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Clamor favorite Marian Call’s Grand Tour continues on the West Coast through November and early December. Catch a show (or two)!
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Art and writing vending machines are a thing there should be more of (what better way to use old cigarette machines?). Check out Montreal’s Distroboto aka the zine machine and the Art-o-Mat.
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I wish I’d heard this story a long time ago. → Remembering U.S. Soldiers Who Refused To Kill Native Americans At Sand Creek
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Who knew that figuring out how to unboil an egg could lead to a revolution in cancer treatment (and make “unboil” a word)?
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Setting aside the controversy over the Booker Prize expanding its eligibility to any English-language novel, George Saunders 2017 win for Lincoln in the Bardo is well deserved. See also: George Saunders and Jason Isbell in conversation || George Saunders on life after the Man Booker Prize || A performance excerpt from the novel.
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The ampersand (aka the “commercial and” or “esperluette”) is arguably the most beautiful glyph…this is a nice bit on its history with delightful illustrations. As always, I can’t bring up the ampersand without pointing you to Keith Houston’s short, illuminating series on the character and plug, again, his book Shady Characters.
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Mansplaining is a problematic, perhaps over-used, idea…but two new words stemming from that conversation caught my eye this week: the funny (and equally problematic) mantrum and the significantly more useful, and sadly observable, hepeating.
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Nostalgia’s unexpected etymology explains why it can feel so painful.
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Woman Earns Over $70,000 a Year Showing Her Feet on Instagram.
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Today is National Cat Day in the U.S. (but why limit yourself?), a day intended to “celebrate cats and help them to find forever homes.” They’ve even got a blog with “think pieces on life with felines.” See also: 20 Ways to Celebrate National Cat Day || the “Purr-fect Purr-sonalities” photo contest. But for my allergies, I agree with Mark Twain, who wrote, “If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”