She sees more than scenery, as he had always known

[sovay]

A quiet evening with cats and lemon ice. There is real snow crusted in the streets outside, glittering under the LED streetlights that look like stage lighting or movie sets, high-definition backlots. greygirlbeast recently mourned the loss of the "baby aspirin light" of sodium-vapor lamps, the smudge-orange light pollution of my childhood. It certainly changes the color of the overcast sky. And the light that reflects through an apartment at night.

1. Steven Moffat on the new season of Sherlock in a post-Brexit, post-Trump world: "If fiction has a role to play in this, and I'm not such a fatuous oaf that I think it really does, I think we have to start saying what being a hero constitutes. Being a hero isn't being bigger, richer, more powerful than somebody else. It's being wiser and kinder . . . I think it's time for the less-of-a-dick Sherlock." My first and totally uncharitable reaction: if Moffat has finally gotten through his head that it is possible for a person to be both a brilliant human being and not a total jerk, then that's no small step in his own character development, since he has appeared embarrassingly impervious to the concept for years. Also, I might actually watch the new season. Or I might just see if my mother still has tapes of Jeremy Brett.

2. Long-form journalism exists and this is one of the things it looks like: Ta-Nehisi Coates' "My President Was Black."

3. The Smithsonian considers how American journalists covered the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Matthew Cheney did something similar a few days after the election. Consensus: our track record is pretty terrible.

4. Oh, good: I'm not the only person wondering where the Democrats collectively went. Anybody got newer information since?

5. Coutesy of moon_custafer: humpback whales breaching to feed from a bubble net or the kin of Leviathan rising at the end of days, your call.

I am listening to a lot of Tanglefoot lately, thanks to ladymondegreen. I did not remember until it came around on the iTunes that I had heard "Vimy" once before, in high school: none of the verses were familiar to me, but the haunting twist of the chorus was suddenly there like a nightmare I'd forgotten. You'll die in Kenora, Billy—you, Jim, in Winnipeg. And I will end my days in Montreal. As a result I have played it about two dozen times since yesterday. I think I must have run into it on the radio; it reminds me of the first time I heard Phil Och's "Crucifixion," which could have haunted me for years with one line and the chorus if my parents hadn't owned almost all of his records on vinyl. For somewhat less spooky reasons, "Awkward Donald" and "Secord's Warning" are also stuck in my head. New music is a good thing.

Comments

[kore]

I totally miss the old lamps, because the LED lights are too bright for my eyes and threaten to give me headaches.

WHERE DID THE DEMS GO INDEED. WTF? Now is the time to fight! No, we're Democrats, now is the time for internal squabbling, idefk.

[sovay]

I totally miss the old lamps, because the LED lights are too bright for my eyes and threaten to give me headaches.

I get headaches from blue LEDs, actually. It's something about the frequency of the flicker, which I can see; it makes it very difficult to be around Hanukkah lights and police cars. I don't have the same problem with other colors, but I don't like them as much as incandescents or neon. Or sodium vapor.

WHERE DID THE DEMS GO INDEED. WTF? Now is the time to fight! No, we're Democrats, now is the time for internal squabbling, idefk.

Here. For people who don't want to squabble internally.

[tb]

The links in #3 are chilling, and #4 is sadly on-point. However depressing they might be, that kind of information is necessary. Thanks for sharing it.

[sovay]

However depressing they might be, that kind of information is necessary. Thanks for sharing it.

You're welcome. I'm glad it's useful to you.

[gwynnega]

My congressman, Adam Schiff, has been pretty great since the election, especially about the Russian angle. But yes, in general Democrats have been way too quiet.

[sovay]

My congressman, Adam Schiff, has been pretty great since the election, especially about the Russian angle.

I'm glad to hear it. I apologize for double-taking at his name; I watched a lot of Law & Order over the years.

But yes, in general Democrats have been way too quiet.

It is inexplicable to me. This is not a situation in which silence leads to gain.

[gwynnega]

For ages I pictured my congressman as the cranky Law & Order DA, but he's been doing a lot of TV interviews lately, which cured me of that!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like "Awkward Donald" very much. If only his namesake was as innocuous.

[sovay]

I like "Awkward Donald" very much. If only his namesake was as innocuous.

I truly refuse to let Trump own the name: I shall go on appreciating all the other Donalds I can.