elektra

I was going to say 'double whammy' but in fact the general checkup and hygienist session both went off without any undue issues.

Going down the road to get to the Tube there was some kind of filming going on round about the parade of shops opposite the playing field - I did not linger as it was entirely chokka with mysterious vehicles and equipment.

Dentist, as stated, could not find anything wrong but has recommended some Extra Speshul Toothpaste, which normally you have to have a prescription for but they were able to sell me a couple of tubes.... not literally under the counter.

New hygienist, and as is the wont of hygienists, they have their own way of doing things - I was not expecting the whooshy water thing so early in the game - and also they find something that no other hygienist has noted that one should be doing, in this case involving a rare and unusual kind of toothbrush (which I have managed to source via eBay).

I was intending combining this jaunt with a couple of errands in Camden Town.

May I say I was deeply unimpressed with what Rymans has to offer in the way of seasonal cards, I thought they would have a far large selection. Managed to find something, but, grump.

Buying something from the pharmacy counter in Boots was stuck behind somebody apparently stocking up possibly for an expedition into the wilderness.

The threatened rain did indeed come on as I emerged from Boots, I had hoped that my weather app was looking on the gloomy side.

firecat

This article boils down to “we told you so.” But I like how it explains why the mainstream media dismissed and downplayed what we told you (because their “how to do journalism” rules demand it, e.g.: “Insist on a both-sides structure even when one side is lying“).

“The Media Malpractice That Sent America Tumbling Into Trumpism” by Parker Molloy
https://newrepublic.com/article/205913/media-malpractice-trumpism-project-2025

osprey_archer

In 2005, my family went on a three week trip to Australia and New Zealand, on which I embarked determined to bring back gems of antipodal literature.

Unfortunately, I was not very internet savvy at that point, so I didn’t successfully manage to search for the titles of these gems. Presumably I could have asked the booksellers, but this literally didn’t occur to me until I was writing this post, so clearly that was a non-starter.

So mostly I purchased the complete works of Isobelle Carmody, plus some of Lynley Dodd’s Slinki Malinki books (happy to report that my niece now enjoys them). But I did consider Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Does My Head Look Big in This?, before concluding that this book would obviously make it to the United States before long.

I was correct! The book made it to the United States within a year or two after that trip. I proceeded not to read it for another twenty years.

But finally I have read it. At this point it’s kind of a period piece of my own youth. CDs! DVDs! Young people who use their cell phones to actually call each other! Be still my beating heart.

But also, the character who is so relentlessly fat-shamed by her mother and her classmates that she informs our heroine that she wishes she could become anorexic. Unable to achieve this fatal disease, she instead takes up smoking. She ultimately gives it up when she gets a boyfriend who likes her curves, but still. Oh, 2005, how I don’t miss you. What an awful year. Awful decade in fact. Sometimes I feel like an old curmudgeon shaking my metaphorical cane at The State of the World These Days, so it’s cheering in a way to be reminded that I hated the world when I was a teenager, too.

“But Aster,” you complain. “The actual book? Do you have any thoughts about Does My Head Look Big in This?”

Well, to be honest, the book also reminded me that I had a tortured relationship with contemporary YA even before its Twilightification. It also seemed to me that the move from children’s literature to YA echoed the arc of Fern’s character growth in Charlotte’s Web: at the start she saves Wilbur the runt pig and spends hours listening to the talking animals, but at the end all she cares about is some stupid boy who took her for a ride on the Ferris wheel. It’s a shift from wonder and possibility and talking animals to boring romance and clothes and makeup (or boring sports if the main character is a boy).

As an adult I have more tolerance for this sort of thing, but I suspect that in my youth I would have been horrified that our heroine starts wearing the hijab full-time and still spends most of her time thinking about clothes and makeup and boys. To my seventeen-year-old mind, the chief benefit of wearing the hijab would be never having to think about any of those things ever again! Or at least until you’re ready to get married. (I recognize that this is not how it actually works, but it’s still what I would have thought.)

So in fact it’s a good thing that I waited 20 years to read the book, because I probably would not have much appreciated the book in 2005. But in 2026, it’s given me a nice wander down memory lane.

mindstalk

Album

Finally got into the aquarium. 2800 yen. Sort of worth it. Lots of photos. Dolphin show; types of sand; giant tank; jellyfish room; spider crabs; deep sea recreation tanks (did not photo well); turtles; submersible exhibit. I'm skeptical the dolphins and seals have enough room.

Jellyfish:

Tank video:

mindstalk

Album

Went for a walk to the station, on a whim took the Odakyu line north toward Sagami-Oto, rather than south to Enoshima. I figured I'd see stuff from the tracks, maybe come back. Then we pulled into Yamato station, and the name was provocative (old name for Japan), and I thought I saw something interesting, so got off.

( Read more... )

mindstalk

album

( Read more... )

oursin

Happy birthday,

mal1!

tamaranth

2026/018: Tools for Life: 10 Essential Therapy Skills Everyone Should Know — Dr Kirren Schnack

Our environment can influence the way our genes are expressed through a process known as epigenetics, with both positive and negative experiences influencing how our genes work... nature and nurture are constantly working together, reminding us that who we are is not set in stone. [Chapter 1]

Read by the author, who has a warm and restful voice, this is an overview of some common psychological issues and how to address them. There are ten chapters, ranging from 'How You've Become Who You Are' (which examines the role of genetics, culture and trauma in shaping personality, and discusses attachment theory) to 'Healing from the Pain Caused by Others' (which focuses on relationships ending, forgiveness and closure, and how to move on).

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3205/

This dating is corroborated by the presence of stone tools at the site, rather than earlier and less effective helium ones.

https://xkcd.com/3205/

sovay

Today's excitements included a more complicated dentist's appointment than originally envisioned and having to stop very suddenly short on I-93, but I did technically find my way to Scollay Square.

Current Music: Rose Betts, "Come Away"

pauamma posting in

dw_volunteers

Ramadhan starts in about 1 week for me.

How's everyone doing?

oursin

Too busy trying to extend their lifespans to, you know, actually Have A Life?

The troubling rise of longevity fixation syndrome: ‘I was crushed by the pressure I put on myself’

One is actually surprised that this guy does in fact go for an evening out in a restaurant with his husband, even if he does exhaustively research it first and pre-order (and then melt down when it comes to him RONG):

He painstakingly monitored what he ate (sometimes only organic, sometimes raw or unprocessed; calories painstakingly counted), his exercise regime (twice a day, seven days a week), and tracked every bodily function from his heart rate to his blood pressure, body fat and sleep “schedule”. He even monitored his glucose levels repeatedly throughout the day. “I was living by those numbers,” he says.

One wonders if there is any place for Ye Conjugalz with hubby or is that losing Precious Bodily Fluids and all the other ills once ascribed to sexual indulgence.

And, indeed, tempted to say, it just feels like living for ever....

With a side of, austere regimes have been followed by religious devotees for centuries but that was for life everlasting in the next, not this, right?

But, honestly, surely it is possible to lead a healthy life which is not actually purgatorial - see also this Why has food become another joyless way to self-optimise?. Thinking back to the delicious healthy nosh at Grayshott of beloved nostalgic memories - along with the lovely treatments etc.

Okay, there are some dietary things I do because I do not particularly have to think about them, but that is because I made certain decisions back when, and e.g. I have my nice tasty home-made muesli of a morning with its healthy oats and linseed and nuts and it is an established pattern but it is a pleasure to eat.

Current Music: BeeGees, Stayin Alive

osprey_archer

I was quite excited about the picture book Only Opal: The Diary of a Young Girl, as I’ve been low-key obsessed with Opal Whiteley for years, and what could be better than a book about Opal illustrated by Barbara Cooney?

For those of you who don’t know, Opal Whiteley came to national attention in 1920 when the Atlantic Monthly published her childhood diary, in which young Opal wrote lyrical descriptions of nature and her animal friends, who have Lars Porsenna (the crow) and Brave Horatius (the dog). Some people were and remain bowled over by the beauty of her nature writing. Other people accused Opal of making up the diary wholesale. Would any kid really name a crow Lars Porsenna? It’s just too too precious.

I believe that the diary was real, though. Opal was an extremely bright child, and extremely bright children sometimes do things that strike people who don’t know them as completely unbelievable. She also suffered from a very unfortunate accident of timing, in that she fit perfectly a cultural archetype that was just coming under attack when she published her diary. A child of Nature, growing up in poverty but learning from the trees and the flowers and a few good, solid books (traditionally the Bible and Shakespeare, but in Opal’s case a book of historical figures).

After World War I this whole “child of nature” idea came to be seen as an offshoot of a sickeningly naive vision of human nature that had been exploded by the war. And then here comes Opal Whiteley, presenting to the world this diary supposedly written when she was five and six, which completely embodies this discredited vision. Well, it’s much easier to say “She’s a fraud!” than to wonder “Is there something in the child of nature idea after all?”

Unfortunately, as I recalled as I began to read the picture book, although I find Opal as a person very interesting, I can’t stand her diary. I think it’s a real diary, truly written by Opal as a child, but even in the immensely abridged form of a picture book, it does strike me as too too precious. “One way the road does go to the house of the girl who has no seeing” - good gravy, Opal, just say she’s blind. You named a mouse Felix Mendelssohn! I know you know the word blind!

But of course Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely as always. I particularly liked the picture of the mouse Felix Mendelssohn asleep on a pincushion under a little square of flannel. Just the right level of precious.

tamaranth

2026/017: The Scholars of Night — John M Ford

'...through the grace of God and friendly governments we are allowed a certain number of immoral acts, but we are obliged to avoid merely stupid ones.'[loc. 1878]

Long unavailable, Ford's Cold War spy thriller with added Christopher Marlowe is a delight. There are two major plots, very much entwined: the discovery of an unknown Marlowe play, 'The Assassin’s Tragedy', and the theft of some cutting-edge military hardware. Marlowe's play deals with spycraft, a mysterious fellow who might have royal blood, and the narrow line between patriotism and treason. The modern narrative also explores these issues, via role-playing games, divided loyalties, and scholarly imagination.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: impressed

murgatroyd_666 posting in

girlgenius_lair

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20260209

So ... What IS that?

And yeah, we all liked Wooster.

sovay

I am feeling non-stop terrible. I took a couple of pictures in the snow-fallen sunshine this afternoon.

( And be the roots that make the tree. )

spatch sent me a 1957 study of walking directions to Scollay Square. Researcher's notes can be unnecessarily period-typical, but the respondents themselves are wonderful. "You're a regular question-box, aren't you?" It turns out to be part of the basis for a seminal work of urban planning and perception. I like the first draft of the public image of Boston, including its conclusion that it is a deficit to the city not to be thought of as defined by the harbor as much as the river.

Current Music: Rose Betts, "Running"

oursin

Last week's bread held out very well and there was even enough crust left to cut up and fry with onion and garlic to make frittata for Friday night supper.

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 strong white/buckwheat flour (I was actually going to do rye, but it was rather long past its best before).

Today's lunch: this was actually a change of plan, because for last night's evening meal we had Waitrose Slow-Cooked Gammon Shank which turned out to be Rather A Lot, so quite a bit left over, which I therefore recycled into a sort-of cassoulet-type-thing with Belazu Judion Butter Beans, garlic, thyme, and panko crumbs; served with tenderstem broccoli tips, trimmed fine green beans and chopped Romano peppers white-braised, but with lazy chopped ginger rather than star anise for a change, and chestnut mushrooms sauteed somewhat after the recipe in Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, with onion salt, ground black pepper, basil, a dash of cayenne, and lime juice.

siderea

Hey, does anybody happen to know the answer to this question?

Back when Mr B and I started doing joint grocery orders, I started analyzing our budget like you do. In the course of doing so, I discovered something I hadn't realized: about a third of my "grocery" budget wasn't food. It was:

• Disposable food handling and storage supplies: plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, ziplocs, e.g.

• Personal hygiene supplies: toilet paper, bath soap, shampoo, skin lotion, menstrual supplies, toothpaste, mouthwash, Q-tips, e.g.

• Health supplies: vitamins, bandaids, NSAIDs, first aid supplies, OTC medications and supplements, e.g.

• Domestic hygiene supplies: dish detergent, dish soap, dish sponges, Windex, Pine-sol, laundry detergent, bleach, mouse traps, e.g.

None of these things individually needs to be bought every grocery trip, but that's good, because they can add up fast. Especially if you try to buy at all in volume to try to drive unit costs down. But the problem is there are so many of them, that usually you need some of them on every order.

This fact is in the back of my head whenever I hear politicians or economists or social commentators talk about the "cost of groceries": I don't know if they mean just food or the whole cost of groceries. Sometimes it's obvious. An awful lot of the relief for the poor involves giving them food (such as at a food pantry) or the funds to buy it (such as an EBT card), but very explicitly doesn't include, say, a bottle of aspirin or a box of tampons or a roll of Saran wrap. Other times, it's not, such as when a report on the cost of "groceries" only compares the prices of food items, and then makes statements about the average totals families of various sizes spend on "groceries": if they only looked at the prices of foods, does that mean they added up the prices of foods a family typically buys to generate a "grocery bill" which doesn't include the non-food groceries, or did they survey actual families' actual grocery bills and just average them without substracting the non-food groceries? Hard to say from the outside.

When we see a talking head on TV – a pundit or a politician – talking about the price of "groceries" but then say it, for example, has to do with farm labor, or the import of agricultural goods, should we assume they're just meaning "food" by the term "groceries"? Or it is a tell they've forgotten that not everything bought at a grocery store (and part of a consumer's grocery store bill) is food, and maybe are misrepresenting or misunderstanding whatever research they are leaning on? Or is it a common misconception among those who research domestic economics that groceries means exclusively food?

So my question is: given that a lot of information about this topic that percolates out to the public is based on research that the public never sees for themselves, what assumptions are reasonable for the public to make about how the field(s) which concern themselves with the "price of groceries" mean "groceries"? What fields are those and do they have a standard meaning of "groceries" and does it or does it not include non-food items?

This question brought to you by yet another video about the cost of groceries and how they might be controlled in which the index examples were the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, as usual, not the sandwich baggy to put it in to take to school or work.

marthawells

Some good news:

Both Queen Demon and the Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute anthology, made it on the Locus Recommended Reading List:

https://locusmag.com/2026/02/2025-recommended-reading/

with a lot of other excellent books and stories, including a new section for translated works.

You can also vote on the list for the Locus Awards. Anybody can vote here with an email address: https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/ though they have you fill out a demographic survey first with how many books you read per year, etc.

Of course a lot of great work did not end up on the list, like I was surprised not to see The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land duology by Kate Elliott, which I thought was excellent.

oursin

That was a week that felt a bit odd, which may have been quite a bit down to my not sleeping as well as have latterly been doing.

Also not getting out for accustomed daily walk as often as usual because RAIN.

Somewhat stunned by phonecall from friend with whom I am collaborating on various projects who has recently had some rather devastating health news.

Resumption of contact with two other friends: one of whom I had contacted after receiving what turned out to be, as I had suspected, spam email from her hacked account.

Having the February blahs, pretty much.

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Dental double date

Duck, politics incoming

Book Review: Does My Head Look Big in This?

Jan 30: Enoshima Aquarium

Jan 26: Odakyu to Yamato

Jan 23, Enoshima monorail

(no subject)

2026/018: Tools for Life: 10 Essential Therapy Skills Everyone Should Know — Dr Kirren Schnac

Carbon Dating

There's nothing here but echoes

Volunteer social thread #161

Yet the exchange rills Of young dog blood gave but a month's desires.

Picture Book Monday: Only Opal

2026/017: The Scholars of Night — John M Ford

Monday's Comic

If I'm hoping, then I'm hoping for the frost

Culinary

What does the word "grocery" mean, no, really? [econ, curr ev]

Locus List

Deep blankness is the real thing strange

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October 2016

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