PicoBlog

There’s a certain power that comes from looking at a chair, spinning it around, and sitting in it completely backwards. It’s a major turn my swag on thing to do, in a way that also actually works. That’s because it takes a lot of confidence to do something so intentionally wrong. But that confidence helps you tell the greatest story someone has ever heard or listen attentively to show that you care.

Hi Loners, Recently, someone asked me if I practiced every day, and I laughed out loud. Later, I couldn’t stop thinking about how rude I must have seemed, overconfident even about my abilities. The truth is that I hate to practice, just like I dislike working out, though once I’m back in the habit of running, the feeling of dread or nagging procrastination fades somewhat the more I do it.

No, “Lilies of the Field” has not aged particularly well. It’s very much a product of its era, smack dab in the middle of the burgeoning civil rights movement, as Hollywood sought to produce reassuring fare to make Black people demanding their rights seem less threatening to mainstream whites. It’s headlined by Sidney Poitier, already the biggest African-American screen star, as Homer Smith, an agreeable wandering laborer who helps a group of East German nuns build a chapel in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Want to go straight to the recipe and avoid my version of a woman scorned? Scroll down until you see a picture of a lush slice of cake. I pondered whether to send you folks the really sad poem I wrote about feeling like an overlooked woman of a certain age. I never-ever write poetry and didn’t quite understand why people did. This week I understood. I was moved. But my friend Kristin warned me against sending it to you all in a kindly but “you’re gonna regret this” tone of voice.

“When will you return to Wyoming for another visit?” I recently asked an old friend over the phone. “When I can be sure I won’t experience frostbite,” she cheekily replied.  “Oh, come on. You can bundle up. The Rockies are magnificent in winter,” I countered. “Really?” she inquired in a curious tone, “Winter feels abysmal everywhere, so what makes the Rockies any different?”   Recalling a viral news story out of Yellowstone last week I rejoined, “Where else can you witness first-hand a pack of wolves kill a 1,500 pound bison and enjoy it for dinner?

Wander around the community of Linda Vista on any weeknight and chances are good you won’t find too many venues with large groups of people actively engaged in some form of physical and/or classroom activity.  Outside of the University of San Diego campus, the only place that usually comes to mind for most local residents is the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center, and more precisely, Skateworld.  However, I recently realized there is one area of Linda Vista that has become quite a popular location for adults, young people, and families to gather and have some energetic fun.

Linh DinhBefore being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kja21zaGboqaY

Laid Off Life is a place of respite for the weary workforce. Whether you’re unemployed, on strike or just trying to make it through the workday, let this be your 5-minute mental break from the grind of late-stage capitalism.  In this weekly newsletter, you’ll find musings and insights about work and life, things I’m finding useful (or useless) in my job search, gems from my DMs, and recs about worthy ways to waste time - from articles to TV shows and podcasts and beyond.

Today Chris Rufo and Luke Rosiak published, “Trouble at the Fed: An Investigation into Federal Reserve governor Lisa D. Cook’s academic record raises questions”. It is mainly about her plagiarism, presenting a couple of examples. One is quite unusual, being neither quite self-plagiarism nor quite regular plagiarism. She wrote an article with other economists, and they inserted a couple of paragraphs straight from an earlier paper by those others, but where she wasn’t a co-author on the earlier paper.