The Best Things I've Seen on the Internet Lately: top picks and fave finds
Some Good Articles
I sort of already followed this method, but I didn’t know about not cutting through the root. Handy tip!
Step 1. Halve the onion through the root end and peel it. Working with one half at a time, make a series of evenly spaced vertical cuts from pole to pole (top to root), slicing down toward the cutting board but stopping just before the root end.
I definitely need to learn how to do this better. Being a writer doesn’t help this guilt, because whenever I have down time, I feel like I should be writing/editing/revising/marketing.
A Guide to Doing Nothing for People who are Really Bad at it
Rest doesn’t necessarily mean literally doing nothing, but it does mean getting satisfaction out of whatever you do (or don’t do). Sounds simple, but the next time you have free time on your hands, Dr. Gooden recommends thinking about what you want to do—not what you think would get you likes on social media or what your judgmental thoughts are telling you that you “should” do. Maybe it’s eating your favorite dessert, spending 15 minutes with your child, or reading a romance novel.
I sometimes use ChatGPT to help me come up with headlines for this very newsletter. This article has made me rethink my approach. I don’t want to be stupid!
Do You Want to be Stupid: Stop Using Chat GPT to Think for you
A manager should struggle to do performance reviews, because it forces them to think through each of their report’s work in the context of the organization’s goals and lay out next steps for both. It should be a challenge to find great comp titles for your novel, because it means you have to do research into your genre, the current marketplace, other writer’s voices, and compare them to your own. And if you don’t want to respond to your friends yourself, then…find new friends? Leave society? I don’t know what to do with that one.
Reels
(Warning, when you click, you’re taken to Instagram)
I just enjoyed the purity of everyone’s enjoyment of this
The video is cute, but I actually prefer the caption underneath it (see below). From now on, I am thinking of elephants as scoundrels.
I’ve spent a lot of time around elephants. I’m fascinated by their personalities and their intellect. I actually think this Impalagot off lucky. It’s such quintessential elephant behavior to be completely dominant in their worldview. “It’s my water hole. I’d prefer it if you weren’t standing here.” This guy was actually very gracious and giving the Impala a tap and not just mashing it. One thing that people don’t realize about elephants is that they’re scoundrels. They like to joke. They have a sense of humor. They enjoy that they can intimidate everybody else. And they have very strong preferences. This guy clearly wanted to drink in peace.
I have very dim early memories of the TV show Welcome Back Kotter, which considering it went off the air when I was 3, must stem from watching it in repeats or syndication. Anyway, our recent trip to Australia involved a family reunion that morphed into a giant hours-long dance party and several bemused Aussies complimented me on my dance moves… I realise now they have all come from this dance… (Also, who knew that Mr. Kotter was actually quite attractive?!)
P.S. Speaking of onions, I am expanding my veggie garden empire (remember the glories of my garlic patch!?) and I have just spent this sunny Saturday morning planting a mountain of red and yellow onion. I will keep you updated on the progress of this new venture… I am hopeful because I don’t think the critters (squirrels and rabbits) in my backyard will want to eat onions, something I that cannot be said about my tulips…
P.P.S remember my brag about the cardinals building a nest on my sunporch? Those ne’er do well dirtbags didn’t follow through. No nest. Wankers. My backyard is against me.
If your tulips were eaten by squirrels, you can forget about tulips next year. The little b*stards will come back and eat all the bulbs. Ask me how I know this, after I planted 50 bulbs last year.