Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday Morning Reading for Father’s Day. There’s no real theme to this week’s edition. Which is fitting. We used to joke that my Dad had a new hobby every six months. He did. But that just demonstrated his endless curiosity about the world around us. I think I got some of that tossed into my mix. So here’s a pot-pourri of topics to share.

Humans aren’t mentailly ready for a lot of things. So called Artificial Intelligence is certainly one of them. Thor Benson tells us why that might be the case.

Nicholas Casey tells a great spy story in The Spy Who Called Me.

Barbara Kinsolver is a great writer. Her latest book Demon Copperfield brings a dive into Dickens for a tale from Appalachia. Lisa Allardice has written a terrific profile on Kingsolver.

Pennsylvania apparently is one of the key stomping grounds for the Christian Right’s desire to spin us back to the dark ages. Frederick Clarkson gives us an excllent look into this.

Why Is Everyone Watching TV With the Subtitles On? Devin Gordon offers up some answers. Mine’s simple: Selfish stupid filmmaking.

What came first the chicken or the egg? Well that age-old riddle leaves the rest of the egg-laying species out of the question. Intriguing piece by Nisha Zahid.

And while we’re talking about the riddles that plague humans about the non-humans sharing our planet, Ari Daniel highlights an article in Cell that says an Octopuses can tweak the RNA in their brains to adjust to warmer and cooler waters.

This is a scary and sad tale. Gina Dimuro tells us about Blanche Monnier. Her parents locked her in her room for 25 years after she fell in love with the wrong kind of guy.

If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.

Sunday Morning Reading

Charisma might be the theme of some of this week’s edition of Sunday Morning Reading. Or maybe it’s our fasicnation with folks who seem to marshall it for mischief. The theme runs through a range of topics from Artificial Intelligence to the media with a few other subjects tossed on the reading pile. Speaking of charisma and mischief marshaling, these articles all came my way as we were absorbing the news of the Trump indictment this week. I wrote a little something about that here.

Om Malik stands as much in dismay as I do at how much time the media spotlights charlatans in Media and Monsters.

Joe Zadeh takes a look at the The Secret History and Strange Future of Charisma. It features this quote from Ernst Glöckner.

“I knew: This man is doing me violence — but I was no longer strong enough. I kissed the hand he offered and with choking voice uttered: ‘Master, what shall I do?’”

We’ve witnessed quite a few falls from grace this week. None more glaring than CNN’s Chris Licht. Mark Jacob in the Courier breaks down the difference between platforming and journalism. The latter Licht’s lickspittling helped slide further down the reputation damage scale.

Morality is declining. That seems to be something most believe at the moment. Data says otherwise according to Mariana Lenharo.

Jeff Jarvis followed a court case in which a couple of lawyers had to own up for submitting nonexistant citations and cases created by ChatGPT.

John Warner lays out an excellent long read on why Speed and Efficiency are Not Human Values. Yes, it’s AI related but you’ll also find a little Korsakov, Tolstoy and Prince in the mix.

James Grissom claims he received a phone call from playwright Tennessee Williams, who asked Grissom to “be my witness.” After a meetiing with Williams, Grissom takes the names Williams gives him and proceeds to follow the playwright’s wish: “I would like you to ask these people if I ever mattered.” Grissom turned it into a calling card, a book and a career. Lots of folks doubt the whole thing. Helen Shaw tackles the story in Did This Writer Actually Know Tennesee Williams?

David Todd McCarthy takes on our fascination with the unprecdented in America Grows Up.

Sabrina Imbler tells us the story of The Strange Case of the Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits.

And to end this week’s edition of Sunday Morning Reading here’s a piece by Melissa Cunningham about Jenny Graves. “Why are we still singing about Adam and Eve when there’s so much gorgeous science out thre is the world that explains our origins.” That’s the question Jenny Graves, an evolutionary geneticist, asked herself on her way to creating a libretto based on Joseph Hayden’s The Creation. Melissa Cunningham tells the story

If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some complex, challenging, and excellent writing to share with you today covering everything from big picture politics to the small, media meanderings and meltdowns, and some interesting tech analysis heading into Apple’s big mixed reality headset announcement at its WorldWide Developer Conference tomorrow. Hope you find the suggestions fascinating. I do.

Chilling read. Ryan Busse, a former gun executive talks to ProPublica’s Corey G. Johnson about the danger of increasing radicalization in the industry.

The subhead for this piece, “The view from nowhere came from somewhere” should have been the title instead of The Invention of Objectivity. Regardless Darrell Hartman lays out a good read about how “objectivity” came to the New York Times. Subjectively speaking pretending that journalism can be unbiased is not a bias I subscribe to.

David Todd McCarthy walks along The Edge of Defeat in today’s political battles between progressives and establishment loyalists. Note: McCarthy is also setting up a new publication focusing on his political writings and musings called Rome Magazine. Also worth your time while the world burns.

Peter Turchin in The Atlantic adapts some of his book End Times (a good read) into an article called America is Headed Toward Collapse. He argues that history can show us how to muck our way through our present day “discord” as we have done twice before. I’m not sure history is going to be so kind this time around.

Anyone paying attention to the goings on at CNN leading up to and following the recent “town hall” featuring the conman known as the former president will find this behind the scenes feature by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic a fascinating read. The title certainly points to where it’s going: Inside the Meltdown at CNN.

Big pictures are complex. Neil Theise’s book Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Concsicousness, and Being tackles some of that complexity. In this article he lays out five key insights from his book.

Smart People are Falling for Stupid Lies by Kathryn Joyce in Vanity Fair is another article that racks the big picture political focus down to the view inside local battles in a specific county. These type of articles are enormously helpful in shedding light on the fact that the problems we face aren’t just top down but also bottom up, and how both feed the frenzy. Here’s another one from February in Politico about Ottawa Country, Michigan.

Om Malik tosses a bit of reality into the hype fire surrounding Apple’s headest to be unveiled tomorrow.

One more piece on Apple’s upcoming headset. David Pierce at the Verge says If Apple Wants Its Headset To Win, It Needs to Reinvent the App .I don’t agree with some of the things David lays out, but his central thesis is spot on.

If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.

Sunday Morning Reading

I’m kicking back this Memorial Day weekend and reading a bit less on the Internet. So this Sunday Morning Reading edition doesn’t feature articles of interest. Instead it features links to a few folks I follow for their writing and creativity. I’d recommend you take a look at their stuff as well.

Stan Stewart is a musician, poet, and does some nice photoraphy on his site Muz4Now. He’s always putting out something worth your time.

David Todd McCarthy is a writer I’ve come to know since jumping on to Mastodon last year. He’s opinionated, always fun, and occasionally infuriating. But you’ll come away glad you walked in the door. You can find him on Medium.

Jason Kottke is one of the original bloggers from back in the day when everyone was asking what a blog was. If you’re looking for something/anything that might pique your interest, you’ll certainly find it at kottke.org.

If you’re interested in tech, especially Apple tech as well as some interesting takes on some cultural things surrounding us, you might want to check out M.G. Siegler on 500ish.com.

If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday Morning Reading to share. If you’re new to this now regular feature on Wicked Stage, you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. As always, it’s a varied collection of links. Some I find fun. Some informative. Some just weird. Regardless they caught my attention and I hope they catch yours.

The Debt Limit is Just One of American’s Six Worst Traditions. Lots of talk about the US Debt Limit debate at the moment. Here’s a look from John Schwarz and others at The Debt Limit and five other silly/stupid/bad political traditions in the US. Bet you’ll learn something from this one.

The Story Behind the Chicago Newspaper That Bought a Bar. Great read about a newspaper’s investigative unit and the lengths they went to exposing some Chicago backroom political shenanigans. By Andy Wright.

Why The Supreme Court is Blind to Corruption. By Randall Eliason in the NY Times.

And while we’re talking about the Supreme Court. How about an article from Gillian Brockell discussing the only impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice in an article called: Can a Supreme Court Justice Be Impeached? Meet ‘Old Bacon Face.’

The Battle of Beach Rowdies, B-Girls, and Disorderly Women. An excerpt from Robert Loerzel’s series on The Coolest Spot in Chicago: A History of Green Mill Gardens and the Beginnings of Uptown. (You can find much more on his site by following his links. Well worth your time.)

Rudy Giuliani, Timothy McVeigh, and Sexual Abuse. Teri Canfield weaves a few threads together, that should remind us all just how tangled this twisted mess we’re dealing with today really is.

The Song That Spawned the Four Chords of Pop by Tim Coffman. Fun stuff.

This Little-known Rule Shapes Parking in America. Cities Are Reversing It. By Nathaniel Myerson. “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…”

Apple announced some very interesting new accessibility features coming later this year. John Vorhees of MacStories did an interview with David Niemeijer of AssistiveWare, a company that makes augmentative and alternative communication apps for the iPhone and the iPad about how these kind of features can beneift real-world users.

Book Banning is all the rage. Not for the first time. Check out Book Bans Soared in the 70’s, too. The Supreme Court Stepped In. By Anthony Aycock.

Have a good week.

Sunday Morning Reading

Sunday Morning Reading was a regular feature back in my previous blogging days. I thought I’d continue it here. The idea originally came about because I used to love to read multiple newspapers on Sunday mornings. Some of you might remember those days when Sunday morning newspapers were chock-a-block with stories of all kinds, featuring information (we now call it content) on a variety of topics. Newspapers used to save up their best stuff for the Sunday edition.

DALL E 2023 05 13 10 50 03 newspapers stacked on a porch table in black and white

Well, the Internet has replaced all of that. But I still do my Sunday morning reading. So this feature is nothing more, nothing less than a series of links to items and writers (with occasional commentary) I find interesting, informative, and indicative of things we are or should be thinking of in this moment. Typically I’ve discovered this in the week prior. Sometimes I actually do on Sunday mornings. For better or worse, the Internet has turned me into a prolific sharer of things I find interesting and here we are.

Note, I read a lot of different sources. Some with opinions I agree with. Some with opinions I disagree with. So you’ll find a bit of both here. I happen to believe in and enjoy exploring writers, opinions, and subjects that I disagree with. I think you should too. In fact I encourage it.

So on with this first Act 3 edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

Ben Franklin Would Have Loved Bluesky. Annalee Newitz’s take on the moment in social media. The headline skewers what the article is actually about. Worth a read if social media is your thing.

The Epic Battle No One Wanted, Or Asked For by David Todd McCarty. McCarty is a writer I’ve gotten to know since signing up on Mastodon“>Mastodon. Glad I did. His stuff is always thought provoking and often fun. Like this piece on The Magic And Mystery of Pommes Frites.

The Hedonic Treadmill – Are We Forever Chasing Rainbows by Seph Fontane Pennock A bit academic, but it’s about the temporary joys of happiness.

A Guilty Ex-President. Lots of folks don’t like David French and also don’t like that he’s writing for the NY Times. I don’t agree with a lot of his thinking, but when I want my thinking challenged I’m typically glad he’s writing about a subject I’ve been thinking on. His takes on religion and the law go far beneath the surface spewing we so much of these days.

The Billion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme That Hooked Warren Buffett And The U.S. Treasury by Ariel Sabar. A great story in and of itself, but viewed with a wider lens says so much about where we are.

Deskilling On The Job from zephoria. If the age of AI an interesting look at the future of work.

The Last Gamble of Tokyo Joe A Chicago mob story in Chicago Magazine by Dan O’Sullivan

Students’ Understanding Of History and Civics Is Worsening by Donna St. Geroge in the Washington Post. Well, given that this has been the plan for a generation or so, I guess it’s a good thing we’re discovering that the plan is working to our detriment.

And since this is a Mother’s Day edition of Sunday Morning Reading here’s a link to an origin story about Mother’s Day from Olivia B. Waxman in Time