“To me, Tolstoy and Melville are giants, towering above almost everyone else in literature—when facing Anna Karenina, War and Peace, or Moby Dick, I’m overwhelmed, I’m in awe of their genius. When I see a reader express not only dislike but also disdain towards them, part of me is amused—these books need no defence. But at the same time, I’m appalled at the arrogance.”
Like humility, awe is sparsely distributed among readers and other humans.
1959 Porsche Emory Outlaw Coupe | Image 1959 Porsche Emory Outlaw Coupe
We all know those unhappy souls who work hard to be thought of as comedians. Every family, every workplace, has one.
Some words look like typos. Phlegm is one. Similarly, apothegm. Both appear to be missing vowels, and I always double-check the spelling. In the second stanza of “January” (1894) by Robert Bridges I found another faux-typo
Some Of The Many Books That Helped Us Cope In 2020
Mysteries, children’s books, nonfiction, romance, books about race and racism, and so much more – along with an awful lot of screentime and chill, it’s how we coped with this, OK, yes, unprecendented year. – Washington Post
Zebra finches amazing at unmasking the bird behind the song ScienceDaily
Humans get sick diving in the ocean, but here’s why dolphins don’t Inverse
The Botanist Daring to Ask: What If Plants Have Personalities? Bloomberg
Remote Islands Will Be One of the Largest Wildlife Sanctuaries in the World MyModernMet
Utah helicopter crew discovers mysterious metal monolith deep in the desert CNN
Can’t Travel, Can’t Go To Concerts, But This Irish Cellist On YouTube Is Bringing The Joy
Like many musicians, Irish cellist Patrick Dexter decided to post performances to YouTube during Irish lockdown. He thought, well, what the heck, now I have time to play music outside for other people. “The open-air recitals, shot outside his picturesque cottage in Mayo on the rural west coast, have been viewed millions of times.” – BBC
As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse: Comedian Chuck Nice Reads Billy Collins’s Ode to the Quiet Wellspring of Gratitude
…with a funny and poignant meditation on the personal gravity of gratitude and why being grateful is “one of the most powerful things that any one person can do.”
BY MARIA POPOVA
“I am grateful, not in order that my neighbour, provoked by the earlier act of kindness, may be more ready to benefit me, but simply in order that I may perform a most pleasant and beautiful act,” Seneca wrote two millennia ago as he contemplated gratitude and what it means to be a generous human being.
