Thom's Link Emporium - 11 February 2022
Links for the Week
Cancel Culture on Campus. I’ve thought for a long time that the actual experience of college/university students is very different from what the media choose to portray. I mean, I’m middle aged so I don’t know a load of young people, but the ones I do know never seem to be these fragile people who can’t possibly hear any word that hasn’t been vetted. They seem like tough, thoughtful people with a good deal more empathy than previous generations.
Another way of saying this is that cats are still-wild animals that depend on us for food and shelter. And it is precisely their innate wildness, bundled into small packages of cuteness residing in our homes, that make cat pictures the social phenomenon it is. The best cat pictures and jokes negotiate this tension between the wild and the domesticated. Cats getting stuck in the blinds or atop a door. Cats swatting a glass of water onto the floor. Cats dipping their paws into the fish tank. Cats sleeping on a keyboard. Cats poking their heads in toilet bowls. These behaviors are not unexpected for anyone who has lived with cats, but they continue to tickle our funny bone as they mock us for our inability to master their nature.
Basically, because cats are the best. I mean, you can have a little tiny tiger live in your house, and it’s haughty and beautiful and ridiculous. Here are my tiny tigers to add to the cat picture glut.
Are Jews a race? After Whoopi Goldberg’s comments on the holocaust, this is a good article on the complexities of Jewish identity (especially in relation to the black/white race distinctions of the US). Added to this, I recommend David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, which is an excellent polemic on the ways in which Jews are rarely offered the same protections as similar minority groups.
North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet. It’s a relatively easier internet to take down compared to other countries, but impressive nonetheless.
Why comedians stopped being funny. Excellent piece by Dorian Lynskey. It’s framed around Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce, both of whom I suspect would have said some pretty awful things had they lived a bit longer.
Top 30 Manic Street Preachers's songs ranked. Obviously there’s some disagreement to be had here, but as a teenage Manics fan, I wouldn’t argue with the top three.
Every Episode of a Television Show Written by Julian Fellowes:
RICH LADY: Young Hot Rich Guy is going to visit! And now I’m going to make a comment about women that will land poorly with our twenty-first-century viewing audience.
SLIGHTLY LESS ATTRACTIVE BUT STILL PRETTY ENOUGH FOR ALL NORMAL PURPOSES YOUNGER SISTER: And I’ll counter that with a viewpoint that there is no conceivable way I would have held unless I was a time traveler, but will show me to be in alignment with the viewing audience’s core beliefs.
RICH LADY’S HUSBAND: (popping in) I’m just popping in to make a blanket statement about race. So I can learn a lesson later in this episode. See you at dinner! (leaves, almost bumping into Household Servant, entering)
Now Listening
Chocolate Hills by Khraungbin and Leon Bridges. Turns out that the combination of the two sounds an awful lot like Frank Ocean. Which is definitely a good thing. (Spotify, Apple Music)
Now Reading
Following on from Get Back, I’m reading Lennon Remembers - an interview from 1970 in which he eviscerates almost everyone that he worked with during his time in The Beatles. It’s an excellent exercise in bridge building that only Lennon would be likely to attempt. He still likes Ringo though, because who doesn’t love Ringo? It’s available as a book, but you can also just read it on the Rolling Stone website (part 2).
Now Watching
What went wrong with Drone Delivery? Remember when we were all going to get our parcels delivered by little drones that would drop stuff on our lawns? Well, turns out that working out how to do the final delivery, as well as the fact that drones can’t fly in a lot of places, means that getting a human to bring your stuff in a van is still the most viable option. Our drone delivery dreams will need to wait for another time.
Quote
Their musical group was formed in John’s image and driven ever onward by his restlessness, but without Paul he would have upset too many people too many times to make the progress they both craved.
Mark Lewisohn, Tune In, on John Lennon and Paul McCartney