Month: April 2024
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Trust the turning of pages
Austin Kleon on a recent episode of the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast: I truly believe that with a book, on a sentence to sentence level, I trust the turning of pages. There needs to be a momentum. If you’re turning pages, the book is good, and that includes the trash reading. I do my fair…
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Scientific achievements that deserve their own ‘Oppenheimer’
I half-joked in my Oppenheimer blurb that I have a long list of history books that also deserve to be turned into IMAX-worthy epics. Well, I’m happy to report my favorite author Steven Johnson is also on board with this movement—specifically for the story of penicillin and other incredible scientific achievements: If Nolan can create…
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Keep streaming in its place
CJ Chilvers on why he’s back to using CDs: I brought physical media back into my life not to replace streaming, but to keep streaming in its place. I heard an audiophile once say that he treated streaming music services (even lossless streaming) like radio. It’s great for discovering new music and artists, and to…
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Rejoice! For Kristen Wiig’s Aunt Linda returned to SNL.
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On good and gobbledygook writing
Rivaling Winston Churchill’s missive on brevity, this 1944 memo by Maury Maverick is the first known use of the word gobbledygook and dishes out some hard truths about good writing: Be short and use Plain English. Memoranda should be as short as clearness will allow. The Naval officer who wired “Sighted Sub — Sank Same” told the…
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Word compendiums for the win
It’s hard to even imagine now, but aimlessly browsing bookstores was something I did semi-regularly back in my single and then pre-kid days. One kind of book I’d always keep an eye out for was (for lack of a better name) word compendiums, an author’s curated collection of rare, idiosyncratic, or just plain cool words.…