Ridiculously proud of my friend's novel manuscript. We have to see if his old agent will take it, but this is really good work and I so fervently hope I get to share news of its sale soon.

...In tangential news, I have to nudge my agent. I know she's very busy with a lot of excelling clients, but it's been two months, so I need to know if she's on board with the book / trilogy I sent her or not.

Publishing is hard, mi gente.
No easy wins, except for a select geopolitically well-situated few. 👍

Okay, diving into work--but one quick challenge for you fine folks this morning.

This past weekend, I chatted with someone in Canada who might have the most first-world injury I have ever heard of:

He has to wear a splint on his pinkie to correct for the strain caused by resting his iPhone on it all the time. 🙃

If you can top that, PLEASE DO.

*The usual explainer for this phenomenon, in intermittent fasting research, comes down to metabolic health. Our bodies react differently to the same inputs depending on how high our stress hormones and insulin levels are - all of which tell our bodies when we need to conserve like our life depends on it, when to adjust for higher caloric inputs with higher metabolism, and when they can just chill out.

Our bodies aren't passive vessels! They adapt in fascinating ways to our lives.

Only a few days left of my Ramadan experiment, which has been fascinating. The first week SUCKED, but after that the body acclimated. Dry eye and low midday energy aside, it's become second-nature now not to eat or drink anything from dawn until dark.

But as seen in most intermittent fasting research, the other interesting part is that I've lost 12 pounds *just* from concentrating caloric intake to one window, & (plentiful) water intake to two.

Our bodies are wizards.
Full stop.

Good morning to everyone whose major grift in life is simply convincing others/yourself that you have all your sh--aving cream together more than half the time. 😊🤗

Woke up before my alarm with a dream of an Australian cattle dog just zipping back and forth in my thoughts, while adoring onlookers tried to get him to come to them.

10/10, brain. Well done.

Off for a run!

Almost at the end of today's task list. Just a friend's novel to finish beta-reading before bed (I have another queued up for this weekend, after all!).

Then I have to figure out something lighter to write about tomorrow. 🙃 But THAT sounds like a problem for Future Me.

Current Me says good night and good luck to all you fine wenches and rogues, whatever gender-flavour of either you might be! 😘

🤣 I try my best not to judge folks on the street, but sometimes they say the most ridiculous things after I give them a bit of coin.

One elderly woman today asked if she could ask me a question, then inquired as to why I didn't wear make-up, suggesting how pretty I could look with a little around the eyes and more colour on my cheeks.

Different gen and cultural norms, and I'm sure she was trying to be helpful, but lady, just take the coin and go eat. Foundation's not gonna fix my problems. 🤣

This is a wonderful 38-minute reflection on myths of genius and meritocracy, and their persistence in US political discourse today.

(Or you can read the text version at literatemachine.com!)

@ericrosenfield's posts are always a treat: thoughtful, thorough, and operating at a scale of argument that gets to the heart of #MediaLiteracy issues today. Highly recommended.

https://youtu.be/WY6oCHLWQOw

And now to shake off the ugliness of history, go for a walk, then write a series review and finish reading a friend's novel.

Pluralism is important--it's what we practise here every day, bringing to this shared space all our disparate subject positions, while trying to put the "human" first in everything we do--but it sure isn't easy.

May you always have places to turn to for reprieve from any heaviness you carry, too. 🕊️

Back to briefer posts next week, but today's piece deserved its length.

Springboarding from this weekend's anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel, Rewind Wednesday takes us back to another moment in Israel's political history, and reviews a fuller range of perspectives so often flattened in Western discourse about the state and Jewish political movements in general.

The question for Westerners is simple:

Are we ready to unflatten our own political histories, too?

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/we-have-always-lived-with-extremism

🙃 Y'know, I live in a place with many stunning, curvaceous women and gentle gym lads who never miss leg day... but little makes this queer heart flutter quite as much as seeing a cute nerd.

Tonight, it happened to be a gal with thick glasses and a soft plaid button up over a comic print tee, but the principle is universal! I will applaud a fine behind and salute a solid set of arms...

But I will lose my power of speech *every time* when I see a nerd who knows his/her/their special charm. 💜 🔥

#MentalHealth #PSA

Always important to keep the conversation going outside World Mental Health Day and other such formal occasions.

The world's all junked up, and amid all the terrible news not just at a distance but often also far too close to home, it's easy for one wounded part of us to hijack the wonderful rest of us.

So check in with your peeps. And be good to your rotten old selves, too. 🕊️

https://youtu.be/tX8TgVR33KM

This is a generous piece by Adam Mastroianni. It explores a few common ideas about behavioural incentives, and nudges readers to think beyond the surface of experimental data around them.

Much more interesting is the drive to treat fellow human beings like “jukeboxes” in the first place. How can understanding this proclivity help us to move better through the world?

#Essays #Psychology
https://open.substack.com/pub/experimentalhistory/p/startling-differences-between-humans

All right! Today’s Tough Times Tuesday starts with a wee local explainer.

But mostly, we’re talking about the difficult world of chocolate—and why recent market/consumer news about surging cocoa futures often entirely miss the point.

All our news has bias built in, but some forms (especially financial) can be harder to spot than others. Those are the ones we need to look out for most of all.

#MediaLiteracy #Economics #Chocolate
#BetterWorldsTheory

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/how-we-report-on-commodity-futures

Killer headache from this morning's protest is finally receding.

The traffic is still backed up something fierce, so I suspect it's added to pollution and heat factors, but at least I can read my screen again! More soon.

#War

This local overview of the WCK attack raises a key point. The three-stage hit was certainly intentional, but whose intention? Top-down conspiracy or local reckless action? The latter is nothing new:

"It's frustrating," one of the defense sources told Haaretz. "We're trying our hardest to accurately hit terrorists ... and in the end the units in the field decide to launch attacks without any preparation, in cases that have nothing to do with protecting our forces."

https://archive.ph/2024.04.02-122015/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-02/ty-article/.premium/idf-bombed-wck-aid-convoy-3-times-targeting-armed-hamas-member-who-wasnt-there/0000018e-9e75-d764-adff-9eff29360000

Ah. Now I know.

It's a protest for eliminating a toll booth for commuting workers from the small towns that support the main city with daily labour. These are surging semi-rural populations hit hard by that toll to work.

This protest has closed the highway and cars are backed up, emergency sirens and trucks tooting. It is *very* hard to concentrate, so I'm just out for a quick pace before revising today's piece. 👍🏻✊

#ElPuebloUnido #Colombia

I missed notice of a highway protest, apparently, and I can't tell what this one is about yet... but they're blasting the Colombian anthem, they have a police presence, and they're wearing shirts that at a distance look like Ghostbuster swag 🚫, so... it's anyone guess. I'll find out more after finishing today's newsletter.

Life in Colombia: Never dull!