TIDINGS: Seabirds and sea shanties


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​‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’​

Profile of Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, now 87 and publishing the first of a planned 13 new books.

The Guardian | Steve Rose

​Master and commander​

The dark side of the "ShantyTok" trend: the story of an Argentinean sea shanty band dominated by an abusive "Captain" and a Welsh town's assistance in the mutiny against him.

The Atavist | Peter Ward

​Thrifting was about frugality​

Longtime thrifters lament the changes wrought by TV shows and the internet, putting once esoteric knowledge at every buyer's fingertips.

The Walrus | Steve Burgess

​Why are so many teen girls still tearing their A.C.L.s?​

Investigating the rise of torn A.C.L.s, particularly among young women playing soccer, and why a training regimen that could help prevent them is not in wider use.

The New York Times Magazine | Craig Welch

​The case of the disappearing secretary​

Considering the workplace effects of AI with a look back at computers' impacts on secretarial work: "Computerisation turned everyone into an accidental secretary. AI will turn everyone into an accidental manager."

Rowland's Newsletter | Rowland Manthorpe

​Cursive handwriting is making a big comeback​

Meanwhile, more states are passing mandates requiring schools to teach students how to write in cursive—even if teachers never learned the skill.

USA Today | Phaedra Trethan

​On being a dad​

"To be a parent is to be a permanent tourist in a constantly evolving foreign city, which also happens to be your home." A lovely essay on the experience of parenting.

Derek Thompson



​An unpopular, doomed, bloody war​

Rapid response to the war in Iran from an expert in American foreign policy at Georgetown University in Qatar.

Systemic Hatreds | Paul Musgrave

​What is a city when its wealthiest leave?​

On lifestyle tax havens, remote work for the wealthy, and the challenge of maintaining a culturally rich city when capital is less tied to location.

The Wall Street Journal | Richard Florida

​Millions of New Englanders may now be eligible for 'proof' they are Canadian​

Good news for some Americans looking to leave: a new law in Canada opens citizenship to many more people with documented Canadian descent.

National Post | Stewart Lewis

​Going to Mars would be very bad for your health​

Moving to space, on the other hand, presents potentially insurmountable challenges to the working of the human body.

Slate | Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz

​Nudist camp for sale​

All kinds of things can complicate a promising real estate deal. An on-site community of "aging nudists who have no plans to move," for example.

The New York Times | Ronda Kaysen

​Bill Callahan finds beauty in charming diversions and bizarre dreams​

Reviewing Callahan's new album My Days of 58: "those willing to wander alongside Callahan will find the artist as poignant and enigmatic as ever while considering a life with more sunsets behind him than ahead."

Paste | Matt Melis

​Patron, un demi!​

Visits to the working class PMU bars of France, dwindling in number, unsuited for Instagram, but essential to their communities.

Pellicle | Anaïs Lecoq

​Pace Picante New York City​

From 2025, a look back at Pace Picante's memorable late 1980s commercials, when a consumer brand could joke about capital punishment for using the wrong salsa.

The Lightshot | Roger Marshall

​Tiny recording backpacks reveal bats’ surprising hunting strategy​

Not birds, but very cute: what mounting tiny backpacks on bats reveals about their hunting strategies.

The Conversation | Leonie Baier

​Seabirds of Destruction Island​

In Pacific Northwest seabird news: a visit to Destruction Island to check on the auklets, from the new book Seabirds as Sentinels.

Pacific NW Magazine | Eric Wagner

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