BunRab's continuing magazine reading
Jun. 3rd, 2006 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabLet's see. An article in Friday's Baltimore Sun claims that socks made of artificial
fibers are better for you than cotton socks. At least if you are playing extremely vigorous
sports or in extreme weather. Luckily, I don't make socks for extreme sports, just for real
people, so I will keep on making cotton socks.
Time magazine gives a positive review to Alison Bechdel's memoir, Fun Home,
without even mentioning that what Bechdel is famous for is her comic strip "Dykes to Watch
Out For."
Vegetarian Times May/June issue rates veggie burgers; their favorite is Quorn Chicken-Style Patties (which is hardly a burger!) but second place goes to Boca All-American Flame-Grilled, which costs less, has fewer calories, more protein, and half the sodium. Guess which one I'm gonna look for? I clipped recipes for Fennel-Quinoa Salad with Orange and Basil, and Quinoa with Pistachios, Parsley & Mint. And I seem to have dog-eared a page out of the classified ads in Veg Times, and I have no idea why; there's nothing on that page that I can see that I can imagine being interested in!
New Scientist reminds me of something I already knew, that bananas are most likely going to be extinct in less than 100 years - probably much less. We've inbred them so much that there's only one variety, all very similar genetically, left, and if a disease comes along that that particular genetic strain isn't resistant to, well, bye-bye banana.
The New Yorker reviewed a book called "Why?" by sociologist Charles Tilly, which is about why we give reasons for things. Why do we make up "stories" to explain events. Do we talk to children the right way? Is there any sense at all to the way we talk about politics? It sounds way interesting, and it's definitely going on my wish list. And the June issue of Scientific American has a book review column about three different books about happiness, which sound interesting. Happiness: A History is by Darrin McMahon, a historian (or an historian if you prefer), and he traces how the idea of who gets to be happy and when and why has changed over the centuries. The Happiness Hypothesis is by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and he proposes that how we feel about life in general depends far less on circumstances than on our natural disposition. The third is another psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, and it's about how we think too much about tomorrow and yesterday, not enough about being happy with what we actually have today. The first two sound more interesting to me; they're going on my wish list too, and if any of you guys have any of these books and want to loan them to me, I'd be happy to reimburse you for Media Mail costs and return them to you in a few weeks, rather than waiting the half a year to a year before some library gets them. (These don't sound like books that are gonna come out in cheap paperbacks any time real soon.)
fibers are better for you than cotton socks. At least if you are playing extremely vigorous
sports or in extreme weather. Luckily, I don't make socks for extreme sports, just for real
people, so I will keep on making cotton socks.
Time magazine gives a positive review to Alison Bechdel's memoir, Fun Home,
without even mentioning that what Bechdel is famous for is her comic strip "Dykes to Watch
Out For."
Vegetarian Times May/June issue rates veggie burgers; their favorite is Quorn Chicken-Style Patties (which is hardly a burger!) but second place goes to Boca All-American Flame-Grilled, which costs less, has fewer calories, more protein, and half the sodium. Guess which one I'm gonna look for? I clipped recipes for Fennel-Quinoa Salad with Orange and Basil, and Quinoa with Pistachios, Parsley & Mint. And I seem to have dog-eared a page out of the classified ads in Veg Times, and I have no idea why; there's nothing on that page that I can see that I can imagine being interested in!
New Scientist reminds me of something I already knew, that bananas are most likely going to be extinct in less than 100 years - probably much less. We've inbred them so much that there's only one variety, all very similar genetically, left, and if a disease comes along that that particular genetic strain isn't resistant to, well, bye-bye banana.
The New Yorker reviewed a book called "Why?" by sociologist Charles Tilly, which is about why we give reasons for things. Why do we make up "stories" to explain events. Do we talk to children the right way? Is there any sense at all to the way we talk about politics? It sounds way interesting, and it's definitely going on my wish list. And the June issue of Scientific American has a book review column about three different books about happiness, which sound interesting. Happiness: A History is by Darrin McMahon, a historian (or an historian if you prefer), and he traces how the idea of who gets to be happy and when and why has changed over the centuries. The Happiness Hypothesis is by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and he proposes that how we feel about life in general depends far less on circumstances than on our natural disposition. The third is another psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, and it's about how we think too much about tomorrow and yesterday, not enough about being happy with what we actually have today. The first two sound more interesting to me; they're going on my wish list too, and if any of you guys have any of these books and want to loan them to me, I'd be happy to reimburse you for Media Mail costs and return them to you in a few weeks, rather than waiting the half a year to a year before some library gets them. (These don't sound like books that are gonna come out in cheap paperbacks any time real soon.)
