Category: thought fodder

ideas thought fodder

What I Don’t Understand About Retirement Plans

By Mary | by Mary

Please forgive me. This is going to be one of those blog posts that reproduces a bunch of screenshots from a Mastodon conversation, kinda like the articles that are a reproduction of Twitter screenshots, but I hope to use them as context for additional thoughts based on the conversation. It started with an article about Milton Friedman called “Ideas Lying Around,” written and posted by Cory Doctorow. [https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae] From which I quoted a paragraph about…

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family observations reading thought fodder

When Does a Book Become “Literature” or a “Classic”?

By Mary | by Mary

Hubby and I stopped at Savers yesterday. We like to pop in now and again, a habit that has carried over from our business, when we were looking for mid-century modern housewares and décor to clean up for resale. My favorite part of the store, no surprise here, is the book section. I typically wind up finding (relatively) current fiction to purchase. Yesterday’s find was “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell, a book that was recommended…

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history ideas pragmatic historian thought fodder

Now & Then: A Useful History Podcast

By Mary | by Mary

One of the most important uses of history is to use it to work ourselves out of predicaments we are facing RIGHT NOW. It’s easy to assume that because history is about what happened in the past, we can set it aside. That it has nothing to say to us now because conditions were different in the past. Except that humanity seems to cycle through the same sorts of challenges even when presented with what…

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challenge family projects thought fodder tips

Being on Camera

By Mary | by Mary

Being on camera is not natural for most people, particularly those of us who grew up without constantly being attached to a phone camera. When I was a kid, film was expensive to process and most rolls came with only 24 shots, so you didn’t want to waste them on goofy or unimportant subjects, like pictures of food or a cat playing with a toy. Also, parents weren’t likely to let their kids “play” with…

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ideas reading thought fodder time

Jill-ohnny Come Lately

By Mary | by Mary

Just call me “Jill-ohnny Come Lately.” I finally got around to reading Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” and I loved it. The copyright date is 2013 and it’s been made into “A Major Motion Picture,” as my second-hand, thrift store copy announces from the cover. It takes time to make major motion pictures, and while I’ve heard of the movie, I haven’t yet seen it. I wonder if I will like it as much as…

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