Reading for the Week of 4/17/2022

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.

Books

Finished

• Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H. W. Brands. I don’t know what it is about FDR but I could read about him all day. This must be the third or fourth biography I’ve read of him. I think the next one I will tackle in the James MacGregor Burns 2-volume biography of Roosevelt.

In Progress

• George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll. George Marshall was mentioned so much and so highly in Brands’ biography of Roosevelt that I decided I had to read a biography of him.

Articles/posts

• The Art of Letting Go by Robert Breen (blog, 4/21/2022). I bumped this one up to the top even though I read it on Thursday evening because it is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. I highly recommend this thoughtful piece on life.
• Talking Talkies  by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/17/2022). I missed my Golden Age of Hollywood post this week.
• Woody Guthrie’s Notebooks (Notebook Storie, 4/19/2022). Anything about notebooks catches my eye.
• Two April Appreciations: Beach, Schell  by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/18/2022)
• Two New Possibilities for the ‘Times’ by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/20/2022). Some interesting suggestions for The New York Times
• MacOS Setup in 2022 for Minimal Mouse interaction by Decoded Bytes (Medium, 3/3/2022). Since I’ve been trying to use Vim mode everywhere, I thought this would be an interesting read.
• How To Balance Fun and Ambition by Ian Frazier (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). This line resonated with me: “You must balance fun and ambition, and care passionately and dispassionately at the same time.”
• Field Testing My Cheechako by Stephanie Joyce (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• The Greatest Game Ever Played by Alex Hutchinson (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Is This What John Denver Meant By “Dancing with the Mountains”? by Bill Gifford (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• There’s No Better Place to Flirt Than Outside by Allison Braden (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Take a Flying Leap by Bruce Handy (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Let’s Turn the faun Back On by Mary Turner (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). Resonated quote from this one: “Fun, unlike happiness, is an action, something we can actually pursue”
• A Winslow Homer for the 21st Century by Susan Tallman (Atlantic, May 2022). Homer’s name came up once or twice in Shirer’s memoir so I was interesting in learning more.
• Student-Loan Reparations by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/21/2022). I came out of college with $16,000 in student loan debt, which is far less than what graduates 30+ years later find themselves with. I managed to pay off all my debt. Still, I’m not sure what the WSJ editorial board is so upset about. The government has bailed out banks, airlines, to say nothing of other countries. Why not help out with student debt. It helps everyone in the long run.
• Framing: In Honor of Eric Boehlert by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/6/2022). More in James Fallows continuing series on the “framing” of news stories in the media.
• Writer Samuel R. Delaney Reading in His Library (NY Times, 4/21/2022). Chip Delany and libraries in one piece!
• Escaping from ‘Flatland’ – by James Fallows by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/14/2022)
• Bring on the Pitch Clock! – by Joe Posnanski – JoeBlogs by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 4/19/2022). After seeing them in action in the minor leagues, Joe is in favor of pitch clocks. I’m still a skeptic. Introducing a clock on any kind into a clockless sport is a slippery slope. I’ll have more to say on my ideas for fixing baseball in a post in early May.
• Revolt in Disney’s Florida Kingdom – WSJ by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/2022). I’ve got to wonder: is going after big business–from which both parties get enormous amounts of funding–a sound strategy? If a corporation is treated by law as a “person,” why can’t it have an opinion?
• Alexandria home prices got boost near housing projects, study shows by Marissa L. Lang (Washington Post, 4/22/2022)
• Apollo 16 astronaut reflects on life and God on landing anniversary by Earl Swift (Washington Post, 4/21/2022). An interesting look at the dramatic transformation in Duke’s belief system from the time he roamed the surface of the moon to decades later.
• Obsidian Publish Improvements & Task Management Tips by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/23/2022). The Paste Image Rename plug-in caught my attention this week.
• How to Fix Quantum Computing Bugs – Scientific American by Zaria Nazario (Scientific American, May 2022). I have to admit that while I have a fairly good handle of traditional error correction functionality, as well as the basics of quantum entanglement, this article pass the bounds of my ability to understand the mechanics of quantum error correction.
• Can Sanctions Really Stop Putin? by The Editorial Board (NY Times, 4/22/2022). What are the limits of sanctions and how long should they last?
• Why Did We Stop Believing That People Can Change? by Rebecca Solnit (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Reading this, I thought of that article on Charlie Duke above, and how much he had changed.
• Covid Drugs Save Lives But Americans Can’t Get Then by Zeynep Tufekci (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• How a Recession Might–and Might Not–Happen by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Isn’t there a joke about never getting a straight answer from economists?
• Democrats, You Can’t Ignore Culture Wars Any Longer by Jamelle Bouie (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• What Makes a Good Job Good by Peter Coy (NY Times, 4/22/2022). It will be interesting to see what metrics are ultimately used to measure this.
• What You Don’t Know About Amazon by Moira Weigel (NY Times, 4/22/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 22-23, 2022.