Advertising, Motherhood, Biology, Beatles, Butchery
The Age Of Innocence Is Over
Nick Parker | On Advertising | 5th May 2016
Chumminess is out. Artisan is in. Brands: Whatever you do, you must be seen to care deeply about doing it. “The Artisan Era will not be chatty. It tends to the earnest, often mixing a sort of po-faced mindfulness with an obsessive geekiness over details. With a bit of luck, crisp packets will stop wanting to be your best friend. But it’s only a matter of time before some bank or other starts telling its customers they’ve ‘curated’ a ‘small batch’ of ‘pop-up’ current accounts” (635 words)
The Case For Motherhood
Jean Kim | American Scholar | 5th November 2015
What can you say to a mother who does not want her baby? “Those who work in a psych ward are no stranger to irrational, disturbing thoughts. But those who choose to work in a women’s unit tend to be maternal types. We’re a sisterhood helping others face the vicissitudes of the feminine gender role. Somehow still, postpartum depression is disproportionately jarring. It seems like the last feminine taboo, stronger than crack babies or neglect: a mother hating her newborn child” (3,100 words)
Sean Carroll On Biology
Jo Marchant | Five Books | 6th May 2016
Expert discussion of the best books on “the science of life at all scales”, including works by Horace Freeland Judson, Adrian Desmond, Pat Shipman, Francois Jacob, David Quammen. “Unlike physics, where matter behaves in a very regular way under so many different conditions, biology doesn’t necessarily have laws. It more has tendencies, and we’re trying to figure out what those tendencies are. Whether it’s molecules or species, some things are more important than others” (3,500 words)
Did Litigation Kill The Beatles?
Stan Soocher | ABA Journal | 1st May 2016
A legal history of The Beatles. They generated “not only a record number of music hits but probably more legal disputes than any other music group before or since”. Brian Epstein was a rotten business manager; Apple Corps bled millions; Allen Klein was bought off for $4.2m but spent another 10 years suing George Harrison. The band “found themselves on the losing side of battles over nearly every aspect of their business”. It’s amazing they had the time to focus on music at all (3,500 words)
The Terrible Truth In My Family History
Cal Flyn | The Australian | 23rd April 2016
A writer goes in search of her great-great-great uncle, celebrated in his native Scotland as a great Australian explorer — and finds that he was the “Butcher of Gippsland”, a mass-murderer bloodthirsty even by the cruellest colonial standards. “The official death toll is only a fraction of the true total. It was inhuman, what they did to my people. Killed them. Massacred them. Tortured them. Raped them. Murdered them. Your relative. He decimated my people. And he got away with it” (2,600 words)
Video of the day: London Forge
What to expect:
Documentary. Making a knife at Blenheim Forge in Peckham, London. Music by Schubert (2’38”)
Thought for the day
The comprehension of truth calls for higher powers than the defence of error
J.W. von Goethe