SO MANY THINGS TO BE TERRIFIED OF...

 AMERICAN CATASTROPHE THROUGH GERMAN EYES

 SATURDAY'S OPINION BY ROGER COHEN https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/opinion/trump-germany.html

I sent a link to a Guardian piece to a few friends about FaceBook and how it manipulated past elections and is poised to do so again. It's somehow scarier because of perceived British reticence (yes I know about their tabloids). www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/26/with-facebook-we-are-already-through-the-looking-glass

One friend, with whom I have been close since we met in Logic at Hunter College (Mihi cura futuri), each of us occasionally toting our toddler sons to class because we never knew if classes would be held, answered my text saying, "I have too many things to be terrified about." Back to that in a minute.

The reason we never knew if classes were on is that it was height of "revolution" and administration buildings were being "occupied" on colleges across our land. Being in a midtown skyscraper--
 
well, a short one, 19 stories--made those kinds of seizures impossible. Not to be daunted, opponents of the war in Vietnam and the bland accepting of the middle class lifestyle decided to shut down academic life in a Manhattan way: they occupied the elevators. At nearby Columbia, we went and heard famous agitators agitate. It was an exciting time, a time when many of us felt that things could be different, fairer, better, and we were the ones who could do it. Meanwhile, we studied philosophy and literature in the interstices of life as a mother, good time gal and hippy--though I did no drugs.

All the time I heard those supposedly more connected that I talk revolution, intimating violence, and sometimes more than intimating, I thought, 'Do they know that means blood?' I was never anywhere that violence actually occurred, but I worried, and was grateful to the Beatles for their song stating my misgivings. That was 1968.

(to be continued)

FOR WHOM THE SCHOOL BELL TOLLS

IF NOT FOR WE...

I remember hearing the bell for the end of class, and almost always being happy to flee. But kids are really longing for school these days. Online learning has a place, but it cannot replace the actual classroom full of funky artwork, chemistry beakers, quotes from admired thinkers and all the stuff of learning and friendship.

So how about it?

Don't you think that priority should be given to opening the schools safely? It would be amazing for the economy, since parents could go back to work. It would be terrific for the kids, since they need the education, the socializing, the socialization, the lunch.

Putting the bazillions of dollars into the schools will help in bazillions of ways, too. Most who study the issue believe that smaller class sizes benefit students, and that would be a given in a coronavirus-savvy school. Cleanliness? Always a good thing. Kids miss their friends and many pediatricians say that the harm for kids not being in school is worse than the illness. Child and spousal abuse are sky-rocketing and getting the kids out of the house for most of the day cannot but help mitigate that situation. 

I've heard interviews on the news that say it can be done. The schools can be safe. Sure, tracking takes money and science--how's that for a teachable moment? If kids learned nothing except about the science of epidemiology, it would still be wonderful. 

Here is a cute example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-5BRf3cYWo

Schools can be better than ever. They can promote equality and diversity in a way never achieved. In this new awareness of Black Lives Matter, putting the money into the schools can be a good start to teaching, and learning, that centuries of harm to a group must be corrected. Can be corrected. It is amazing what knowledge and good will, and yes bazillions of dollars can do. Must do, and the time for doing is now. 

A lot can be done in our schools.

Our kids need good schools. We need them. What better place to put the money for economic recovery? And once we relieve parents of the job of teaching, which is driving them crazy, and which most are not doing well, and probably giving kids and parents both PTSD, they can take a breath.  And start thinking about the new ways we need to run our lives if we are to keep ourselves, the economy, and our planet safe.  

TENNIS MUMUS ANYONE??

I AM HAVING A TERRIBLE TIME WORKING

OUT!

I just can't force myself.

You'd think with all this extra time on my hands, it would be easy. Well, the first days of staying home were kind of like a reprieve. We were terrified of getting sick, the world ran out of toilet paper and coffee filters, as well as anything with bleach or isopropyl alcohol in it. My local Pavilion's even ran out of my favorite inexpensive cabernet! 

Yeats said it pretty well:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming!

The center clearly could not hold. 

(Second Coming is meant as a hopeful irony.)

So I could hardly be blamed for skipping my workout! 

Right?

Then, about two weeks in--we were still working in 2-week increments, mentally--I found several

 

 core barre, yoga, and Pilates routines online, and started doing them. 

 

Every day.

Then, every other day.

Then, oh, well, a little walk would do. After all there are those who claim walking is the best exercise.

Parenthetically

 I do not dis the walkers. But my former workout week was 3 core barre classes, one fast yoga class with loud music, one swim and 2 or 3 sessions of Live-Ball Tennis.

So, friends, it diminished but I did not. I mentioned before my CABERNET-19, but the truth is I won't go near a scale.

But I recently found a combo that just might work!

There are a lot of wonderful and free workouts online. In my better days I would randomly pick one and just do it, to coin a phrase. That was before the siren call of the after-breakfast nap. 

Parenthetically

I used to fast in the morning--do my workout, play tennis and then have some food. I'd drink a green concoction, take some supplements, and only have coffee. Now, lavishly buttered baguettes or almond croissants go with the coffee.

I just read in NYT an article by Gretchen Reynolds, a regular reporter on health. You can find it titled HOW WEIGHT TRAINING CHANGES THE BRAIN. 

(www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/well/move/how-weight-training-changes-the-brain.html?referring Source=articleShare)

I know, dated 2019 but it was in this week's paper.

Lifting weights actually changes the brain, creating NEW neurons in its memory centers.

A wonderful article that may keep me on track because I found a good half-hour yoga workout and a 15-minute beginning weight training video, and there is enough variety, and, this is key, the combo is short enough, that it's doable. Added benefits are to other aspects of memory that most of us find fault with as we age. 

The heaviest weight I use is 12 pounds in each hand. I repeat a series of 6 exercises three times, and I'm done. Perhaps I may not need to create my own line of tennis mumus. 

Now where did I put my phone?

THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE STUPID

THE RIGHT TO BE STUPID

Is it a constitutional right?

I realize that the economy is in tatters, and that this is the sole fact for many. I know the terror of not having the rent money with prospects for future rent not good either. I would understand if people, suffering PTSD from multiple crises all at once, covid, unemployment, no pub respite, ranted against the powers that be. Yet to fulminate about mask-wearing? Yeah, masks are hot and fog my glasses, and not glamorous. My lipstick gets mussed and left inside—yes, bite me, lipstick! The only good thing about the masks? They cover the lower, most age-revealing part of my face. Oh, and they save lives.

CABERNET-19

CABERNET-19

Husband and I have been happy together for a long time. More than 30 years. And while it is a second marriage for both, 

it's probably the last as well. 

Many who meet us think we are newlyweds. People ask how we do it. And while I usually give the true answer that it is him, that I completely trust him and he is easy and non-judgmental--not to mention handsome--there is more. And it may not seem like anything, but IT COULD HELP 

WE ARE SILLY. 

Right. I think that if we were recorded during our day, we would be embarrassed. We do back-and-forth puns, make noises instead of words, to avoid answering awkward questions or commenting when we'd rather not. 

About this, parenthetically. Making meaningless sounds is satisfying in a weird way. I mean it's weird that it works. 

I even use the nonsense sounds to cover an angry thought. 

Exaggerating an angry thought to an absurd point is good for a laugh. 

I won't say laughter is the best medicine, but it may be the best relationship-preserver/extender.

Every time we walk by we either kiss or air kiss. Or double air kiss. Or we touch each other, a glancing caress, a small pinch, something a teensy bit suggestive, maybe.

The reason I mention all this silliness is that it is so very easy to do. It does take a bit of thought, and probably an investigative conversation with sig oth. Otherwise, let 'er rip!

Which is not to say that that the Covid-10 isn't the Cabernet-19 for me--talking pounds here.  

THE MUSEUM OF BAD PEOPLE

EVERYONE'S WONDERING WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE STATUES THAT MISREPRESENTED HISTORY--THAT'S EASY. WE NEED A NEW MUSEUM: THE MUSEUM OF BAD PEOPLE!

TALKING TO STRANGERS

Strangers, cont’d.

I want to talk about my other favorite podcast, the one who got me hooked on them to start with. So there is no unnecessary suspense, it’s HIDDEN BRAIN always wonderful.

Now podcasts are so valuable to me, it’s hard to imagine what it was like before. Before, I might lie awake trying to sleep. Now I lie in bed, trying not to sleep because the podcast is so interesting.

But I can’t. I must talk about Gladwell’s book.

Talking to Strangers

AT first, you wonder what he’s after. The many stories he discusses have been widely covered. But as we know, he’s always got something up his sleeve. And by the time he’s done, after many go-rounds and interweavings, everything is in a new light. Often in an unimaginable way. Things you think you understand, believe me, you don’t.

Also, many of the discussions are so pertinent to what’s happening today, it’s almost as if he just wrote on the heels of the recent police murders.

The tag line of my radio show was CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING. And this has proven to be a necessary adjunct to any effort to learn the truth.

Podcast: Malcolm Gladwell's REVISIONIST HISTORY

REVISIONIST HISTORY: Malcolm Gladwell's Podcast

I'VE BEEN DRIVING MYSELF CRAZY

So many topics, such a lazy bum...

From women and guns to no police to why I hate literature to drinking so much. And those come to me when I'm not even properly thinking about it. Oh, and then there is Ruthy's 96th birthday, celebrated on Zoom. Without me, but she says I was a presence.

Malcolm Gladwell has a nice voice. There is a lot of melody and affect, and a free use of colloquialism. There is no sentence too compex to understand. Which is why it's so wonderful that he delves into the most complicated matters with joy and curiosity, and fully brings us with him.

The phrase "revisionist history" is often misunderstood. I wonder if he knows that and is having fun with his title. Revisionist sounds like a bad thing, like what we were taught the Soviets did, rewriting their so-called history books to reflect well on the regime and leave out inconveniences like starvation, failed farms and factories, etc. 

But in truth, revisionist history is the opposite. It is the revised history made possible, nay mandatory, by new knowledge. What Gladwell does is look at events, ideas, whatever, that in many cases have already been looked quite a lot, and he re-examines them in light of new facts and theories. A lot like the spirit of FREAKANOMICS.

I always read him, the science writer, starting with THE TIPPING POINT, which I read in excerpts in The New Yorker. This was wonderful to me because it explained unexplainable things, like why a neighborhood would fail. I understand just enough of quantum mechanics to be intrigued, but not enough to explain it to someone. More about that later. But it seems like many things do not change gradually. But in quantum leaps. Suddenly it is ice when a second ago it was water. This may not be a scientific analysis, but it's easy to understand. I loved OUTLIERS, too. A much better explanation of certain kinds of success that the usual bromides involving bootstraps*, or possibly worse, "you can do anything" when nothing is explained. 

I put the links below to two of my favorites. The King of Tears is about why country music makes you cry, as opposed to Rock. And the second, Chutzpah vs Chutzpah is a primer to understanding Israelis.

More later. I must go make a salad and some lemonade for a socially distant dinner party now. 

revisionisthistory.com/episodes/16-the-king-of-tears

revisionisthistory.com/episodes/39-chutzpah-vs-chutzpah

Listen to "Chutzpah vs. Chutzpah" Season 4 Episode 9 of The Revisionist History Podcast with Malcolm Gladwell.

*The origin of the phrase picking oneself up by the bootstraps came from the self-evident fact that such an action was impossible. It was meant to describe something that couldn't be done. And somehow it has come to mean its opposite. A cat o' ninetails used to whip people into frenzies of guilt when they can't pick themselves up, I think mainly used by Republicans agaainst the poor.