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“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge & enhance an idea, to reform it . . . Revision is one of the true pleasures of writing.”
―
Friday, April 26, 2024
Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing. Bernard Malamud
The purpose of a writer is to keep civilisation from destroying itself. Bernard Malamud
(Interview, New York Post Magazine, September 14, 1958)
David Hume born 1711
It's the birthday of the man who said: "The truth springs from arguments among friends," and "The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster." That's Scottish philosopher David Hume, born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1711. While working as a librarian, he wrote the six-volume History of England (1762), which became a bestseller and gave him the financial independence to write and revise his philosophical treatises. He wrote A Treatise of Human Nature (1740), Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding (1748), and Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). He was a strict skeptic, and questioned all knowledge derived from the senses.
David Hume said, "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty."
And, "Reading and sauntering and lounging and dozing, which I call thinking, is my supreme happiness."
And, "He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstances."
The Writer's Almanac
Slow Down
If you can just maintain that consistent energy in one direction, it’s incredible what you could deflect over a long period of time.
Hugh Howey
We need, above all things, to slow down and get ourselves to amble through life instead of to rush through it.
Alan Watts
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius
help prevent the muscle loss
Many factors, including your age, height, weight, and activity level, determine your daily calorie needs. In general, moderately active women ages 26–50 should consume approximately 2,000 calories per day to maintain their weight and stay healthy (1).
That said, this range can vary widely based on the factors mentioned above.
As women age beyond 50, they generally require fewer calories to maintain their weight. This is because as people grow older, they tend to lose muscle mass and be less active (2).
In general, average healthy women over 60 should consume 1,600–2,200 calories to maintain their weight and stay healthy.
Women who are more active should stay on the higher end of their calorie intake range, while women who are more sedentary should stay on the lower end of their range.
However, even though your calorie needs are lower at 65 than when you were in your 20s, you still need to eat just as high or even higher amounts of certain nutrients compared with younger people.
For example, women over 65 should consume a higher proportion of their calories from protein to help prevent the muscle loss that typically occurs with age. This muscle loss is known as sarcopenia, and it’s a major cause of weakness and fractures among older adults (3, 4).
In addition, other nutrients you should aim to consume more of include:
- Fiber: to help prevent bowel-related issues like constipation and diverticulitis (5, 6)
- Calcium and vitamin D: to help keep your bones strong and healthy as you age (7)
- Vitamin B12: with age, your body may find it harder to absorb vitamin B12 (8)
- Iron: to prevent a deficiency and anemia, which is more common with age (9)
You can increase your intake of these nutrients by eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean meats, dairy products, and fish.
Last medically reviewed on March 31, 2021
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/calories-for-a-healthy-65-year-old-woman
when people recognize the actual sources of their privilege is they become a little more humble and they are more willing to help other people, more willing to invest in the future
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22673605/upper-middle-class-meritocracy-matthew-stewart
America’s upper-middle class works more, optimizes their kids, and is miserable.
One of the things you write about in the book is how much this 9.9 percent are willing to invest in their children — in nannies, in schools, in extracurriculars. Where does this pressure come from, this urge people have to make their kids the best?
I think the driving motivation is fear, and I think that fear is well-grounded. People intuit that in this meritocratic game, the odds are getting increasingly long of succeeding. They work very hard to stack the odds in their kids’ favor, but they know as the odds get longer, they may not succeed.
That’s coupled with another one of the traits of this class, which is a lack of imagination. The source of the fear is also this inability to imagine a life that doesn’t involve getting these high-status credentials and having a high-status occupation. This life plan looks good, and it certainly looked good in the past when the odds were more sensible. But it’s not a great deal. It’s something that isn’t just harmful to the people who don’t make it, it’s also harmful to the people who get involved and do make it, in some sense.
What follows when people recognize the actual sources of their privilege is they become a little more humble and they are more willing to help other people, more willing to invest in the future. For me, one of the most distressing statistics is that the richer people get, the less they believe in publicly supported child care. It’s not that they don’t want their taxes to go to pay for child care, it’s that they’ve internalized this idea that everyone can do this, everyone can raise their own child or just hire a nanny. “Let them hire a nanny” is the new “let them eat cake.” It just shows how this incredibly virtuous, super-well-educated class becomes oblivious to the basis of its own existence.
A new book by philosopher Matthew Stewart (no relation), The 9.9 percent: The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/pregnant-women-people-feminism-language/620468/
Why I’ll Keep Saying ‘Pregnant Women’
Being inclusive is important. But it’s not everything.
‘We’ve never lived in normal times’
Columbia’s student body president, Teji Vijayakumar, notes that graduating seniors like herself were entering elementary school during the Occupy Wall Street protests, middle school during student walkouts over gun control and former president Donald Trump’s executive order barring travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and were in high school when the Black Lives Matter demonstrations erupted.
Vijayakumar recalls being 13 years old and writing her emergency contacts on her arm when she attended the Women’s March in Washington a few days before Trump was sworn in as president.
“I think a difference with older generations is that for them college was a coming of age, whereas my class started elementary school in the financial crisis, started high school in the Trump presidency, and started college in the pandemic,” Vijayakumar said. “We’ve never lived in normal times.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/26/columbia-protest-students-israel-gaza/
How cleaning product chemicals called ‘quats’ may affect the brain
A common ingredient in household disinfectants has been shown in lab studies to affect certain brain cells
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/04/25/disinfectants-quaternary-ammonium-compounds/
Soup is Friendly
As a child I loved the table but always had stomach aches. As an adult I discovered what it means to have a friendly table. For me that meant soup and bread! I believe if you love something you can become great at making it. I am now the soup and bread maven. My soups have everything in them. One bowl is enough for a meal. Most of my soups start out as gloops and then they get stretched out with water, meat and vegetables and olive oil to become soups.
Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti) is a self-portrait by the Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka, which she painted in Paris in 1928. It was commissioned by the German fashion magazine Die Dame for the cover of the magazine, to celebrate the independence of women. It is one of the best-known examples of Art Deco portrait painting.
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