A friend recently told me about the term “helium hands,” which describes the phenomenon of repeatedly raising your hand to volunteer for work even when you already have a full plate. It reminded me of how, when I was in school, my peers and I often boasted/complained about all our commitments. We hated it, but we kept adding to our workload, because it was proof that we were doing things, that we were working hard, that we cared.
That’s a convoluted way of saying I’ve been busy, I’ve been overwhelmed, and that’s why I haven’t written to you since October. I will not list off my commitments, because that would be bragging, but they did include an economic development advisory committee for my city’s newly-elected mayor and the publication of a new book.
I’ve written and discarded several drafts of this newsletter in that time. One was about my tangential connection to Louisiana’s disastrous vaccine reluctance campaign. One was about a friend who was the victim of an assault by motor vehicle, and has been charged with a felony for scratching the paint on the way down. I’ve failed to write several more. None of them seem relevant. You know what’s going down. I don’t need to list it off for you.
Interesting
A roundup of times when someone’s first impression of the United States had major geopolitical significance: Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb, Chinese political theorist Wang Huning, and Boris Yeltsin.
From 2023, a discussion of depression from the perspective of a neuropsych researcher experiencing his research subject first-hand.
Bad
- History of the lead/crime hypothesis in the Pacific Northwest, meet the industry that will be generating true crime podcasts for the 2nd half of this century.
- Hey, remember Jade Helm? Yeah. As they say, every accusation is a confession.
- Hey, remember Syria?
- Hey, remember the US postal service? Not for long, you don’t.
Secretly Ironic 