Things I learned while looking up other things, 2022.09.11
Dear friends,
Usually I come to this letter with a list of things I joyfully learned while looking up other things; I'm lucky in that I can usually find something interesting about any topic (even when I think something is boring, I find that if I keep asking why that boring thing is the way it is eventually I will reach a layer of interestingness—almost everything is interesting if you keep poking it).
Unfortunately last week I had to look up a bunch of stressful and not-fun things without enough personal distance from them to make them interesting. Luckily the (minor) crisis is resolved, but I now know more than I really ever expected to about things like unlawful detainer. I also read the Wikipedia article for Jacksonville Beach (out of pure curiosity) and found this marvelous sentence: "In general, the architecture of Jacksonville varies in style and is not defined by any one characteristic, and Jacksonville Beach is no exception." Can confirm from personal experience.
There isn't one in Jacksonville, but this list of creative re-use shops definitely got bookmarked to check whenever I travel next.
Because I was away from home, I didn't get to celebrate Ampersand Day (Sept 8) and I'm falling behind in my sewing plans for Plaidurday (Oct 7). Someday I'd like to be in Croatia to celebrate Necktie Day (Oct 18), but not this year. (I would have liked to be there in 2003 when they put the biggest necktie ever made on an entire arena. I like to imagine the arena's mom or dad showing the arena how to tie the tie.)
While going through all the lagan that always turns up after a move I found a poster I bought on a whim during a trip in high school—I remember it being part of a big pile of incomprehensible posters in a used bookstore, and I definitely taped it to the walls of several college-era apartments. But that was pre-internet-search time and I knew nothing more about it until a few weeks ago, when I discovered it was the cover of a book by a Swiss conceptual artist. The other work by the artist (H.R. Fricker) is even more "completely my jam" as the kids say, so I'm excited to explore it (as much as my limited German and Google Translate allows). I really enjoy it when something that catches my eye turns out to be a kind of idea-fishhook that tugs me (even decades later) towards something else that I didn't even know I wanted to know about.
Supposedly Thomas Hobbes exercised by going into his back yard and yelling for an hour? I wish I could find a citation for this marvelous fact but since I learned it from Ada Palmer, I trust it implicitly. (I saw it first in her wonderful essay on disability, but my searching only turned up the tweet.)
Of course the World Congress of Sorcery opened with a moonlight dance. (In my opinion, everything should.)
Stay well!
Your friend,
Erin
Usually I come to this letter with a list of things I joyfully learned while looking up other things; I'm lucky in that I can usually find something interesting about any topic (even when I think something is boring, I find that if I keep asking why that boring thing is the way it is eventually I will reach a layer of interestingness—almost everything is interesting if you keep poking it).
Unfortunately last week I had to look up a bunch of stressful and not-fun things without enough personal distance from them to make them interesting. Luckily the (minor) crisis is resolved, but I now know more than I really ever expected to about things like unlawful detainer. I also read the Wikipedia article for Jacksonville Beach (out of pure curiosity) and found this marvelous sentence: "In general, the architecture of Jacksonville varies in style and is not defined by any one characteristic, and Jacksonville Beach is no exception." Can confirm from personal experience.
There isn't one in Jacksonville, but this list of creative re-use shops definitely got bookmarked to check whenever I travel next.
Because I was away from home, I didn't get to celebrate Ampersand Day (Sept 8) and I'm falling behind in my sewing plans for Plaidurday (Oct 7). Someday I'd like to be in Croatia to celebrate Necktie Day (Oct 18), but not this year. (I would have liked to be there in 2003 when they put the biggest necktie ever made on an entire arena. I like to imagine the arena's mom or dad showing the arena how to tie the tie.)
While going through all the lagan that always turns up after a move I found a poster I bought on a whim during a trip in high school—I remember it being part of a big pile of incomprehensible posters in a used bookstore, and I definitely taped it to the walls of several college-era apartments. But that was pre-internet-search time and I knew nothing more about it until a few weeks ago, when I discovered it was the cover of a book by a Swiss conceptual artist. The other work by the artist (H.R. Fricker) is even more "completely my jam" as the kids say, so I'm excited to explore it (as much as my limited German and Google Translate allows). I really enjoy it when something that catches my eye turns out to be a kind of idea-fishhook that tugs me (even decades later) towards something else that I didn't even know I wanted to know about.
Supposedly Thomas Hobbes exercised by going into his back yard and yelling for an hour? I wish I could find a citation for this marvelous fact but since I learned it from Ada Palmer, I trust it implicitly. (I saw it first in her wonderful essay on disability, but my searching only turned up the tweet.)
Of course the World Congress of Sorcery opened with a moonlight dance. (In my opinion, everything should.)
Stay well!
Your friend,
Erin
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