Joshua Gill, Daily Caller: “Sergey Savitsky, an engineer at Bellingshausen Station in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, stands accused of stabbing welder Oleg Beloguzov in the chest after arguing with him over Beloguzov’s habit of repeatedly spoiling the endings of the books that Savitsky was reading.”

Holly Genovese, Electric Lit: “In September, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced that all free book donations to incarcerated people in Pennsylvania state facilities would be banned. This ban was created alongside stringent mail search policies, in a purported effort to prevent drugs from entering prison.”

Me: “Yay! People are reading!”

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

“Rarely was the practical task of textile creation considered an artistic pursuit,” writes Kylie Warner. “One woman changed that.” Anni Albers gets some welcome recognition at a new retrospective exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. You know, if you happen to be in the area.

Speaking of art exhibits, did you know that Victor Hugo—yeah, that Victor Hugo—had a talent for creepy drawing? The Hammer Museum at UCLA is showing some of his work.

And in acquisitions news, this is pretty cool.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

You know Gmail’s new “Smart Reply” feature? Those “bland formulations of convenient and functional corporate language” that sit there at the bottom of your received emails? Sophie Haigney has some thoughts:

The algorithm is mimicking us, but now we’re also mimicking it. The algorithm—which I’m using as shorthand for a series of complicated machine-learning processes—has been absorbing human-email-speak by creeping through billions of perfunctorily worded emails—and it is now spitting them back at us. It’s a refraction, then, of how we write to each other online. But suggestions are also manipulations, as we might know from, say, Amazon’s effective monetization of RIYL logic. Yet these seemingly gentle intrusions into our digital lives are not so passive as they might appear.

It’s the degeneration of language, she writes, the function of which is “to eliminate complexity, to pare communication down to dumbness, to ‘acknowledge’ or ‘affirm’ without saying much of anything.”

So, basically, perfect for the world we live in.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

Last Friday, you’ll recall, we linked to Michael Watts’s “Cover Stories: A History of Magazine Design,” which argues that “a striking image and a few well-chosen words still have the power to influence.”

Today, Madeline Raynor makes the case that “some of the least aesthetically pleasing artwork you’ve ever seen” can make even Dostoevsky look like a “literary abomination.” Really, folks, you have to see these steaming piles book covers to believe they exist.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’d like to draw your attention to this security camera footage, obtained just this morning:

Note Ms. Sowards’s absent-minded demeanor as she discovers she no longer holds a pen in her hand, and how long it takes—measured in distance—before she realizes she’s actually dropped it: three full steps. Note the exaggerated way in which she puts herself together after bending over to pick up said pen, and how she nearly collides with the table on her left. Note also how her left leg simply stops working, how she collapses into a heap onto the floor, and how she staggers about in a haze once she returns to an upright position.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that something is amiss.

Ms. Sowards is not only young, but also fit. She goes to the gym at least twice a week. It’s simply not possible for someone in her condition to fall like an 85-year-old in need of a hip replacement. And as you can see from the footage, there’s neither a banana peel on the floor nor evidence of structural weakness in the concrete.

There are only two possibilities here. Either (a) Ms. Sowards is new to the world of fashion and is wearing heeled booties for the very first time, or (b) she was, in fact, quite drunk at 10:56 a.m. on a Wednesday. The former is clearly untenable—which leaves you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with the only evidence you need to make a decision.

I rest my case.

No individuals were harmed during filming, though Courtney’s knee is admittedly still a little sore.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life  |  comments(2)

I got an email today from my local Subaru dealership. I wouldn’t ordinarily mention this sort of thing—they send at least a couple a week, after all—but this particular email stood out. Here’s how my iPhone truncated the subject line:

“Aaron, use these services to make love…”

What’s missing, it turns out, is “last.” Not “all night long” or “to the voluptuous vixen of your dreams” or “if you’re having trouble with the ladies on accounta you’re a creepy perv who no one would sleep with even of you were the last man on Earth.” (“Make Love Last” is the name of Subaru’s trademarked winter service event, so it makes sense, I guess.)

Either way, the dealership’s “experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you.” That’s…thoughtful.

But that’s not the point of today’s blog post. No, that would be that Nikon just announced the winners of its 2018 Small World Photomicrography Competition.

So forget I said anything about Subaru and its purported lovemaking assistance, which, let’s get real here, should be easy to do when you’re looking at a flea magnified 20 times (shudder).

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Ever come across something so profound that you simply have no response other than to smack yourself on the forehead in wonder and amazement?

That happened to me a while back when I was reading Kerouac’s On the Road. I found the answer to everything—and no, it doesn’t really matter what the question is.

Ready? Here it is:

“Some’s bastards, some’s ain’t, that’s the score.”

See what I mean? Forget your fancy philosophy books and metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, that there’s where it’s at.

You’re welcome.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

This is dumb. This is even dumber.

(I’d try to explain why I’m immune to Banksy’s purported charms, but I’m currently in an office surrounded by designer types, and saying the wrong thing about one of their cherished icons can quickly get you fitted for a Chicago overcoat. Read Wesley Morris’s “The Morality Wars” in the New York Times Magazine to see where I’m coming from.)

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment