Strong Verbs Are Just Better

Music:

I have bought Vika and Linda's self-titled 1994 album, as discussed in last post.



The Mountain Goats, most recent album and those I already own, are in high rotation (as they usually are in December). This year "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me" seems a bit on the nose as a motivational anthem though.

My only other musical development is that I'm working on a morning routine that involves going straight from bed to the shower (difficult, but it used to be my standard and it's the only thing that works) and, regardless of that step, playing music in the bathroom so I maintain a sense of Time. Grace Petrie's Queer as Folk is my main go-to for this purpose.

Speaking of, here is my new go-to Fairytale of New York (the Pogues re-record bugs me because their alternative lyric doesn't scan as well as 'braggart' would, why didn't they think of that? But this one has the objectively perfect solution):



Podcasts Etc:

Magnus Archives: I loved Mg63, The End of the Tunnel - in keeping with my love of both architecture nerdery and stand-alone episodes. I also was really impressed with Mag61: that was a LONG time to hold off on following up on episode 2. Ep 2 remains my hands-down favourite, largely because it didn't reveal any big bad. After a series and a bit I am okay with further development, and pleased it was fascinatingly inconclusive. Mag62, meanwhile, did nothing to derail my decision that Gertrude Robinson/Mary Keay shall be my rarepair of choice. I'm obviously not daft enough to get into fic when I'm this far behind, but if I ever catch up... that's where I'm headed.

Paradise Lost: After Satan's stupid goodness we did not proceed immediately to Fruit, but rather to a fabulous interlude of Satan dancing a seductive snake-dance, licking the floor (shameful! also kinky!) and flattering Eve, who is an absolute delight in her mixed sensibleness and egotism.

Slightly Foxed: I finished the Charles and Mary Lamb episode and loved it.

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Some links:

Joe Vaughan (The MERL), Why do we give each other socks? And other important questions. It's possible that no one is giving me socks this year and I'm not sure I'm okay with that.

I've been trying to avoid breaking news this year, but these are articles covering complex news issues in interesting depth:

Anna Krien (The Age), Sailors on the Jag Annand and Anastasia languish while Australia's coal dispute with China heats up. I'm wondering if the China v Aus trade war is responsible for the fact that I keep finding Aus (probably - labelled Aus/NZ, no clear distinction) lamb fillets on sale here?

Karskens, Wilkins, Seymour, Watson and Wright (The Conversation AU), Friday essay: how a long-lost list is helping us remap Darug place names and culture on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River. This is SO COOL in so many ways. Plus from later in the article I found out that the Sydney area has a Great Eel Being filling the role that is usually synthesised to Rainbow Serpent. Investigation online tells me it's eels at least as far south as Kiama but I don't know how far north. The Worrimi funded a Rainbow Serpent installation in Raymond Terrance this century, but the artist was (while raised in Raymo) of Warradjuri heritage, so that might not tell me anything. This page of general information on the Dreaming from the Worrimi gives a local name for the Rainbow Serpent, so I am guessing it's serpents around home? I wonder where the eel/serpent boundary is. (It's not my BUSINESS, but I would like to know, in the way that I like to know I should bow to the little light in Catholic churches and high anglican ones, whether I should be looking at Port Stephens / Tilligery Creek and thinking 'good work, Eels' or 'nice job, serpent'.)

Catherine Bennet (The Conversation, Dec 18), Australia on alert as Sydney's northern beaches COVID cluter grows, linked to US strain. This is already old news in Aus, but might be interesting to others in countries where 'lol 5000 per day, at least it's not going up' is the modus operandi, in that BECAUSE the numbers are so low and BECAUSE NSW Health's contact tracers are 'Gold Standard' (contrary to twitter opinion that doesn't mean they should have stopped the outbreak - it means by gum they know how it happened, or at least where the info gap is) there's INCREDIBLY fine detailed information on transmission, and what we can and cannot know. As of the 18th it was clear that two venues in Avalon were key transmission sites on Dec 11, but it wasn't known, and afaik early morning 21st Aus time, still isn't known, how the strain got from the US to the Avalon Bowlo and Avalon RSL. One quarantine case is genetically close enough to have been the link, but the index community case still hasn't been found. Read it and feel nostalgic for a time when minute contact tracing was useful in your area, too.

Plus some interesting but less deep ones:

Madison Erhardt (CTV news)Chapman's Ice Cream to play major role in storage of COVID-19 vaccine. This one is from Canada. I believe in the US Dippin' Dots' standard freezer is compatible with the COVID vaccine so investigations into collaboration are ongoing. What I find interesting about this is that Chapmans have BOUGHT two COVID-vaccine-compatible freezers, so apparently they didn't have them already. But there's a line saying Chapmans are *already* part of Ontario's pandemic plan (for three decades!), so they bought the freezers as soon as they found out the vaccine specs (rather than waiting for official vaccine rollout). It seems from the news reports that the freezers might be at Chapmans' expense. I really want more information on the pre-existing plan! Who made that happen? In how many OTHER places is 'well one day we're gonna need commercial freezers to roll out a vaccine, so we better have a deal with an ice cream company in advance' part of the advance plan? I love it.

That's it, that's all I've got, it's December. Oh wait, if you're not on Twitter you might need to know abou t this Christmas Anthropology thread by one Mohammad Hussain:

Growing up, my Muslim family never celebrated Christmas. This year I am not going home, because pandemic, so my roommates are teaching me how to have my first proper Christmas.

I am approaching this with anthropological precision.

Here are a few observations. pic.twitter.com/1WARv5nax4

— Mohammad Hussain (@MohammadHussain) December 19, 2020

Observation 1: Christmas is a part time job that you have from mid-November to the end of December.

From the outside looking in, Christmas always seemed pretty simple. I always thought you put up a tree and then gave gifts to family. This is a lie.

— Mohammad Hussain (@MohammadHussain) December 19, 2020

Click through for the rest, which is all NOT WRONG.