2021.05.DisappearingMoment
Yo!
Welcome to May 2021’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of opinions and experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
- The Edge (I Liked It): Nuanced journalism about the Houston Astros’ methods, championship, and ensuing cheating scandal. I would love to see my favorite team give Jeff Luhnow another chance.
- The Improvement Association (Worth My Time): Spoon didn’t always sound like Billy Joel. Like Zoe Chace’s earlier reporting, Spoon’s piebald, sparing production made it distinctive. Both benefit from fewer chefs.
- The Last Archive (I Loved It): Emerging media synthesizes existing media (e.g., blogs, radio plays). As we enter an age of “podcast lectures,” writer-historian Jill Lepore is establishing its form.
- Sudhir Breaks the Internet (I Liked It): Facebook and Twitter are garbage. They traffick emotion, sabotage well-being, make us worse neighbors and citizens. I hope whatever supersedes them has a moral compass.
- This Is Love (I Loved It): I would listen to Phoebe Judge declaim the phonebook. This is a lot better than that: stories about love to listen to while cutting onions.
- West End Stories Project (I Loved It): Ke Parks has developed mutual respect with her subjects. They gift her, and us, with the parts of their stories we most need to hear.
- You Must Remember This (A Personal Favorite): While I like movies and see value in gossip, I find Hollywood boring. It’s Karina Longworth’s thoroughgoing insightfulness that makes this podcast a treasure.
- You’re Wrong About (A Personal Favorite): Righteous millennials Michael and Sarah are trying to make sense of their world. In the process, they’ve created a pluperfect podcast: funny, forgiving, and incisive.
Nerdy Software
In January 2019, I tried every major To Do app, decided on TickTick, and I remain pleased with my choice. It works how I think.
Bougie Products
I drink a shake with lunch each weekday for satiety and to avoid the mid-afternoon crash. My Helimix is effective, safe, and easy to clean.
Personal Finance and Investing
For mortgage loans, I always choose a local credit union or mutual savings bank. I save money, get better service, and support ethical corporate citizenship.
Reading
- Aubrey Gordon What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat (2020) (I Loved It): An indispensable polemic. We need anti-racists and feminists, and we need to obliterate fatphobia and weight-based stigma. We are responsible. It is time to change.
- Rohan Kumar (I Loved It): His essays on technology are precise, engaging, and ambitious. I’m reminded of reading along as Paul Ford, Mark Pilgrim, and Aaron Swartz honed their voices.
Words and Phrases I Avoid (an addendum)
- anymore
- articulate (meaning fluent)
- bitch
- busy
- capitalism
- civil (meaning polite)
- content (meaning text, images, audio, video, etc.)
- cradle to…
- crushing
- cuisine
- cuss
- dialogue
- dumb
- easy
- eclectic
- emasculate
- empower
- folks
- forte
- god
- gourmet
- gyp
- however
- ideate
- impact
- individual
- influencer
- insatiable
- it is what it is
- jell
- jerk
- jolly
- jowl
- karma
- king
- learnings
- leverage
- listserv
- mankind
- me and
- myriad
- myself
- next generation
- obese
- overweight
- ping
- quaint
- random
- signage
- so (meaning very)
- special
- tendril
- tolerant
- trust me
- utilize
- visionary
- voila
- witch
- without further ado
- woke
- xerox (as a verb)
- youngster
- yourself
- yucky (and yummy)
- zaftig
- zillionaire
Thanks for spending a few moments with me. I look forward to corresponding again next month.
Brett
No large language models were used in the production of the Disappearing Moment newsletter or website (inspired by RFC 9518 Appendix A ¶ 4 and Tantek Çelik).