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On Christmas and 2nd Hand Booksellers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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2 longer reads for today:
First, the surprisingly interesting world of Xmas Tree Vendors in New York City:
Link: https://www.curbed.com/article/christmas-tree-trade-secrets-gregs-trees-nyc.html?utm_source=digg
The second, a few excerpts from the predictably droll life of an English 2nd Hand Bookseller:
If either of the above links don't work, try "incognito mode". I find that I read so much online pretty much everything has to be opened "incognito" otherwise I'm prompted for free - or paid - subscriptions. Ad nauseum.
And - the second article made me remember the tale of UK 2nd Hand Booksellers, told from the other side of the counter:
Link: Driff's guide to all the secondhand & antiquarian bookshops in Britain
Which is every bit as hilarious, more so even, given the eccentric character of the narrator.
His Love for "Smocey" and a jacket with F-holes
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
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Napping, 2 dreams, odd:
1) That I'm working in a fine bar, I have notice that there will be a couple of important customers. An anniversary. And they show up, her, beautiful, refined, elegant. And him - good looking, long hair, a bit of a "dude", friendly, jocular - still they seem mismatched, and he introduces her as "Smokey", but for some reason it's spelled "Smocey".
I'm trying to get him to decide on a drink, a Gin Collins or preferably an Old Fashioned, but he's indecisive, can't make up his mind...
I go to the back room, sit on my computer while he makes up his mind. And I get an email from him, pleading that I not take his girlfriend/wife away, he's so in love with her, "SmOCEy"...
Fucking peculiar, and I end up googling OCE, wondering why this misspelling in the dream, but can find nothing....
2) That I'm in the thrift shop, not thrift shop, it's supposed to be where I volunteer but it's not. Nobody is there. In the back, a warehouse, more like an antique shop, and on the wall in my area there's a beautiful man's suit jacket, with f-holes printed on the lapels, and I'm thinking how sharp (#) it would look with a printed necktie of violin or cello strings, maybe a finely detailed white shirt with musical notes on it...mother of pearl peg cufflinks...In front of it hangs a mid-sized cello, the two f-holes, the one on the lapel, the other in the cello, I want to buy them, but they're hanging there to be appraised...
And, yes, fucking peculiar again. My subconscious is taking me on a little stray adventure...
Freedom of Speech
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 556
or maybe I should have titled this: Fact Checking Freedom of Speech.
We live in an era - relatively rare, where we take it for granted that anyone should have access to Freedom of Speech, but - when this liberty was granted it was not foreseen how abused it would become. By which I mean no-one foresaw the state of US politics. There was the not-unreasonable presumption of decency, good intention, the allowing for differing points of view.
Now this has spiraled out of control. The media gives equal weight and press to the most absurd and preposterous of lies, told solely for the increase in reputation or profit of the seller, and at great cost to society.
Think the anti-vaxxers, who are allowed to voice the most inane oppositions to current scientific methods and models. Solely for the increase in their reputation or ego; by being contrary to science they can with no small arrogance put themselves on the same pedestal as those who wasted 10 years of their life getting a medical education.
Even worse, if it can be imagined, are those that spread this disinformation with a view to profit from the "alternatives" they're marketing or have shares in. And then - irony of irony - take the conventional vaccines as a matter of course, failing to disclose this to their audience.
And - it is worth noting - all of these people survive by and large as a result of increases in medical understanding - the plague of childhood poxes and polios, rubella, whooping-cough, measles, etc - they survive because they've been vaccinated, if not them then largely because the surrounding populace has been vaccinated and thus reduced their own exposure.
It is quite possibly the biggest abuse of Free Speech in existence. If you, for example, went on to social media and claimed to be anti-gravity, offered a challenge to like-minded viewers that saw them leap from the highest buildings in their area, if you advertised yourself against "Big-Gravity" it is very possible that following a few of the inevitable mishaps you might find yourself facing criminal charges. Vaccines don't offer the same immediacy, and so lies and disinformation spread about them are not so instantly verifiable.
Vaccines are but one example - think of the countless other lies currently in existence and popular coinage - ballot fraud, QANON, Alex Jones, etc, etc.
These things cause real harm, no merely to individuals but to society at large.
While it is certainly OK to question facts, it is best done by those who have first done the requisite research, and with the required educations.
So - perhaps it is time to talk about ending Freedom of Speech. There are things that are true and are false, and a great many things in between that we're still figuring out.
If anyone should knowingly spread falsehoods - there should be grave consequences.
Stupidity is killing us all.
Gabriel García Márquez - Living to Tell the Tale
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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The autobiography of Gabriel García Márquez, which much resembles his novels. A thick read, to rebuild an attention span laid siege by cellular phones and the internet and poor viewing choices on NetFlix.
Anyways, I'm enjoying, it's nice to get out of ones head for a bit and - while I've always enjoyed his books, I'm discovering him to be very relatable in his autobiography. Which is perhaps odd, in that we're in no ways the same, but that is the point of reading, to meet different people without running the risk of having to know them...
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