Friday, May 16, 2025

When it comes to writing this newsletter, it's like they say: the days are long but the weeks are short. Another issue is always right around the corner. And lo, here's the latest.

Item 1: a link

Hamilton Nolan writes:

I’ve been reading Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker, a history of the years leading up to World War 2. The entire book takes the form of short, stylized, factual items of a few paragraphs or less, presented in chronological order, which taken together tell the story of societies sliding—often unwittingly—into very dark places.

While reading the book, I found over and over again that certain entries would vividly remind me of things happening today. The experience was so vivid that I decided to present a few of them to you here—first, Baker’s entry in his book, and then the modern thing that it made me think of. I make no sweeping claims that one thing is just like the other, or that this time is equivalent to that time. I’m only a curious reader, not a professional historian. I make no sweeping claims at all. It’s just interesting. “History doesn’t repeat itself,” Mark Twain said, “but it often rhymes.”

Honestly, I doubt you'll be surprised that current events rhyme with some pretty heinous historical events - but it's still worth reading this piece to see where we're at, exactly, on a timeline that leads to some very dark places. It would be a relief to find that we're rhyming with a society that managed to pull itself back from the brink of fascism without a global war for the soul of humanity, but unfortunately I think we're going to have to write that one for the first time.

Item 2: a list

Classic Potato Chip Flavors (Including Some International Selections), Ranked:

1. Ketchup
2. Sour Cream & Onion
3. All Dressed
4. Cheddar & Sour Cream
5. Salt & Vinegar
6. Plain / Salted
7. Prawn
8. BBQ

Style ranking: 1. Ruffles; 2. Kettle-Cooked; 3. Standard; 4. Potato Dust Glued Together (aka Pringles)

Item 3: a media recommendation

Item 4: word of the week

Transpicuous

Unlike her classmates' abstruse treatises, which seemed written specifically to alienate non-academic readers, Sally's essay was transpicuous – easy to read and understand. Unfortunately, her thesis ("corn is the pepperoni of vegetables") was extremely dumb and fundamentally unserious.

Item 5: a photograph

See ya!

I guess I better start working on the next issue - Friday will be here before we know it. Enjoy the week in the meantime, and I will see you back here again in the blink of an eye.