things I learned
Jan. 31st, 2026 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacfrom reading the Feb. 2 New Yorker
1. Nancy Kerrigan is now 56 and still skating.
2. Another reason to be happy I'm married: dating apps would not be for me. The sort of things they focus on have nothing to do with what I looked for in a partner.
3. Despite what they tell you about protest marches sparking political change, they don't amount to much. Disorganized movements that allow local groups to foster independent home-grown leadership are the way to go, despite the groups often developing contradictory principles. The article doesn't explain how it succeeds despite that.
4. Japan's leading political party has ties to the Moonies. That was why Shinzo Abe was assassinated: the assailant was angry because his mother had given all the family's money to the Moonies. And he blamed Abe ... how does that follow?
5. Research into chemicals in breast milk is corrupt and unreliable.
6. Tucker Carlson is evil. Sorry, I already knew that.
7. Maybe now I'll remember who David Foster Wallace is. I'd vaguely heard of him, but if you'd presented the name without context I'd have drawn a blank.
8. I'm missing something by never having heard Morton Feldman's music performed live, only on records.
9. Tolkien's "Ent" is a favorite word for crossword-puzzle makers. It keeps showing up.
Thing I learned from another article on the same subject as a New Yorker article:
1. The Easter Island statues should be called "statues." The word moai is probably inauthentic.
The time it takes to put out a weekly magazine is long enough, and the speed of events is fast enough, that it seems quaint that the issue's current events piece is about Greenland. Now we're talking about the murder of Alex Pretti and the possibly game-changing effect of all those videos on the narrative. My thought on that is, "Once, there was just Abraham Zapruder."
1. Nancy Kerrigan is now 56 and still skating.
2. Another reason to be happy I'm married: dating apps would not be for me. The sort of things they focus on have nothing to do with what I looked for in a partner.
3. Despite what they tell you about protest marches sparking political change, they don't amount to much. Disorganized movements that allow local groups to foster independent home-grown leadership are the way to go, despite the groups often developing contradictory principles. The article doesn't explain how it succeeds despite that.
4. Japan's leading political party has ties to the Moonies. That was why Shinzo Abe was assassinated: the assailant was angry because his mother had given all the family's money to the Moonies. And he blamed Abe ... how does that follow?
5. Research into chemicals in breast milk is corrupt and unreliable.
6. Tucker Carlson is evil. Sorry, I already knew that.
7. Maybe now I'll remember who David Foster Wallace is. I'd vaguely heard of him, but if you'd presented the name without context I'd have drawn a blank.
8. I'm missing something by never having heard Morton Feldman's music performed live, only on records.
9. Tolkien's "Ent" is a favorite word for crossword-puzzle makers. It keeps showing up.
Thing I learned from another article on the same subject as a New Yorker article:
1. The Easter Island statues should be called "statues." The word moai is probably inauthentic.
The time it takes to put out a weekly magazine is long enough, and the speed of events is fast enough, that it seems quaint that the issue's current events piece is about Greenland. Now we're talking about the murder of Alex Pretti and the possibly game-changing effect of all those videos on the narrative. My thought on that is, "Once, there was just Abraham Zapruder."
