Getting back to writing for normal people audiences after the academic prose death march is very satisfying.

Manhattan is very pretty, but he’s full of bees.

The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin

Submitted by Kit Y. I listened to the audiobook of this novel and have no recollection of this line, which makes me think I owe it a print read.