Five times as bad as Beijing: Sydney blanketed in smoke
Sydneysiders have been urged to avoid vigorous exercise and if possible stay in air-conditioned buildings.
Smoke leaves parts of Sydney with air twice the hazardous level
Sydney
was blanketed in a smoky haze on Tuesday morning, after weekend hazard
reduction burns left parts of the city with air quality so poor!
Taking a dig at Vanity Fair, GQ apologizes for all of the extra appendages on its latest cover.
↩︎ GQ
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." | Dr. Helen
So in order to be liked or valued by others, you have to be a celebrity and have a cool job? Why? And why do you have to prove your worth to anyone? What happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Isn't that the real American dream? Now the dream is to become a shallow celebrity and look good to please others and try to prove your worth to them? No thanks
… though there’s more in what Percy says: Walker Percy’s Funny and Frightening Prophecy | The American Conservative.
The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.
— Walker Percy, born on this date in 1916
Taking a dig at Vanity Fair, GQ apologizes for all of the extra appendages on its latest cover.
↩︎ GQ
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." | Dr. Helen
So in order to be liked or valued by others, you have to be a celebrity and have a cool job? Why? And why do you have to prove your worth to anyone? What happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Isn't that the real American dream? Now the dream is to become a shallow celebrity and look good to please others and try to prove your worth to them? No thanks
… though there’s more in what Percy says: Walker Percy’s Funny and Frightening Prophecy | The American Conservative.
This double revaluation of mind and nature that began with Descartes resulted in a radically new conception of human freedom as sheer individual autonomy, the right to determine one’s own identity and destiny. Hence our ever-greater disregard for communal responsibilities and obligations—except for those that, in our sovereign subjectivity, we select for ourselves. Until recently, such potential hyper-individualism was held in check by our reliance on a generalized set of religious beliefs and moral practices to which most people gave their consent, if vaguely. These universal first principles provided the constraints and directives that enabled human beings to flourish or fail. Such classical liberalism undergirds all Enlightenment democracies. But now these checks and balances have been largely removed. The triumph of sovereign subjective preference has resulted in what Percy called “a tempestuous restructuring of consciousness,” a shift in human existence that amounts to the invention of a virtually new species. Percy calls it “a strange Janus monster,” both haunted and paralyzed with self-trans-transcendent longings and fears that mere animals do not experience.
I suspect Percy would not have been so surprised at “the election of a self-confessed ‘pussy-grabbing’ president,” given that the man inaugurated a decade before his novel appeared was also something of a pussy-grabber.
A memorable dinner at the White House. William Styron and James Baldwin attended. J.D. Salinger, a budding recluse, declined. Mary Hemingway bored JFK immensely JFK et al
A Rare Full Interview With Elena Ferrante, On The Writing Process Behind The Neapolitan Novels
The author says she can’t remember what provided the inspiration for the novels, and that she definitely did not have everything plotted out from the beginning: “I never plan my stories. A detailed outline is enough for me to lose interest in the whole thing. Even a brief oral summary makes the desire to write what I have in mind vanish. I am one of those who begin to write knowing only a few essential features of the story they intend to tell. The rest they discover line by line.”
YES: Is Shingles Contagious?
Shingles, the painful and blistery rash that arises when the chickenpox virus becomes reactivated, can be contagious, but only for people who are not already immune to chickenpox. Those who have never had chickenpox or been vaccinated against it are at risk for developing chickenpox — not shingles — if they come in contact with fluid from the blisters of a shingles patient.
Shingles, the painful and blistery rash that arises when the chickenpox virus becomes reactivated, can be contagious, but only for people who are not already immune to chickenpox. Those who have never had chickenpox or been vaccinated against it are at risk for developing chickenpox — not shingles — if they come in contact with fluid from the blisters of a shingles patient.
“We know instinctively that spending so many hours in stuffy places isn’t good for us,” says Peter Foldbjerg, head of daylight energy and indoor climate at VELUX, “According to research, living in damp and moldy homes increases our risk of asthma by 40 percent and leaves us vulnerable to developing other ailments.”
Everyday home life activities, such as cooking, cleaning, showering, lighting candles, drying clothes – even sleeping and breathing, all contribute to polluted indoor air, which over time can cause the development of illnesses. Indeed, it is thought that more children will suffer from asthma or allergies in the coming years unless we act now to ensure that the design of our homes and public buildings is improved in order to tackle the problem we face with indoor pollution, and the amount of time the Indoor Generation spends inside.
Foldbjerg continues: “With the pressures of modern life we are all now firmly a part of the Indoor Generation and we need to understand the implications on our health and wellbeing of life indoors, as well as outdoors, when it comes to polluted air…”
The study [of Miss USA winners] found more of the recent winners were muscular and toned rather than thin, which showed that attitudes toward physical beauty have shifted.
Head researcher Frances Bozsik published the study’s findings in the journal Sex Roles, explaining: “There is a shift in the thin ideal female figure to one that now includes the appearance of physical fitness via muscularity.”
A Review of Note .... in The American Conservative. The reviewer agrees with my post here that Percy foresaw so much of our world, and talks about Percy's hope and unearned grace:
"The God of the Gospel is no bully. He will not force his way in. He knocks patiently at the door. As in the case of Dr. Thomas More, the Lord often makes backdoor entrances, through redemptive defeats rather than pyrrhic victories. “Despair,” the wizard Gandalf declares in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, “is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.” So does Walker Percy summon his present-day readers to a deeply ironic but no less bracing hope, by way of his funny, frighteningly prophetic novel of 1971—to make both life and love in the ruins."
“And I felt relief, because it meant I could stay beneath his notice, that I as good as never existed, as far as he was concerned.”
MMXVIII Memorial Day Bonus Mini-Episode – The Virtual Memories Show.