My Virtual Reading Room

If you like HP...you gotta see this (it's short and surprising; and well-written):

order of merlin, drunk class

If you enjoy it, please leave kudos and/or a comment for the author.

Health and Medicine:

These 'Zebra' Cases Were Cracked by People Other Than Doctors, from Medscape

— Popular Reddit thread captures rare diagnoses made by patients, lab techs, first responders

This 70-year-old retiree just graduated med school. He has this advice for others, from CNN

Women who are blind play a critical role in identifying possible breast cancers, from NPR


Reading, Writing, and Life:


Sometimes I don't know why I bother!, by Charlie Stross

"The trouble with writing fiction is that, as a famous novelist once said, reality is under no compulsion to make sense or be plausible. Those of us who make stuff up are constantly under threat of having our best fictional creations one-upped by the implausibility of real events. I'm pretty much resigned to this happening, especially with the Laundry Files stories: at least space opera and fantasy aren't as prone to being derailed as fiction set in the near-present.

But there's a subtle corollary to the impossibility of story-telling keeping up with reality, and that's the point that it is also pretty much impossible to invent protagonists who can keep up with reality. [...]"


And two from John Scalzi:

Please Don’t Idolize Me (or Anyone, Really)

Reader Request Week 2014 #6: Enjoying Problematic Things

„Замечательный день сегодня. То ли чай пойти выпить, то ли повеситься.“

"It's a wonderful day today. I'm not sure whether to go have some tea, or to hang myself."

(Anton Chekhov)

«Каждый историк мечтает увидеть период своих исследований. Моя мечта сбылась по полной программе»

"Every historian dreams of seeing the historical period he's researching. My dream came true, in full."

(Vladimir Kara-Murza)

Студенты продолжают изумлять. По итогам курса "How Gogol invented Ukraine" я предложил написать эссе -- как я представляю себе Гоголя-человека. Получил, например, такое:

"My students continue to amaze me. At the end of the course titled 'How Gogol invented Ukraine', I offered them to write an essay on the topic of how I imagine Gogol the man. And this is one of the essays I received:"

(Dmitry Bykov, April 2024, from his FB)


GOGOL AS A FATHER

I had never heard of Gogol’s book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” but it was the book that struck me the most. After this book, I imagined and, it seems, understood Gogol as the real person in flesh and blood, and it is easy for me to imagine him as a father. ( Read more... )

One Man and a Mule: Across England with a Pack Mule (2017) by Hugh Thomson

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2023) by Oliver Burkeman

Can provide some excerpts if anyone is interested; let me know.

...or at least they are, in classic Russian literature--

"What is to be done?"

"Who is to blame?"

...and then it all turns into

"An ordinary story".
~~

...Yes, all three are titles of 19th century novels...can elaborate if anyone is interested.

Four from The Marginalian:

Kurt Vonnegut’s Life-Advice to His Children

Turning Loss and Loneliness into Wonder: How the Victorian Visionary Marianne North Revolutionized Art and Science with Her Botanical Paintings

The Blue Hour: A Stunning Illustrated Celebration of Nature’s Rarest Color

How the Great Zen Master and Peace Activist Thich Nhat Hanh Found Himself and Lost His Self in a Library Epiphany

And one from Google Books:

Krylov's Fables, translated into English verse

6 Cool DIY Art Projects for Less Than $50

(I rather like the paper chain one)

Top Authors Share Their Must Reads of 2023


From The Washington Post:

Barbie, the Titan submersible and everything else we Googled in 2023

Did anything good happen in 2023? Actually, yes!

Ask Amy: Annual charity column shows ways to give

Carolyn Hax: Most-read columns of 2023

BOOK POWER
by Gwendolyn Brooks

BOOKS FEED AND CURE AND
CHORTLE AND COLLIDE

In all this willful world
of thud and thump and thunder
man’s relevance to books
continues to declare.

Books are meat and medicine
and flame and flight and flower,
steel, stitch, and cloud and clout,
and drumbeats in the air.

(cross-posted to greatpoetry )

Source: www.themarginalian.org/2017/06/07/book-power-gwendolyn-brooks-bookmark/

Я читаю про Великих Людей –
Кто был циник, кто тиран, кто злодей.
И обидно слышать мне от родни,
Что не великий я, как «те», как «они»,
Что мусор я не выношу,
Свет в туалете не гашу,
Чревоугодием грешу –
Так это ж разве грех?
Вот взять Великих – кто блудил,
Кто квасил, кто жену лупил.
А я что? Свет не погасил?
Смешно. Курям на смех.
Вот смотри:

I read about the Great Men--
This one was a cynic, this one, a tyrant, this one, a villain.
And it's upsetting to hear my family tell me,
That I'm not a great man, not like "these" or "those",
That I don't take the trash out,
Don't turn the light off in the bathroom,
That I'm guilty of the sin of gluttony--
Well, that's not much of a sin, is it now?
Here, if we take the Great Men--some of them ran around,
Some drank, some beat their wives.
And me, what about me? I didn't turn the light off?
That's ridiculous. Enough to make the cat laugh.
Why, look here:( Read more... )

Yes to Life, in Spite of Everything: Viktor Frankl’s Lost Lectures on Moving Beyond Optimism and Pessimism to Find the Deepest Source of Meaning, from The Marginalian, May 2020

"...At this point it would be helpful [to perform] a conceptual turn through 180 degrees, after which the question can no longer be “What can I expect from life?” but can now only be “What does life expect of me?” What task in life is waiting for me?..."

Viktor Frankl on Humor as a Lifeline to Sanity and Survival, from The Marginalian, August 2019

A 100-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor on How Books Save Lives, from The Marginalian, December 2018

Oliver Burkeman's last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life, from The Guardian, September 2020

A Brief Guide to Navigating Periods of Disorder, by Brad Stulberg, September 2020

This is a story I'd wanted to share with all of you for a while--I'm going to translate the first couple paragraphs; let me know if you wish to see more.
~~~

…Я вот часто думаю – почему голый человек на подиуме в студии выглядит солидно, вроде как при деле, а стоит в таком виде в коридор к электрощитку выскочить – когда предохранители вышибает, – и ты уже не модель, а просто голая женщина, бывшая инженер-электрик… Вообще, голый человек – существо пустяковое.

А предохранители у нас в студии, где я натурщицей подрабатываю, часто вышибает. Художники – народ простой, славный, но руки у них кисточкой заканчиваются. Чуть что – Рая. Тем более что в прошлой жизни я – инженер-электрик. Как свет погаснет – я шасть с подиума в коридор, ощупью до щитка, секунда – и порядок.

Тогда Ави Коэн – это руководитель студии, милый такой, лысый человек – руку мне подает, помогает на подиум взойти и говорит:
– Аз анахну мамшихим – итак, мы продолжаем…

...I often think about this: why does a naked person on a podium in the art studio look imposing, like she's doing something useful, but as soon as she runs into the hallway to check the power panel, still naked--when the fuses blow--and you're no longer a model, you're just a  naked woman, a former electrical engineer...In general, a naked person is an insignificant sort of creature.

And the fuses in our studio, where I have a side job as a model, blow quite often. The artists are a simple, sweet folk, but the only tool they can handle is a paintbrush. If there's any technical problem, they call for Raya. Especially because, in my past life, I had been an electrical engineer. If the light goes out, I dart from the podium into the hallway, feel my way to the power panel, and in a second, everything is in order.

Then, Avi Cohen--he's the head of the studio, a very nice, bald-headed fellow, gives me his hand to help me ascend the podium and says,

"Az anakhnu mamshikhim--and so, we continue..."


(Dina Rubina)

From May 1st, I see I never did post these:

Куме, а ви чули? росія виявляється воює з НАТО!
- І як їхні справи?
- росія втратила понад 20 тисяч вояків, понад 150 літаків, купу усілякої техніки!
- А НАТО Куме?
- А НАТО Куме, ще навіть на війну не приїхало!..( Read more... )«Самая счастливая разведенка на планете Земля сейчас — это тетя Люда Путина.

Ни одна женщина никогда еще не была так счастлива, что вовремя развелась»

In a chevron on TV, passing by:

Democrats remove Filler-Corn from the House Committee

(interesting last name)


On Wikipedia:

via murysia --many thanks!

Opinion: Let’s think about the Russians we are canceling. Not all deserve it.

Opinion: Two questions to ask before joining the culture war on Russia


And an almost-prescient book from 2006, I suppose the author saw the patterns and extrapolated as to where they would lead:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Oprichnik

Opinion: Why Russia won’t soon recover from Putin’s Ukraine blunder

Russia’s Economic Blackout Will Change the World:
Like all novel experiments, the group punishment of Russia is a leap into the unknown.

Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief

I'd read this in December--if the subject is of any interest to you, personally and/or professionally, I highly recommend it. The author had worked with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

Эта колонка Антона Чехова (подписанная псевдонимом Человек без селезёнки) была опубликована 4 января 1886 года в журнале "Осколки". Но, кажется, её имеет смысл изучить перед праздниками🥂
ШАМПАНСКОЕ (МЫСЛИ С НОВОГОДНЕГО ПОХМЕЛЬЯ)
Не верьте шампанскому... Оно искрится, как алмаз, прозрачно, как лесной ручей, сладко, как нектар; ценится оно дороже, чем труд рабочего, песнь поэта, ласка женщины, но... подальше от него! Шампанское — это блестящая кокотка, мешающая прелесть свою с ложью и наглостью Гоморры, это позлащённый гроб, полный костей мёртвых и всякия нечистоты. Человек пьёт его только в часы скорби, печали и оптического обмана.
Он пьёт его, когда бывает богат, пресыщен, то есть когда ему пробраться к свету так же трудно, как верблюду пролезть сквозь игольное ушко.
Оно есть вино укравших кассиров, альфонсов, безуздых саврасов, кокоток... Где пьяный разгул, разврат, объегориванье ближнего, торжество гешефта, там прежде всего ищите шампанского. Платят за него не трудовые деньги, а шальные, лишние, бешеные, часто чужие...
Вступая на скользкий путь, женщина всегда начинает с шампанского, — потому-то оно и шипит, как змея, соблазнившая Еву!
Пьют его обручаясь и женясь, когда за две-три иллюзии принимают на себя тяжёлые вериги на всю жизнь.
Пьют его на юбилеях, разбавляя лестью и водянистыми речами, за здоровье юбиляра, стоящего обыкновенно уже одною ногою в могиле.
Когда вы умерли, его пьют ваши родственники от радости, что вы оставили им наследство.
Пьют его при встрече Нового года: с бокалами в руках кричат ему «ура» в полной уверенности, что ровно через 12 месяцев дадут этому году по шее и начихают ему на голову. Короче, где радость по заказу, где купленный восторг, лесть, словоблудие, где пресыщение, тунеядство и свинство, там вы всегда найдёте вдову Клико. Нет, подальше от шампанского!

Иллюстрация: Рамон Касас Карбо. Рождественский вечер. Дизайн для рекламы игристого вина "Кодорниу". 1898
Биография художника и другие его работы: https://artchive.ru/ramoncasas

Source: https://www.facebook.com/artchive.ru

The Most Ambitious Diary in History:

Claude Fredericks, a Bennington classics professor, knew Anaïs Nin and James Merrill, and taught Donna Tartt. He kept a journal for eight decades, and persuaded many in his orbit that he was writing a titanic masterpiece. Did he?, from The New Yorker

The Man Who Brought the Swastika to Germany, and How the Nazis Stole It, from The Smithsonian

In Alaska Native villages and across communities of color, the enduring silence of grief, from The Washington Post

"...The coronavirus has created a new generation exposed to unimaginable loss. One out of every 500 children has lost a parent to the pandemic, a figure that varies widely when broken down by race and ethnicity:

One out of every 168 American Indian and Alaska Native children has lost a parent to covid-19. One out of every 310 Black children. One out of every 412 Hispanic children. One out of every 612 Asian children. One out of every 753 White children..."

As pandemic pounds Ukraine, desperate officials try to scare people into getting the jab (...not that it's having much effect...), also from The Washington Post

Inside Russia's ‘fourth wave’: Record deaths, deep frustration and plenty of blame

"...MOSCOW — A routine medical checkup in mid-September nearly cost Alexander Ivanov his life. The clinic was packed with people, almost no one wearing masks.

“Or distancing,” he said — a common sight in Russian public spaces and on transport. “I even told some of the people that they should be wearing masks, but people didn’t care.”..."

From Medscape:

Country by Country, Scientists Eye Beginning of an End to the COVID-19 Pandemic (we can only hope...)

"...COVID-19 is still expected to remain a major contributor to illness and death for years to come, much like other endemic illnesses such as malaria.

"Endemic does not mean benign," Van Kerkhove said...."

A Little Halloween Treat for NICU Families, Nurses Dress Up Babies

From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Verse, and here's the alphabetical list of poets


People aren't meant to talk this much, from The Atlantic, about social media in general and FB in particular

Talmudic curses and insults, from MJL (some creative ones there ;)