We get letters
Our first corrections: a "nerd fail" and a botched childhood memory
Last week’s newsletter, “Blue Skies” drew a big reader response, including the first two corrections in the history of The Stanford Newsletter Experiment. And reader, they are doozies. As always, we’ve got lots of things to read to learn things we didn’t know — as well as an exciting debut album from an Austin band — but first, we’ve got letters, we’ve got letters, we’ve got stacks and stacks of letters…
From S.R.:
Thx for Blue Skies — I needed that.
From J.J.D.,
I’m so glad you are doing this newsletter. Gives me joy every time. Prevent offense is brilliant.
From J.S., who caught me in what he deemed, accurately, a “nerd fail”:
My friend [K.C.] introduced me to your newsletter a few weeks ago. I enjoy it very much (nice Elvis Costello lyric usage, btw).
I am not a letter writer, but I feel compelled to point out that Theoden was the King of Rohan who suffered under Grima Wormtongue’s counsel. Eomer was Theoden’s nephew (and later became king).
Was this a trap to see if we read it before Sunday? If so, well played... and the title of this email would still apply.
My friend D.C. checks in with this caution about the experimental implant to improve memory.
You would not want the chip in your head for a better memory unless you could selectively decide what to remember and forget.
As someone with an impressive memory once relayed to me. Imagine getting into a fight with a loved one and hurtful things are said. Now imagine every time you see them even ten years from now. Recalling exactly how bad you felt during that argument. Can there be forgiveness if you can’t forget? Possibly but I imagine it’s much harder.
D.G., one of the OG subscribers, took advantage of my recommendation to watch Fleabag, which, damn, it’s good:
It was raining when I woke up and it was gonna be like 1000% humidity outside the rest of the day so I hunkered down and watched Fleabag seasons 1&2 all the way through… thank you for that recommendation…it was excellent…
Glad to help, D.G.
For my money, the best letter comes from my mom, who sets the record straight on how I actually experienced Nixon’s resignation, which I wrote about here. The funny thing is that waxing the floors in our socks as she blasted Paul Simon is one of my happiest childhood memories. She recently celebrated her birthday, so in honor of this august occasion I am giving her the last word:
The day Nixon resigned is deeply etched in my memory. For what it’s worth: this is what happened. We—at least, the adults—had been transfixed by the Watergate hearings and every bit of news coming out of DC. It wasn’t the afternoon paper we got. We went out at night to pick up the early edition of the next morning’s paper. Not every day, but a friend who worked at the Post would phone us.
So Nixon resigned. It seemed to me that we would now be able to go back to normal life. So the one thing that seemed most like getting back to normal was to wax our wooden floor in the living room, a job I wasn’t fond of normally but tried to make it fun. I put on loud music and we—you, your brother and I—put on socks and slid along the floor shining up the wax. It was fun and an incredible release of all that Watergate tension.
And so it goes,
Love,
Ma
What I’m reading
Sarah Bird has a helluva voice, and I enjoyed her Greatest Hits book, Recent Studies Indicate, and bet you would, too.
On listening and hearing, and Michael Jackson. And oh, what a kicker.
God bless America, because some of us need it; “a small but increasing proportion of Americans think it should be permissible to turn away customers based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or race.”
Young adults are becoming less accepting of the LGBTQ+ community.
We had a gay First Lady?
TV is enduring a “Trump Slump.”
Apparently the most effective way to cover arts in your area is to do it like a community member having fun, not as a dispassionate observer, the most effective way to be a good manager is to listen and not to, you know, manage, and there are fresh-water lakes under the ocean.
Your gene expression changes when you spend time in space. Hear that, S.V.M.? Leaving Earth is really bad for your body.
Milbank: “The Duke University survey of chief financial officers recently found that 69 percent of U.S. CFOs expect a recession by the end of next year, brought on by weaker global economic growth and the effects of Trump-initiated protectionism. Similarly, JPMorgan Chase’s economic monitor this week put the chance of a recession within 12 months at 45 percent, up from 20 percent at the beginning of 2018.”
The ADL is doing some interesting work to redirect people away from extremist content online.
A new study shows “a correlation between white American's intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule. In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.”
Suicides are at an all-time high in the United States.
The more money’s in a found wallet, the more likely it is to be returned.
Pedestrian deaths in the U.S. are almost all the way back up to where they were in 1990 — and up more than 50 percent from 2009.
I want to party with guy. He’s a hard-core grammarian.
What I’m listening to
The Guardian calls the Black Pumas “Sam Cooke meets Wu-Tang Clan.” NPR’s Stephen F. Thompson said they sound like Sam Cooke fronting the Black Keys. I think you get the idea what this Austin band’s debut album sounds like. The Puma’s origin story is beguiling (friends of one of the guys say the Eric Burton busking in Austin and suggested they team up), but the sound is perfectly retro and fresh. Check it out.
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