There’s no such thing as bad weather. There’s only bad gear.
Indoors, there’s also “no such thing as information-overload, there is just filter failure.” So as we march into the most information- overloaded season of them all, let us not go unarmed.
Active avoidance of useless information means being fully aware that you’re blocking huge gobs of internet reality and doing it to save yourself. This has now grown to be a core competence for digital citizens and it’s called Critical Ignoring. It starts with the idea that “Low-quality and misleading information online can hijack people’s attention, often by evoking curiosity, outrage, or anger.” So don’t let yourself be snowed this winter.
Meanwhile…
1. What beats comfort food? Nothing. Watch Florence Pugh devour 11 British dishes, and here’s to the best mashed potatoes you’ll ever make.
2. The Good Life is changing You don’t need a lot of money, a backstage pass, or even a camper van. What you need is a legacy city.
3. “...and that’s how I got here.” The best proof that nothing beats a great story especially at a stressful time.
4. Beware the perfect gentleman. It’s not they who are the con men, at least not always. It’s the people who impersonate perfect gentlemen.
5. Let the app do the work for you. There’s an app that automatically counts things that come in large numbers– from pipes on a truck and cows in a field, to pills, pallets, rivets and bar codes.
6. Sometimes you can just be too keen. I’m in favour of medically-assisted dying. But I know some people aren’t, and especially the new rules around mental illness being a sole criterion for ending your life. So while it’s much better bringing MAiD out of the closet and talking about it, it’s a bit too soon and too much to embrace commercials for it when you go to buy your winter wardrobe.
7. The broccoli tree. This isn’t like the Spaghetti Tree. It’s a parable of how online life can overtake real life and smudge them both.
8. Building fast and slow. If you never really compared (or contrasted) the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, this will get you thinking about how things really get built.
9. How did cottagecore grow so popular? But first, what is cottagecore? It’s “images of nostalgic countryside scenes and peasant dresses with eyelet lace”.
You can build your new home as cottagecore or even dress your new self as cottagecorps. Little wonder it’s the most popular design trend in America.
10. All 9 Beethoven Symphonies. One a day from yesterday to Dec. 17, Beethoven’s birthday. Conducted by the peerless Gustavo Dudamel, free and online.
11. Two quirky music videos. One, with the Royal Philharmonic playing household appliances, and two, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert with British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
Plus a great TVO documentary on Canadian architect Carlos Ott on Building Bastille, the Paris opera house.