Archive for Around the Web

Reading Is My Escape

Cartoon by Tom Toro.

Um . . . Congratulations to My Blog?

These days, I assume everything is a scam. 

A trick to make you click. 

Any email that starts, “Congratulations,” is a giant red flag. 

But I did briefly look into this listing of 100 Best Children’s Book Blogs, according to Feedspot, and it seems legit enough.

Or not, I don’t know. 

Probably not.

But they did create this badge and, okay, I’ll share it.

Look at me, me, me. 

Anyway, about ye olde blog: 

Been doing it since 2008. I basically never upgrade or fancify. There’s some good stuff here if you did around (clicking on categories is probably the best approach). I’ve been answering Fan Mail on here for a long, long time — that is, sharing a few selected Fan Mail & Replies over the years. It adds up. 

My assumption is: no one cares & I do it anyway. Which has been my general writing motto for a long, long time. 

Carry on!

 

A Teacher’s “April Fools” Joke

I know a teacher who announced that she made brownies for the entire class!

 

Just Putting This Here

“Predatory Delay” & a Happy New Year to You!

One phrase I learned this year is “predatory delay,” which is the deliberate slowing of change to prolong a profitable status quo whose costs will be paid by others.

Hat tip, futurist Alex Steffan.

Think: the tobacco industry. They knew but . . . there was money to be made.

Also think: The oil companies and climate change. They’ve known since the 1960s, arguably, and the 1980s, absolutely. But the world runs on gas and there are billions of dollars to be made only if that gas gets burned.

They are not motivated to transition to alternative sources of energy. They are, in fact, adversely motivated.

Here’s John Vaillant:

“The willful and ongoing failure to act on climate science is unforgivable; recrimination is justified, but none will be sufficient. In this case, at the planetary level, there is no justice; the punishment will be shared by all, but most severely by the young, the innocent, and the as-yet unborn.”

In short, earn big money now, kick the can down the road, and force the next generation — our children — to pay the price.

Those poor innocent kids.

Vaillant calls the political inactivity on climate change — i.e., predatory delay — “the greatest inter-generational injustice ever inflicted by one generation upon the next.”

Happy New Year.

Here’s to being better in 2025.