Delaminating from ergonomic chair

[sovay]

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 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. 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.

Comments

[choco_frosh]

(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]

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 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".

[sovay]

Portland Gale I'm not sure about but they definitely do weird covers of traditional sea songs.

I probably own their complete discography.

[sovay]

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.

That makes perfect sense. I had not previously encountered the phrase. The opposite of psychogeography: space without a soul.

I would like to enjoy a pint of Runaway Pond after dancing the Portland Gale.

I can totally see you doing that.