sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2020-05-21 03:52 pm

Delaminating from ergonomic chair

Yesterday was dominated by an escalating adventure in telehealth, which I am pleased to report ended so far happily with the prescription of a steroid rinse by an ENT who did not, like the GP with whom I had spoken earlier that afternoon, tell me in the same sentence that they did not believe I had COVID-19 but because I was experiencing a respiratory issue I should come in to the COVID-19 clinic in Somerville, which for many reasons including logic I did not want to do. Cautiously, it seems to be helping with the problem, which is nice. Today has also contained too many phone conversations and will have to contain at least one other, but then I am hoping to leave the house for the first time since the weekend. It is sunny and not freezing and I feel I should take advantage of it, in case a blizzard happens tomorrow. Have some links.

1. Courtesy of [personal profile] handful_ofdust: "How to Tell Whether You've Got Angst, Ennui, or Weltschmerz." I think my neurochemistry naturally generates angst, possibly where most people have melatonin. If there is such a thing as Weltzorn, I suspect I am experiencing it more than -schmerz. The gap between what the world is and what it could be is rather rage-making these days.

2. Courtesy of Diane Duane: socially responsible Force-choking.

3. Some truly great facial takes by Peter Falk. I feel like I'd remember that episode of Columbo based on the seventh still alone.

4. If you want to write about disasters in American history—Massachusetts or New England preferred but not required—the Massachusetts Historical Review is currently reading proposals. I kind of assume the slush pile will be full of molasses flood. And epidemics.

5. [personal profile] spatch said something cogent on the internet and lots of people like it.

I do not know that there is any certain term for the emotion experienced when you discover one of your books selling on eBay for more than twice the cover price, but in terms of the seller, the ever-popular "chutzpah" did float through my head.
choco_frosh: (Default)

[personal profile] choco_frosh 2020-05-21 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
1.: Weltschmerz. The longing for the New England that Cannot Be, ft. more farms, organic farms, Episcopalians, Episcopalians who also go to cons, snow, and belltowers; and with less urban sprawl (Southern NE) / geography-of-nowhere-development (everywhere, but esp. N.NE), and invasive species.

2. That is excellent.

4. Also probably the Dark Day, the Runaway Pond, the Portland Gale, at least one of the attempts to invade Canada, and many many fires.
[ I looked through Wikipedia list of "Disasters by State". It included the Maine Flood of 1987! I was actually there for that! ]
ETA: Yes, and DEFINITELY epidemics. You could do an entire issue just on measles, smallpox, scarlet fever, Spanish 'flu, AIDS, and Lord Jeffry Amherst in New England.

5. That is also excellent.

when you discover one of your books selling on eBay for more than twice the cover price
As is this. Except for the bit where you wish you'd asked for a bigger advance.
Edited 2020-05-21 23:17 (UTC)
choco_frosh: Konstanz, imaginary depiction in a map of the Swabian War, 1500 (Costenitz)

[personal profile] choco_frosh 2020-05-22 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
(What do you mean by geography-of-nowhere?)

That's the title of a 1993 book, but also used by people (like me) who haven't actually read the thing to refer to what it describes: the way that strip development and suburbia have created areas that all look exactly like each other, and that don't really feel like places. There is no There there.

I can't decide if these are the names of bands, traditional jigs, or beers.
They WOULD be excellent names for all of those! I would like to enjoy a pint of Runaway Pond after dancing the Portland Gale.
choco_frosh: (Default)

[personal profile] choco_frosh 2020-05-22 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Dark Day is clearly an apocalyptic metal band. Runaway Pond is a semi-professional contradance group from Vermont. Portland Gale I'm not sure about but they definitely do weird covers of traditional sea songs.
I'll let [personal profile] teenybuffalo deal with the jigs.
Dark Day is a of course a porter; Runaway Pond is either a traditional English bitter with a twist or a weird summer brew with, Idunno, lingonberries or something in it; and Portland Gale bills itself as "A Winter IPA".
gwynnega: (Basil Rathbone)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2020-05-22 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad the steroid rinse seems to be helping.

Those Peter Falk images are great.

I just discovered my Aqueduct book selling for $33.87 on Abebooks!
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)

[personal profile] sholio 2020-05-22 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
I once saw one of my self-pubbed graphic novels on Amazon's used book marketplace for over $100. Good luck with that, I thought, especially since the same book was also simultaneously being sold on Amazon (by me) for $12.
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2020-05-22 01:35 pm (UTC)(link)
That's pretty amazing about [personal profile] spatch's tweet! Does he usually pick up thousands of likes like that?! (It's very apt and deserves the love.)

The socially responsible force choking made me laugh!

The idea of making an immuno-weakened person check in at the Covid clinic is just ... I'm very glad another solution was found and that the steroid seems to be helping.

I wonder if anyone will write about the dam breaking on the Mill River--that was a good Massachusetts disaster. (I'm not in a nonfiction-writing mood, so it won't be me, but...)
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2020-05-22 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[personal profile] teenybuffalo first told me the story when she took me swimming there. She said you could still find pieces of pottery from a ceramics factory that got destroyed.