.i“ * ^ / . . . . . ` `~

Yglesias: It’s good to celebrate achievement, drive, intelligence, innovation, and accomplishment. But people whose *sole* focus in life is maximizing the success of the most successful are going to miss what the government is mainly for.

Good David Brooks speech.

AOC: If I ask you “what’s ten minus four,” and you say “six,” I can say “I didn’t say six.” (On Republican claims about not cutting Medicaid.)

This is another big chunk of my notes from working at the coffee shop, taking us from September of 2023 to the closing of the store in Nov 24. (This doesn’t take up where Community Spread leaves off by the way: there is at least one more book of notes between this and that.)

Even more than is the case with Community Spread, these shapeless Seeds could use the eye of an editor, but since this project is quasi-historical, as well as quasi-literary, there may be an advantage to having a “complete” version. Still, a general readership would probably be very grateful if I reduced this by at least a third.

For me, reading this is a bit like going through a scrapbook or photo album, and I must say I find the end of it, in which the store closes, somewhat affecting. Too: one of my ideas about this project has been that it is the “memoir of an other-directed person” — me as reflected through customers — and you do actually learn some things about me in this.

My default method of titling a work is just to take the most interesting phrase it contains and have that be the title, whether it’s representative or not; however, in this case I’m not too satisfied with that result. Another possible title is “Missing Middle”: which, bland as that is, was the name of the biggest, most divisive issue facing our community at that time. (It involved the banning of single family home zoning in an effort to increase the housing stock.) I’d love to incorporate that notion in the title somehow, but for now please enjoy what we shall provisionally know as —AMORPHOUS SEEDS.

A List of Women Authors from Ancient Greece and Rome

Irus from Odyssey.

Noah Smith: “Many types of ideological regimes emphasize a desire for self-sufficiency […] Trump ultimately isn’t much different. His inherent suspicion of other countries makes him want to be less dependent on them. To Trump, this goal is much more important than Americans’ prosperity. It’s more important than manufacturing strength or the fate of the working class. It’s a political goal whose value to Trump can’t be measured in dollars or jobs or production numbers.”

Tweet: the American system is tearing itself apart with no outside pressure.

Μένανδρος ἐρωτηθεὶς τί διαφέρουσιν ἀλλήλων Σοφοκλῆς καὶ Εὐριπίδης εἶπεν ὅτι Σοφοκλῆς μὲν τέρπεσθαι ποιεῖ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, Εὐριπίδης δὲ σκυθρωπάζειν τοὺς ἀκροατάς.(*)

Watching How to Die in Oregon tonight. “I want to go in there some night, go to sleep, and not wake up. That’s the decent thing to do.”

Elvis Presley – Little Sister (wiki)

Elizabeth: “What a long, strange grift it’s been.”

Funny characertization by Noah Smith: If Star Wars were real, the galactic internet would be flooded with screeching tirades about Han Solo’s criminal past, how Princess Leia got her position through nepotism, or how Luke Skywalker once made out with his sister.

Lifelog, example of what I’m not trying to do, or see the sense in doing.

Tweet (a caption): The Leader of the Free World, sitting next to Donald Trump.

Tweet: Being a U.S. enemy may be dangerous, but being its ally or partner may be fatal.

haplology: The process of deleting one of two almost identical syllables within a word.

un moment de bascule: a turning point.

AOC rightly bringing attention to Musk’s very stupid “what is a pharmacy benefit manager?” remark, emblematic of his approach.

Had the food pantry volunteer visited Kafka’s house on any of his trips to Prague? No, he didn’t like Kafka much. Did he think there was any value in seeing authors’ houses in general or in going to Mount Vernon even? As a native of Connecticut, but not only for that reason, he would say that Mark Twain’s house was worth seeing. Did the food pantry volunteer recommend visiting the thermal springs around Budapest? Emphatically yes.

What movie had two of the three Food Pantry Volunteers seen in the theater recently? Wicked. What movie from 2007 did the third volunteer rewatch recently which the two who’d seen Wicked never heard of? There will be Blood. What architect that was spoken of by the volunteers who’d seen Wicked made the volunteer who’d seen There Will Be Blood mentally note he would need to look him up? Walter Gropius. (“Basically unheard of you would have two by Gropius in one town,” said a volunteer.)

What was said to the food pantry volunteer as he adroitly reoriented his cart full of boxes of tomato sauce from back-facing to front-facing in a narrow corridor by a passing school administrator? “You handle that better than I do.”

What subject most dominated the banter and small talk of the food pantry volunteers as they worked? Politics. Did the food pantry volunteer find the President entertaining? No. Were there any topics on which the food pantry volunteer differed with her husband with respect to politics? They broadly agreed but didn’t get into specifics, which maybe they should more.

Did the food pantry volunteer share the food pantry volunteer’s opinion that immigrants to a country have a kind of distorted view of its politics? Politics were shaped by experiences, said the volunteer. Immigrants to this country have different experiences than people who were born here.

Were politics actually formed by experiences or by genetics I wondered aloud? I remember having heated political debates with a libertarian oriented kid in the fourth and fifth grades. We didn’t know anything, we hadn’t experienced anything, but we knew which side we were on.

Were any boxes of corn and tomato sauce carted up from the storage area? Yes, eight of each. How many boxes of sized 5 diapers did you place into ziplock bags, six per bag? Perhaps four. How many boxes of size two diapers did you put in bags? About a half of one.