Meta tags:
description=A blog about writing, drinking and urban Indians.;

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, december, 2023, internet, personified, and, life, compulsive, confessions, pages, 27, 13, before, then, after, split, you, are, here, times, of, layla, ordinary, cold, feet, twitter, feed, popular, posts, previously, best, books, read, in, link, list, universe, everything, part, ii, trendy, book, actually, published, this, year,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (263), and (188), you (136), that (79), this (70), but (64), for (61), year (47), from (45), your (43), have (43), with (42), book (39), was (38), all (37), about (35), her (33), who (32), not (31), are (30), one (30), out (30), #december (29), like (29), time (28), read (28), she (27), what (25), life (23), there (23), best (23), because (22), november (21), october (20), september (20), may (20), march (20), january (20), books (20), can (20), reading (20), august (19), june (19), april (19), february (19), things (19), people (19), 2023 (18), july (18), which (18), also (18), into (18), just (18), new (17), how (17), here (16), get (16), 2015 (15), internet (15), really (15), only (15), twenty (15), then (14), newsletter (14), share (14), when (14), good (14), has (14), way (14), 2014 (13), 2011 (13), 2010 (13), 2008 (13), know (13), had (13), don (13), two (13), years (13), going (13), 2022 (12), 2021 (12), 2020 (12), 2018 (12), 2017 (12), 2016 (12), 2013 (12), 2012 (12), 2009 (12), 2007 (12), 2006 (12), 2005 (12), writing (12), than (12), want (12), last (12), more (12), well (12), these (12), novel (12), been (12), back (11), think (11), even (11), again (11), part (11), story (11), india (10), friends (10), much (10), love (10), everything (10), thing (10), they (10), little (10), them (10), thirty (10), some (10), yes (10), never (10), free (10), most (10), crime (10), will (9), day (9), leave (9), first (9), house (9), see (9), though (9), might (9), were (9), lot (9), link (9), 2019 (8), after (8), other (8), next (8), own (8), something (8), once (8), old (8), myself (8), world (8), month (8), over (8), find (8), buy (8), personified (8), their (8), its (8), fiction (8), 2004 (7), posts (7), before (7), use (7), didn (7), support (7), those (7), end (7), got (7), keep (7), work (7), sometimes (7), doing (7), already (7), now (7), very (7), where (7), coffee (7), another (7), actually (7), both (7), favourite (7), food (7), his (7), times (6), older (6), forward (6), liked (6), without (6), madhavan (6), author (6), city (6), many (6), watched (6), let (6), take (6), started (6), did (6), every (6), could (6), should (6), holiday (6), place (6), off (6), week (6), three (6), left (6), through (6), father (6), subscription (6), still (6), subscribe (5), home (5), email (5), made (5), write (5), reddy (5), eight (5), account (5), days (5), full (5), tell (5), makes (5), young (5), same (5), look (5), too (5), such (5), family (5), marriage (5), yet (5), nice (5), make (5), living (5), move (5), thinking (5), almost (5), told (5), questions (5), answer (5), question (5), morality (5), characters (5), does (5), germany (5), slightly (5), enemy (5), penguin (4), comments (4), meenakshi (4), writer (4), words (4), general (4), follow (4), stories (4), please (4), everyone (4), great (4), half (4), feel (4), thanks (4), extremely (4), advice (4), age (4), animal (4), making (4), used (4), done (4), maybe (4), point (4), anything (4), break (4), down (4), friend (4), places (4), why (4), different (4), five (4), live (4), always (4), worth (4), room (4), getting (4), sign (4), mind (4), beautiful (4), human (4), children (4), enjoy (4), come (4), together (4), fun (4), super (4), parents (4), since (4), links (4), comes (4), often (4), must (4), local (4), published (4), takes (4), whether (4), narrative (4), mother (4), podcast (4), long (4), class (4), elle (4), small (4), previously (3), cold (3), ordinary (3), filed (3), under (3), pinterest (3), facebook (3), blogthis (3), posted (3), hear (3), potter (3), special (3), recommendations (3), instagram (3), buying (3), tip (3), comment (3), german (3), finally (3), berlin (3), longer (3), being (3), came (3), forty (3), listen (3), several (3), someone (3), thought (3), ourselves (3), would (3), important (3), wasn (3), eventually (3), blah (3), terrifying (3), party (3), instead (3), hard (3), remember (3), travel (3), light (3), amazing (3), daily (3), four (3), receive (3), try (3), happened (3), any (3), feeling (3), bad (3), species (3), few (3), decide (3), kind (3), heart (3), yourself (3), dream (3), job (3), fundamental (3), publicity (3), ever (3), large (3), except (3), known (3), public (3), journalism (3), quite (3), literally (3), say (3), mostly (3), went (3), learned (3), reminder (3), open (3), soon (3), girls (3), curiosity (3), literary (3), legal (3), means (3), right (3), view (3), vinegar (3), past (3), ago (3), says (3), god (3), our (3), lives (3), secret (3), goes (3), weisberg (3), incredible (3), hours (3), mubi (3), watch (3), list (3), film (3), dance (3), demon (3), copperhead (3), manage (3), husband (3), true (3), each (3), picked (3), teenager (3), meets (3), set (3), diary (3), original (3), library (3), picture (2), blogger (2), popular (2), split (2), wait (2), till (2), trouble (2), anyway (2), able (2), stay (2), changed (2), figure (2), else (2), easy (2), slip (2), finding (2), keeps (2), soft (2), meet (2), problem (2), short (2), comfortable (2), events (2), humans (2), face (2), satisfying (2), sense (2), forget (2), nine (2), period (2), later (2), looking (2), whatever (2), deep (2), generally (2), person (2), felt (2), inside (2), cocoon (2), emerge (2), butterfly (2), ages (2), bear (2), seven (2), married (2), six (2), becomes (2), regular (2), certain (2), suddenly (2), sort (2), town (2), carry (2), stuff (2), surprisingly (2), anyone (2), otherwise (2), rest (2), seeing (2), country (2), less (2), least (2), helps (2), given (2), money (2), unhappy (2), animals (2), probably (2), regret (2), decision (2), bit (2), fast (2), chance (2), works (2), ways (2), child (2), isn (2), case (2), door (2), dinner (2), parties (2), self (2), idea (2), talk (2), expectations (2), soul (2), paid (2), financially (2), profile (2), greater (2), blog (2), led (2), beginning (2), awkward (2), chose (2), real (2), moved (2), followed (2), run (2), immensely (2), abandon (2), literature (2), busy (2), round (2), ten (2), actual (2), big (2), birthday (2), universe (2), usual (2), knows (2), speak (2), 2024 (2), indian (2), yikes (2), language (2), turns (2), ultimate (2), behavior (2), amount (2), evolves (2), written (2), literal (2), opposed (2), within (2), meditation (2), scares (2), further (2), away (2), social (2), media (2), among (2), government (2), deport (2), cannot (2), enough (2), odd (2), terrible (2), stopped (2), erased (2), flavour (2), salt (2), sweet (2), taken (2), launched (2), across (2), cardamom (2), grew (2), treat (2), americans (2), prose (2), fatness (2), scratch (2), offer (2), loved (2), vultures (2), matter (2), humanity (2), knew (2), turned (2), requires (2), gave (2), purpose (2), understand (2), restaurants (2), restaurant (2), business (2), until (2), third (2), wells (2), connection (2), between (2), cooking (2), lies (2), couldn (2), spent (2), hot (2), article (2), saturated (2), cook (2), bhavya (2), sent (2), court (2), hooked (2), focus (2), referral (2), gift (2), found (2), ends (2), woman (2), sexuality (2), movie (2), stop (2), haven (2), single (2), via (2), exercise (2), particular (2), centre (2), far (2), wish (2), count (2), besides (2), frantically (2), yellowface (2), touch (2), while (2), around (2), scroll (2), number (2), man (2), childhood (2), unfolds (2), paper (2), palace (2), lake (2), beloved (2), enter (2), breaks (2), reads (2), tiffy (2), chapter (2), daughter (2), wrong (2), pages (2), funny (2), boy (2), origami (2), bundy (2), feminist (2), women (2), novels (2), iii (2), teacher (2), school (2), girl (2), white (2), poor (2), intricate (2), fact (2), industry (2), trendy (2), anne (2), instance (2), sad (2), material (2), barbara (2), pym (2), dead (2), borrow (2), title (2), magic (2), basic (2), phone (2), note (2), amazon (2), compulsive (2), confessions (2), window, theme, powered, tweets, reddymadhavan, twitter, feed, feet, layla, westland, atom, uniqlo, heattech, appears, winters, wind, worn, chilling, polar, gusts, silk, stockings, binged, fleishman, afford, reply, inefficient, bureaucracy, national, visa, resident, managed, sustain, friendships, hobbies, rythyms, sorts, skill, proud, challenging, beliefs, become, narrow, minded, refuse, therefore, harder, especially, solutions, burst, enthusiasm, learning, situation, massive, occur, lifetime, stunned, centuries, adversity, return, gratitude, waiting, realise, repeating, wouldn, fallow, periods, patterns, sleepwalking, restless, lazy, 37th, 38th, curled, caterpillar, hibernating, switched, metaphors, gist, hybrid, possible, bank, forced, huge, weddings, wedding, entire, extended, put, foot, acts, assertion, destination, whole, intimately, sound, dull, pay, offshoot, peace, familiar, flown, learn, breakfast, included, bags, research, mark, google, maps, gets, overwhelming, nothing, cafe, nap, prefer, naps, intelligent, doesn, politics, depresses, continuing, happen, depressed, informed, psychoanalysis, cope, hindsight, jobs, waking, workplace, respects, treats, automaton, need, whenever, impulsively, mortality, stinky, litter, boxes, vomit, floor, unique, privilege, bones, thirties, blur, spun, decade, chronology, allowed, holding, creating, partner, change, ness, start, tiny, annexe, flat, servant, quarters, cat, hosted, sat, terrace, metro, loathing, allow, relationships, happier, alone, actively, leveraged, basically, wisdoms, build, debut, highest, upend, cities, countries, smaller, spur, moment, watching, wild, project, reasonably, poured, terms, building, print, deal, famous, better, clear, irresponsible, decisions, parental, abode, starting, salary, 500, euros, rent, leaving, broke, stressed, cushion, easier, household, weren, difficult, rewarding, telling, briefly, masters, degree, english, onwards, hits, inbox, dispatches, corner, investment, motivated, posting, sending, plenty, ahead, covered, dot, icymi, dear, songbirds, heartless, employer, insisting, second, essentially, season, wrap, send, picks, reels, election, invite, cats, noses, hidden, gilmore, normporn, influence, adaptability, jays, postscripts, clearly, universal, cosmic, implications, truly, owe, reconstruct, mathematics, physics, vital, legitimately, ethan, siegel, obvs, investigates, stares, unrelentingly, requiring, righteousness, vast, criticism, treated, mathematically, precise, obvious, undeniable, eternal, none, devolves, rule, outside, commandments, supposedly, floated, top, mountain, hands, moses, folks, bible, magical, realism, garcia, marquez, truth, arrive, reality, dressed, paradoxically, truer, regard, nature, largely, invented, aka, genuine, contemporary, etiquette, arises, crucially, buddhist, example, leads, generous, awareness, blythe, changing, retreating, lure, help, worry, sell, fewer, death, afterlife, beyond, incidents, politicians, seemingly, competed, themselves, promote, anti, antisemitism, loudest, harshest, muslim, minority, nancy, faeser, cabinet, minister, urged, hamas, supporters, leader, center, christian, democratic, union, friedrich, merz, declared, accept, refugees, antisemitic, men, scholz, chancellor, piled, coming, said, grand, scale, isaac, bernstein, schizophrenic, agree, ongoing, attacks, gaza, germans, guilt, points, leading, conflicts, private, conversations, crackdown, pro, palestinian, gatherings, thank, post, wood, personality, prawn, cocktail, punchy, blond, bob, floaty, floral, skirt, silver, studded, trainers, decades, everywhere, doritos, took, culinary, trek, northern, lucknow, trying, pilaus, meats, breads, street, stalls, relies, knowledge, pepsico, teams, taste, clarify, roasted, green, amelia, tate, uncle, chipps, papdi, chaat, plain, salted, oily, soggy, supermarket, frequent, brand, chips, extra, salty, bag, evening, secretive, crisps, flavours, happens, recommended, excited, loving, appreciating, rich, humor, snappiness, fat, hateful, reductive, record, totally, insight, character, wading, baggage, unclear, emma, copley, eisenberg, fatphobia, frontier, guided, science, secretly, ones, bestows, epic, importance, upon, annihilation, million, deaths, figurative, notices, disappearance, catastrophic, ability, adapt, stunning, wiped, earth, steady, population, progress, disappear, bio, planet, forgotten, generation, encounters, museum, exhibits, grandmother, knee, computer, screen, turning, teenagers, seen, vulture, skies, filled, swirling, kettles, scavengers, meera, subramaniam, circa, lines, stood, dramatic, pause, bang, whimper, vanishing, backward, success, deeper, training, willingness, pursue, monomanias, wherever, lead, divulged, younger, having, fight, describe, alluring, affability, uncover, gladiator, wanted, creativity, realized, symbolic, function, laura, kipnis, joe, creator, mum, spy, dumped, cia, therapy, television, ethical, core, ethics, aware, diplomatic, considerate, professional, questioned, conduct, ate, meal, alan, richman, piece, gossip, nevertheless, service, rate, akin, rude, bars, suffice, review, beings, began, realize, necessary, honesty, charmingly, dishonest, admit, urge, develop, him, larceny, fibber, blithely, assert, mott, applesauce, doctored, lemon, cinnamon, homemade, stove, package, frozen, banquette, fried, chicken, drumsticks, plates, tom, junod, james, beard, award, winning, grandmas, mas, cooked, amazingly, complained, mom, reader, journalist, dore, worked, called, unfolded, stage, drama, meant, broader, audience, listened, episode, recently, kesavananda, bharati, state, kerala, paying, splainer, news, analyse, give, plus, weekend, edition, sale, selling, price, usually, inspired, movies, aren, quote, unquote, blockbusters, curated, stressful, netflix, prime, summaries, summary, reviews, below, navigate, search, rotten, tomatoes, bundle, ticket, quickly, ideas, pensive, platform, regretted, saying, picky, join, aftersun, sex, urban, sports, club, operates, side, offers, basis, medium, plan, check, suits, yoga, joined, hula, hoop, system, commitment, phobic, variety, care, fool, lots, workshops, future, code, mm08471, discounts, personifieds, today, born, 13th, 31st, yesterday, longreads, archive, articles, online, composing, missive, slow, lord, riches, collection, seasonal, cheer, bee, sting, maximum, beloveds, highly, subjective, lists, happy, however, celebrating, burnt, won, favourites, millennial, motherhood, selfish, vengeful, preserving, crave, softness, chain, unlikeable, direst, hesitate, loose, devour, façade, carefully, built, rarely, authors, dwell, rough, edges, unwanted, pregnancies, against, existential, threat, pandemic, sayari, debnath, bonus, delving, starts, complicated, simple, premise, slept, present, tries, wife, darts, early, adult, cardboard, fragments, returns, summer, lushly, described, gazes, bottles, female, moves, london, guests, tells, guest, happening, memory, cocker, spaniel, swear, denies, exists, thinks, mad, finds, photo, herself, dog, moments, savour, relish, transit, taffy, autofiction, irish, apart, member, teenage, crowd, college, son, questionable, losing, wondering, sitting, secrets, deeply, pain, booker, shortlisted, although, call, smart, hangover, worst, strange, autistic, spectrum, snuggle, winter, nights, warmer, water, bottle, comforting, ted, puts, survivor, worshipping, killed, fiercely, featured, main, pamela, schumacher, heroine, firmly, serial, killer, talks, stead, victims, names, bright, exactly, hardboiled, detective, talking, suspects, figuring, uses, format, murder, peers, interviewed, tumblr, bullying, groups, killing, whydunnit, penance, academia, baby, century, references, attended, students, investigate, disappeared, twist, roommate, rebecca, makkai, backlist, immediately, dark, history, prep, 1974, boston, heatwave, busing, black, schools, police, procedural, options, flower, delicate, mercies, earlier, forgetting, interconnected, revolving, cast, music, stand, entirely, powerpoint, presentation, girlfriend, tabloid, harks, reference, previous, innovative, dated, slim, fit, purse, underground, journeys, visit, goon, squad, candy, gone, frank, surprised, forgot, details, popped, curious, adaptation, drawings, bits, censored, budding, brought, colour, panels, elevates, promise, graphic, speaking, retelling, ramayana, sita, walking, fire, prove, purity, yuck, ravana, abducts, heartrending, mumbai, chawl, locals, buildings, abutting, wistful, missed, potential, memoirs, valmiki, rao, readers, late, swift, ready, convert, rural, appalachia, opioid, crisis, looms, genius, expect, shouldn, surprise, source, lovely, david, copperfield, trotting, publishers, dropped, nervous, breakdown, close, becoming, seriously, relevant, british, spinster, ordered, perfection, excellent, introduced, hunt, obviously, fever, narrator, certainly, eating, disorder, spelt, languishes, sublet, hectically, lonely, seems, active, weird, retrospect, sure, enjoyed, tacky, smooth, filler, minute, addition, damn, kept, satirical, publishing, hated, ending, kuang, formula, spending, chunk, seem, perhaps, meetings, bother, domestic, admin, cleaning, working, healthy, juggling, devote, priority, slowing, counting, 117, respectable, standards, 115, goal, reach, meandered, 200, easily, control, speed, inhale, gripping, devices, technically, luckily, activity, force, bliss, silent, hate, sorry, emergency, spend, tot, effect, asking, frequently, alas, size, fits, begin, friendly, runs, add, jar, linked, affiliate, page, kindle, preview, bookstore, gmail, click, browser, annual, ceremony, honestly, 27th, middle, lined, holidays, excite, bookworms, wrote, submit, freelance, sponsored, address, gleeful, dollop, blytonian, tackle, fairly, sensitive, subjects, identity, karmic, ties, adoption, sexual, encounter, loneliness, rage, themes, fate, power, overlay, subtle, essential, feminism, lyrical, mahabharata, series, months, magazine, mesmerizing, matsyagandha, transformation, fisherman, satyavati, santanu, royal, consort, progenitor, kuru, clan, hindustan, latest, swam, fishes,

Text of the page (random words):
is just a collection of my december links sent out to you all with seasonal cheer and so on yesterday i spent a lot of time in the longreads archive so some of these articles are old but still amazing a reminder if you like what i do if you open this newsletter as soon as you see it if you wish there were more more more internet personifieds once a week even please buy me a coffee it s also my birthday today so a nice way to get the year started for me being born in december means i count my new year from the 13th and not the 31st buy me a coffee this month i have given myself the gift of exercise with a subscription to urban sports club which operates this side of the world and offers you a daily class on the basis of your subscription i have a medium plan which means i can check in to a class once a day but in a particular centre only four times a month which suits me so far i ve done a lot of yoga and also joined a hula hoop dance class this system works for me because i am very commitment phobic and enjoy a variety of things dance is so fun and one nice thing about getting older is that i no longer care much about looking like a fool so lots of dance workshops in my future here s a link you can use to sign up and treat yourself my referral code is mm08471 we both get discounts after month three if we use it another gift to myself has been a mubi subscription because they had a sale on and were selling a year long one for half price i usually read to get inspired but i don t really watch that many movies that aren t quote unquote blockbusters they have a super curated list which i find less stressful than netflix or prime because they do their own summaries as well as the film summary as well as link reviews below so i don t have to navigate out and search rotten tomatoes for hours before i decide to watch something in germany they also bundle a mubi go subscription into your regular one so you get one free film ticket a week i only found this out last week and the offer ends in 2024 so i quickly went and watched how to have sex which is a beautiful film about a young woman going on holiday with her two best friends and also the ideas of sexuality at that age it made me very pensive as did aftersun another movie i watched on the platform which i can t stop thinking about i haven t regretted a single movie i watched via mubi which is saying something because i m extremely picky here s a link to sign up we both get a free month if you join via that link another subscription i have not new because i ve been paying for this since it launched is splainer it s this incredible news round up with an india focus but they also analyse stories and give you links to read more about them plus a fun weekend edition as well well worth the money and once again here s my referral link so you can have a free one month subscription newsletter reader and journalist bhavya dore sent me a link to a podcast she worked on called friend of the court in bhavya s words it s a narrative account of india s most important legal case kesavananda bharati vs state of kerala both the story that unfolded in court as well as the off stage drama and the events that led up to and followed from it it s a legal story but meant for a broader audience i listened to the first episode recently and was hooked you can find them all here like most human beings i grew up making the connection between food and love what i began to realize when i started cooking for myself was that the more necessary connection was between food and honesty my parents were both charmingly dishonest people my father s lies were such that he couldn t admit them except to urge me to develop like him a little larceny in your soul but my mother could since most of her lies were about food oh i m a terrible fibber she d say and then blithely assert that the mott s applesauce she d doctored with lemon and cinnamon was homemade or that she d spent hours over a hot stove cooking the package of frozen banquette fried chicken drumsticks on our plates from my mom couldn t cook by tom junod a 2011 james beard award winning article that i liked a lot because i m saturated saturated by stories of all these amazing grandmas and mas who cooked amazingly and never complained this is the ethical core of who i am and what i do yet the ethics of food writing don t end there i m also extremely aware of my behavior in restaurants i try to be diplomatic and considerate never in my professional life has anyone in the restaurant business questioned my conduct not until i ate my third meal at m wells from alan richman s review of the restaurant m wells a really old piece of food gossip which nevertheless got me thinking about service in restaurants these days and how we should rate that akin to food i ve been to some rude bars here in berlin and suffice it to say no matter how nice the place i m never going back it turned out i had it backward the secret to writing success goes deeper than on the job training it requires a willingness to pursue your monomanias wherever they lead it requires weisberg eventually divulged finding a good enemy when i was younger having an enemy gave me a purpose because the purpose is to fight the enemy he told me it s hard to describe how alluring that was if you have an enemy everything makes sense there it was scratch the affability uncover a gladiator if i wanted to understand weisberg and maybe human creativity generally i realized i d have to understand the symbolic function of the enemy from the spy who dumped the cia went to therapy and now makes incredible television by laura kipnis an incredible profile of joe weisberg creator of the americans which i watched last year with my mum and k and really got into maybe all of us whether guided by god or by science secretly want to be the ones living in the end times as though it bestows some epic importance upon our little lives but what if there is no ultimate annihilation but instead a million daily deaths literal or figurative that no one quite notices the vultures disappearance is catastrophic yes but the ability to adapt is stunning or terrifying or both no matter how bad things get how many species get wiped from the earth in humanity s steady march of population and progress the living go on those species that disappear are erased from the bio narrative of the planet and forgotten within a generation that only knows of what came before through chance encounters at museum exhibits a grandmother s knee or a picture on a computer screen already there are children turning into teenagers in india who have never seen a vulture though their parents knew skies filled with swirling kettles of the scavengers for most of their lives from india s vanishing vultures by meera subramaniam circa 2015 but these lines stood out for me don t we all want to be in the dramatic pause of the end times and what if the end comes not with a bang but a whimper let me tell you about a thing that happens to me all the time when i m reading i m reading a book that s been recommended to me or that i m excited about these days because i ve been writing a novel i ve been reading mostly fiction by americans published in the last twenty years often i m reading fiction that has been published in the last two years or that isn t even out yet i m loving the book i m appreciating its rich characters its humor the snappiness of its prose and then the book says something about fat people or fatness that is hateful or reductive and it s like record scratch it totally takes me out of the book and i have to decide whether or not to keep going will whatever insight this book might offer me about a character or a place or an idea be worth wading through the author s baggage about fatness unclear from fatphobia is the literary world s last frontier by emma copley eisenberg which really got me thinking about some books that i ve previously loved wood s favourite flavour is salt and vinegar but i think her personality is more prawn cocktail sweet but punchy with her blond bob floaty floral skirt and silver studded trainers in the past two decades her work has taken her everywhere before doritos launched in india five years ago she took a culinary trek across the northern city of lucknow trying different pilaus meats and breads from street food stalls she relies on knowledge from local pepsico teams so that if she says i think i can taste cardamom they can clarify it s roasted green cardamom actually from inside the surprisingly secretive world of crisps flavours by amelia tate i used to really enjoy uncle chipps papdi chaat flavour but as i grew older it was only plain salted for me slightly oily slightly soggy in berlin the supermarket we frequent the most often does the best salt and vinegar own brand chips i ve had extra vinegar slightly sweet very salty i get these for a treat because i can go through a bag in an evening thank you for reading the internet personified this post is public so feel free to share it share beyond these incidents german politicians have seemingly competed among themselves to see who can promote anti antisemitism the loudest and who can be the harshest on the muslim minority nancy faeser a government cabinet minister urged that the government use all legal means to deport hamas supporters the leader of germany s center right party the christian democratic union friedrich merz declared germany cannot accept any more refugees we have enough antisemitic men in this country scholz the chancellor piled on too many are coming he said we must finally deport on a grand scale from the crackdown on pro palestinian gatherings in germany by isaac bernstein it s been an odd schizophrenic time here in germany most people agree that the ongoing attacks on gaza are terrible and must be stopped but the germans also carry with them a great amount of german guilt which cannot be erased these two points of view are leading to a lot of conflicts both in private conversations and in public for me good literature investigates morality it stares unrelentingly at the behavior of its characters without requiring righteousness the problem these days with a vast amount of fiction and its criticism is that morality is treated as if it were mathematically precise obvious undeniable and eternal it is none of those things morality evolves devolves and evolves again it is not a rule that comes from outside of ourselves as when the ten commandments supposedly floated down to the top of a mountain into the hands of moses that s fiction too folks as if the bible were a very good book of magical realism written by garcia marquez truth does not have to be literal it can arrive at reality dressed in a dream paradoxically fiction is often truer than journalism in regard to the nature of life even though it is largely invented aka fiction and genuine morality as opposed to contemporary etiquette arises from within us over time with thought with feeling and crucially with curiosity in buddhist meditation for example curiosity leads to a greater and more generous awareness from the life death and afterlife of literary fiction by will blythe no question the internet is changing the way we write and the way we read it scares me sometimes no it scares me often in my old er age i m retreating further and further away from the lure of social media at least but i can t help worry that this will actually sell even fewer books than i have already all told there are many questions that 42 is clearly the answer to but only a few of those questions have fundamental universal or cosmic implications if it truly is the answer to the ultimate question about life the universe and everything we owe it to ourselves to try and reconstruct just what that question might be from mathematics to physics five vital questions emerge that legitimately have 42 as their answer from 42 really is the answer to these 5 fundamental questions by ethan siegel because obvs subscribe now postscripts on the adaptability of jays reels might influence the next indian election yikes love actually turns 20 yikes again on the normporn ways of gilmore girls invite all your friends to all your parties the hidden language of cats humans have two noses that s a season wrap on links of the week i ll send you one last newsletter this month with my best books picks and then we ll speak again in 2024 x m who are you meenakshi reddy madhavan writer of internet words and other things author of eight books support me by buying a book and general city potter er follow me on instagram i have a special account for book recommendations forward to your friends if you liked this and to your heartless employer insisting you work just the same as usual even though everyone knows the second half of december is essentially a holiday that you get paid for if you didn t also write back to me i love to hear from you posted by em at 11 51 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest filed under newsletter 3 december 2023 the internet personified life the universe and everything part ii my dear songbirds when we left off last time i had covered my years and advice from year dot to twenty one you can read that one here icymi now since december is busy posting time for me almost time for my great books 2023 round up i m sending you part two in plenty of time and ten days ahead of my actual big birthday a reminder if you look forward to this newsletter if you open it as soon as it hits your inbox if you enjoy reading my dispatches from my corner of the world please buy me a coffee it s very little investment and it helps keep me motivated and writing to you buy me a coffee onwards when we left off i was telling you about my twenty first year when i chose to go on into journalism and abandon a briefly started masters degree in english literature year twenty two make financially irresponsible decisions every now and then i chose to move out of my very comfortable parental abode and into the real world with a starting salary of rs 7 500 say 75 euros this mostly went into my rent leaving me super broke and super stressed out but i d done it i d moved out without a cushion the years that followed got easier i learned to live on my own and run a household i learned to live with other people who weren t my parents only child see it was immensely difficult and immensely rewarding i think you should find the same thing for yourself year twenty three if you re going to move into a house with your friends you d all better make your expectations clear in the beginning otherwise awkward year twenty four do that wild project you ve been thinking about doing for ages with no expectations at all except that you ll have fun doing it did i ever tell you i was once a reasonably well known blogger i was famous for my blog and i poured my heart and soul into that thing it paid off not financially but in terms of building a pub...