Notions: John Dickerson's Blog

Ant Superhighway

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:18:30 -0500

Death's Bloom

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:09:27 -0500

"From 1913 to 1971 five thousand one hundred and twenty one mentally ill patients were cremated on the grounds of the Oregon State Hospital. Their remains were sealed in copper canisters. The canisters were stored in the hospital's basement until the 1970s when they were moved to a memorial vault underground. The vault was subjected to periodic floods. In 2000 they were removed from their institutional crypt, placed on plain pine shelves in a storeroom, and were left virtually forgotten until David Masiel heard of their existence and photographed them."

Amazing Design Observer slideshow
(via @juliaturner)

Kids Movie List Part 2

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:19:39 -0500

Here are some more movies to be added to my previous list. This list includes movies I forgot the first time around and suggestions by respected readers. (I've cut out some of their suggestions using the filter of my two kids who didn't like the movies. I've also used our filter which is capricious, picky and prone to cause arguments:

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Nanny McPhee

Bolt

Gremlins

Bambi

Lady and the Tramp

Trumpet of the Swan

Charlotte's Web

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Land That Time Forgot

Mary Poppins

Cars

The circus

Bringing up baby

What's up doc

Hello dolly

Ratatouille

The Last Mimzy

Moongirl.

Flushed Away!

Ponyo

Red Balloon

Princess Mononoke

Porco Rosso

Naussica

Valley of the Wind

Spirited Away

Kiki's Delivery Service

The Four Feathers (the original)

The Court Jester (Danny Kayeing)

Errol Flynn Robin Hood

The Prizoner of Zenda.

That's Entertainment

The Yearling

How to stay on task in the Internet age

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:03:07 -0500

"Concentrate every minute on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can-- if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that's all even the gods can ask of you."

Marcus Aurelius on internet addiction (A.D. 121-180)

Gabfest Live Show in New York

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:11:35 -0500

Our podcast, taped live at Housingworks cafe bookstore can be found here.

Movies to Watch with the Kids Part 1

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:10:27 -0500

Update: Second part of the list is here.

Every Saturday night we watch a movie with the kids. It's their one television event during the week and getting the pick right is tough.The whole family agrees that Looney Tunes are our collective favorite but we can't do that every week.

I wish someone had given me a list of films that appeal to kids under 10. Here are some films that we've liked. It's a very fast list. The films are all pretty safe (not a lot of excessive suspense that our daughter can't handle and not a lot of cheap jokes and attitude that sap the creative impulse). There are lots of films we've seen that aren't on this list and some I've forgotten.

I'll add to this list later as I think of films that worked. If you've got your own suggestions please send them my way:

Animal Crackers
That Darn Cat

Music Man

101 Dalmations

Aristocats

Over the Hedge

Apple Dumpling Gang

Escape from Witch Mountain

My Friend Totoro

Snow Buddies

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Horton Hears a Who

Finding Nemo

Babe

E.T.

The Iron Giant

The Princess Bride (almost didn't make the list for the rodents of unusual size scene which put our daughter on the ceiling)

Singin' in the Rain

The Sound of Music

The Original Rock Climbers

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:05:18 -0500

I'm not a huge fan of the captions but the book these pictures are from is amazing.

Boy at the Window - Richard Wilbur

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:56:06 -0500

Seeing the snowman standing all alone
In dusk and cold is more than he can bear.
The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare
A night of gnashings and enormous moan.
His tearful sight can hardly reach to where
The pale-faced figure with bitumen eyes
Returns him such a God-forsaken stare
As outcast Adam gave to paradise.

The man of snow is, nonetheless, content,
Having no wish to go inside and die.
Still, he is moved to see the youngster cry.
Though frozen water is his element,
He melts enough to drop from one soft eye
A trickle of the purest rain, a tear
For the child at the bright pane surrounded by
Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear.

via Poemhunter

Slaves to defunct economists.

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:20:45 -0500

The Economist has a reference of economic terms I just found while looking up this Keynes quote "Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

Find it here

Inventory

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:10:52 -0500

Inventory: a cold right typing hand, an empty mug of tea, an overturned Blackberry probably blinking. "Love you Dady" valentine wrapped in iPod buds pink as the day it was born. Two pair of reading glasses. One pair on my face. Another set of iPod buds. An overturned CD covered by pens. So many no good pens never where I need them. Mail, two monitors, bad punctuation. Two computers, a printer, a keyboard illuminated by a lamp from my childhood with Indians on it. (They must be cold with so little on sitting so close to the rattling window.) Three remote controls and no control at all. Newspaper. Folders. Sunflower seeds a tiny skull Mom bought me in the English countryside. Index cards. More pens. A binder clip the color of mustard in cartoons. Legal pads--yellow and white. In my ears a D chord at the end of a song and on the periphery of my vision a blur of books and one cold window.

Morning Flakes

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:45:00 -0500

This is the top of one of the stakes we use for our tomato plants. Is there a name for this kind of snow? It looks like the cotton in those shopping mall holiday displays.

No need for a crash pad

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:08:16 -0500

Perfecto from Mike Call on Vimeo.

Professions with daily measurement

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:33:02 -0500

I've been thinking about those professions where your self -worth is given a number as a part of your job. TV people have ratings. Authors get Amazon rankings. Performers count the people in the seats at each performance. Waiters get tips which are supposed to have some correlation to the quality of service. These determine how much these various people earn but more to the point of my interest, they also inform the way people think about themselves. For authors, a good Amazon ranking can make or ruin their day. So what other professions have this quality?

I've also asked this question on my facebook page.

Susan Orlean on the writing that comes with a surprise

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:49:27 -0500

"If a story ends up just like you imagined it would, you've done something wrong. It should surprise the reader AND the writer."

Susan Orlean made this great point on Twitter the other day. It's what I've always known as a variation of the "blue book" phenomenon. During college exams while answering essay questions in those little blue books an idea would present itself and surprise me. It would be one of my best ideas. Usually it would come a little out of order so I'd have to draw big arrows to the portion I'd written before where the idea should logically sit.

This surprise is also a big barrier to writing. If I've been working on a story for a little while and the surprise hasn't happened I start to worry that it never will arrive. I put out cookies and milk. I promise to be nice. Once it does, it's this enormous gift that gets me through the rest of the process.

Noted, Without Noteworthiness, by Rob Walker

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:48:03 -0500

"I think this is the most significant moment of the past 10 years. That is because it is an event that embodies so many 21st-century events: Something is happening, somewhere, and it has no particular effect on you whatsoever. The latest details in a moment."

From The Awl