and this isn't the most significant moment in it, but it's the one that leapt out at me for reasons:
"No matter how many Ramones onesies you buy for a baby, it’s still going to be a baby."
reason number 1: it is a funny thing to say!
reason number 2: Ramones ends with the same four letters as onesies begins with, which leads to my suggestion that if it ever comes up again for anyone, feel free to refer to "Ramones onesies" as "Ramonesies."
Oh my goodness, what a lovely and perceptive observation. Yes indeed. The human condition always triumphs in the end.
On personal note, I am at the intriguing point of now providing the most simple of bodily care to my elderly Mom, the same person who took care of me and my functions at the "Ramones Onesie" stage.
I am also preparing to witness her exit from this stage (at age 58, she won a Boston radio contest and was crowned "Funniest Lady In Boston") and head towards what lies beyond. My Mom is convinced she will rejoin my Dad and get to chat with several of her preferred saints. I myself am less certain of what I will encounter at that point, but meanwhile have picked up my old rosary to keep her company and be comforted with its koan-like rhythm, despite my rather bumptious exit from the Roman Catholic tribe at the age of 19.
Hi Josh -- I love your question about what we learned in school but have forgotten. I'm so ancient that our "sex ed" took place over the course of a couple of lessons in health class (segregated by gender). The teacher turned off the lights and fired up the FILM STRIP projector. Yes -- a film strip. She then put the needle down on an LP which offered narration. It signaled the time to advance the film strip by issuing a long tone. Like -- an A flat lasting for 3 seconds. The images showed some basics, but ... left out a lot. I didn't know what was left out, of course, and now I've forgotten everything that was left IN. I had to learn it all over again, mainly on the school bus. Also Pythagerous. He had a theorem of some kind. What? Why? Again revealing my age -- how to use a protractor. (I'm very excited about Maris' book, by the way.)
Maris is one of my favorite writers working today. I find her taste and discernment unerring, and still enjoy the image of her and your pooch enjoying a quiet night at home reading Susan Sontag during the hustle and bustle of the 2019 Met Gala and its "Camp" theme.
I was a HUGE reader as a kid and very very shy, aka not a huge talker – on top of that, I learned a second language in elementary school and spent my formative years focused on linguistics and pronunciation in *that* language. All of this to say: I really wish that we had some (or if we had any, I've forgotten them) linguistics lessons for the English language! And not just in elementary school but through high school. Now in my 30s, I still pronounce most new words wrong the first time I use them because my brain defaults to other-language-rules and lacks the linguistic rules to figure out English pronunciation right out of the gate. And I am a native english speaker – I can only imagine how difficult this is for folks learning it as a second or third language.
I have high school students who read at a 5th grade level. I’d love to teach them linguistics and appreciation for the bard, but they have so much catching up to do. We’re just trying to get them to graduation and know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” 🤷🏻♀️
I totally appreciate that! I know how lucky I was to even have second language learning in my education at any level. This is just my dream wishlist - wouldn't it be nice if we all learned critical reading skills and linguistics in one or more languages? *wistful sigh*
I wish I had learned even a little bit about rhetoric and rhetorical figures. There are all sorts of very specific terms associated with it that I run across when someone is analyzing a speech, and I wish I knew what they were. Sadly, I can't even seem to stay awake through the entire wikipedia article on the subject.
5 Calls is AWESOME! And a great platform. If folks need a little more insight into what happens when you call, for example, who typically answers (an intern) or how to tell them what you're calling about, I made a very quick and easy step by step guide: https://bit.ly/3xZGxpk
Thank you for asking about what we wished we'd learned. I say this as a Boomer, but I think it's true for more than my generation: Reconstruction and its successes, and this country's subsequent treatment of African-Americans. Not just the Klan, but official policies like redlining and the omission of worker categories that were majority Black from Social Security. I just (naively?) think a real understanding of our history might have helped prevent or at least mitigated the political strategists' ability to divide us so thoroughly.
My bio teacher had us shout parts of the cell as loud as possible. It absolutely helped me remember that mitochondria exist, but not what they are.
she also had us shout "penis" and "vagina" until we stopped laughing about it. Happy to report that a) i still know what those are and b) jokes on her they never stopped being funny
In retrospect, her pedagogical philosophy may have been a tad too reliant on screaming.
does anyone else remember stereogum platforming a whole album of strokes covers? I had to google. first of all, stereogum still exists phew. secondly, this album introduced me to so many new artists like heems from das racist, (remember them!) and the morning benders. it was such as good time for music...https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP49QoBfYF2iXqznv1OLfBPjv38-JIsIa
I'd like to share that I am often jealous of people who continued to study math in a careful way after like 11th grade. It wasn't until I was a 20-something English major that I tried to read DFW's "Everything and More" and realized that the infinity/infinitesimal concept is incredibly cool as a demonstration of humanity's talent for abstract thought, profoundly important for how a lot of science and technology came to be, and also completely impenetrable to me once the dorm-room philosophy is set aside for actual mathematics. I only got through maybe the first 70 pages of Wallace's book.
I hope you find this somewhere between infinitely and infinitesimally interesting!
I recently started the process to get my varicose veins treated (cool! gross! old!), which has re-taught me many things I forgot about the circulatory system. Did you know veins have valves that open and close in order to keep the blood pumping back up to your heart?! It got me thinking how truly amazing the whole heart/blood flow thing is and how I should re-read up on it.
I have a sixteen year old kid. He once argued with me that there’s simply no way that “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” is ever going to come up again for him or me or really anyone in life. And then he said, shouldn’t they just teach us how to do our taxes?
Youth, I cede the point!
Ps— Thank you, Josh! Like, blanket thanks, because you just generally cheer me up.
1) I was just saying to my consumer math students today that I wish financial literacy had been required when I was in high school! There was such a class that existed in my high school, but it did not have the respect (of learning actually relevant math skills!) it deserved from the snotty (including myself here) college-bound AP Calc students. I'm glad it's a much higher priority for high school students now, at least!
2) I cannot wait to read Maris' book!
3) I am not watching Paradise yet, but it's been highly recommended to me and is on my list.
4) These reps need to be primaries. Most of them are being bad at being the "opposition."
dear josh,
great piece as always!
and this isn't the most significant moment in it, but it's the one that leapt out at me for reasons:
"No matter how many Ramones onesies you buy for a baby, it’s still going to be a baby."
reason number 1: it is a funny thing to say!
reason number 2: Ramones ends with the same four letters as onesies begins with, which leads to my suggestion that if it ever comes up again for anyone, feel free to refer to "Ramones onesies" as "Ramonesies."
that is all.
thank you for sharing!
love
myq
Oh my goodness, what a lovely and perceptive observation. Yes indeed. The human condition always triumphs in the end.
On personal note, I am at the intriguing point of now providing the most simple of bodily care to my elderly Mom, the same person who took care of me and my functions at the "Ramones Onesie" stage.
I am also preparing to witness her exit from this stage (at age 58, she won a Boston radio contest and was crowned "Funniest Lady In Boston") and head towards what lies beyond. My Mom is convinced she will rejoin my Dad and get to chat with several of her preferred saints. I myself am less certain of what I will encounter at that point, but meanwhile have picked up my old rosary to keep her company and be comforted with its koan-like rhythm, despite my rather bumptious exit from the Roman Catholic tribe at the age of 19.
: )
And the cycle continues.
thank you for sharing all of this!
much love to you and your mother (and your father and the saints, and all)!
Cool beans! Appreciate that very much. : )
HI MYQ! 💖
Also: HI JOSH! Looking forward to Nod Hill!
Hi!
Maris's book looks amazing! Will it be available in the uk?
Just the U.S. at present! Fingers crossed for more places picking it up though!
Everything crossed! The cover alone deserves an award...
It’s SO good right?
Hi Josh -- I love your question about what we learned in school but have forgotten. I'm so ancient that our "sex ed" took place over the course of a couple of lessons in health class (segregated by gender). The teacher turned off the lights and fired up the FILM STRIP projector. Yes -- a film strip. She then put the needle down on an LP which offered narration. It signaled the time to advance the film strip by issuing a long tone. Like -- an A flat lasting for 3 seconds. The images showed some basics, but ... left out a lot. I didn't know what was left out, of course, and now I've forgotten everything that was left IN. I had to learn it all over again, mainly on the school bus. Also Pythagerous. He had a theorem of some kind. What? Why? Again revealing my age -- how to use a protractor. (I'm very excited about Maris' book, by the way.)
Hello, Josh Gondelman,
Maris is one of my favorite writers working today. I find her taste and discernment unerring, and still enjoy the image of her and your pooch enjoying a quiet night at home reading Susan Sontag during the hustle and bustle of the 2019 Met Gala and its "Camp" theme.
Truly a woman ahead of her time!
Very best regards,
Maureen Murphy
Re: your school question!
I was a HUGE reader as a kid and very very shy, aka not a huge talker – on top of that, I learned a second language in elementary school and spent my formative years focused on linguistics and pronunciation in *that* language. All of this to say: I really wish that we had some (or if we had any, I've forgotten them) linguistics lessons for the English language! And not just in elementary school but through high school. Now in my 30s, I still pronounce most new words wrong the first time I use them because my brain defaults to other-language-rules and lacks the linguistic rules to figure out English pronunciation right out of the gate. And I am a native english speaker – I can only imagine how difficult this is for folks learning it as a second or third language.
I have high school students who read at a 5th grade level. I’d love to teach them linguistics and appreciation for the bard, but they have so much catching up to do. We’re just trying to get them to graduation and know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” 🤷🏻♀️
I totally appreciate that! I know how lucky I was to even have second language learning in my education at any level. This is just my dream wishlist - wouldn't it be nice if we all learned critical reading skills and linguistics in one or more languages? *wistful sigh*
It would be amazing…but then parents need to read to their kiddos before they even step foot in a school and all kids need to be housed and fed.
I wish I had learned even a little bit about rhetoric and rhetorical figures. There are all sorts of very specific terms associated with it that I run across when someone is analyzing a speech, and I wish I knew what they were. Sadly, I can't even seem to stay awake through the entire wikipedia article on the subject.
5 Calls is AWESOME! And a great platform. If folks need a little more insight into what happens when you call, for example, who typically answers (an intern) or how to tell them what you're calling about, I made a very quick and easy step by step guide: https://bit.ly/3xZGxpk
Thank you for asking about what we wished we'd learned. I say this as a Boomer, but I think it's true for more than my generation: Reconstruction and its successes, and this country's subsequent treatment of African-Americans. Not just the Klan, but official policies like redlining and the omission of worker categories that were majority Black from Social Security. I just (naively?) think a real understanding of our history might have helped prevent or at least mitigated the political strategists' ability to divide us so thoroughly.
My bio teacher had us shout parts of the cell as loud as possible. It absolutely helped me remember that mitochondria exist, but not what they are.
she also had us shout "penis" and "vagina" until we stopped laughing about it. Happy to report that a) i still know what those are and b) jokes on her they never stopped being funny
In retrospect, her pedagogical philosophy may have been a tad too reliant on screaming.
does anyone else remember stereogum platforming a whole album of strokes covers? I had to google. first of all, stereogum still exists phew. secondly, this album introduced me to so many new artists like heems from das racist, (remember them!) and the morning benders. it was such as good time for music...https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP49QoBfYF2iXqznv1OLfBPjv38-JIsIa
I wish I had learned about post-Reconstruction pushback and how it played out across the nation
Hi Josh,
I'd like to share that I am often jealous of people who continued to study math in a careful way after like 11th grade. It wasn't until I was a 20-something English major that I tried to read DFW's "Everything and More" and realized that the infinity/infinitesimal concept is incredibly cool as a demonstration of humanity's talent for abstract thought, profoundly important for how a lot of science and technology came to be, and also completely impenetrable to me once the dorm-room philosophy is set aside for actual mathematics. I only got through maybe the first 70 pages of Wallace's book.
I hope you find this somewhere between infinitely and infinitesimally interesting!
I recently started the process to get my varicose veins treated (cool! gross! old!), which has re-taught me many things I forgot about the circulatory system. Did you know veins have valves that open and close in order to keep the blood pumping back up to your heart?! It got me thinking how truly amazing the whole heart/blood flow thing is and how I should re-read up on it.
I have a sixteen year old kid. He once argued with me that there’s simply no way that “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” is ever going to come up again for him or me or really anyone in life. And then he said, shouldn’t they just teach us how to do our taxes?
Youth, I cede the point!
Ps— Thank you, Josh! Like, blanket thanks, because you just generally cheer me up.
I had never heard of Paradise but you are the second to mention it on Substack.
https://open.substack.com/pub/marionteniade/p/assorted-thoughts-i-had-while-watching?r=dy4pt&utm_medium=ios
1) I was just saying to my consumer math students today that I wish financial literacy had been required when I was in high school! There was such a class that existed in my high school, but it did not have the respect (of learning actually relevant math skills!) it deserved from the snotty (including myself here) college-bound AP Calc students. I'm glad it's a much higher priority for high school students now, at least!
2) I cannot wait to read Maris' book!
3) I am not watching Paradise yet, but it's been highly recommended to me and is on my list.
4) These reps need to be primaries. Most of them are being bad at being the "opposition."