Maggie's Farm

Using the internet is NOT bad for your mental health: Study across 168 countries finds no 'smoking gun' linking technology and wellbeing

Yes, there are crowds and the food is lousy. However, it is scenic.

 Byron Wien’s 20 Life Lessons

 Beliefs about Emotions Influence How People Feel, Act and Relate to Others. Thinking about a range of emotions as friends rather than foes improves the quality of our life

 Minor, in a Major Key - The movie Chevalier tells us little that is true about a second-rate composer—but it is a peerless example of hatred for the Western past.

 The Fight for the Future of Publishing - Ideological fanatics and fear have crippled the major houses. But new book publishers are rising up to take the risks they won’t.

 Lonely on campus: Students are siloed, silenced. Afraid to offend each other, college students are "siloed and silenced," creating an epidemic of loneliness on campus, writes Samuel Abrams, a professor of political science at Sarah Lawrence, on RealClearEducation.

 Pro-Israel teacher hides in Queens high school as ‘radicalized’ students riot: ‘They want her fired’

How The Democratic Party Faked An American Insurrection

 We Are Governed By Ignorant Fools

 How multiculturalism fuels hate - This elite ideology has cultivated and inflamed ethnic tensions.

 Hate Is Good: Laws Which Ban “Hate” Speech Are Bad: Ireland’s New “Hate” Laws Are Tyrannical

 Where Free Speech Ends and Lawbreaking Begins - The First Amendment does not give carte blanche to intimidation and harassment, writes Ilya Shapiro.

 The New Normal? Election results in the Netherlands and Argentina provide evidence of the vigour and variety of the New Right and its global reach.

 ‘Now and Then:’ How the Beatles Created Magic on Their New ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Albums, Via a Little MAL-ware

 Stop following this common piece of career and life advice, says behavior expert: It’s not ‘the solution to everything’

To build mountains from dolomite, a common mineral, it must periodically dissolve. This counter-intuitive lesson could help make new defect-free semiconductors and more.

DISNEY ‘FESSES UP

Who was Dianne Feinstein? 

 OpenAI Tried to Fire Altman Because He Was About to Wake Up the Monster

 New study finds ChatGPT gives better advice than professional columnists

 In Incredible Black Friday Sale, Lockheed Martin Offering 2 Wars For Price Of 1

  Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Caught on Hidden Camera Admitting January 6 Was a Hoax

My November Guest

“My sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.”

Well, beauty is a human sentiment isn't it?

Guy's been a birder since age 10 - same as me.

The Fall of Minneapolis

I stupidly did it by mistake this year, and it turned out better than ever:  How To Roast a Turkey Upside Down

 12 Phrases Shakespeare Coined That We Still Use Today

 Chess wrongly perceived as a ‘brilliance’ game, leaving girls out

 Over Half of Americans Own a Gun or Know Someone Who Owns a Gun

A Dirty Little Secret About Drudge

 Rush of the Net Zero lemmings

 Prepare for a New, Less Affluent America

 Thank NY’s criminal justice ‘reforms’ for this double murder

 Lafayette College students are being taught that modern museums are instruments of “power,” entrenched in “violence” and colonialism, according to a new anthropology course offered this fall.

 Pride Santa and the Pride Christmas Nutcracker

 Derek Chauvin Stabbed in Federal Prison; Cop Convicted in George Floyd Death Given “Life-Saving Measures” Before Being Taken to Hospital

 Kamala Harris Should Have Checked the Background of Her Thanksgiving Photo

 The ‘Complexity’ of Idiocy - The Left is less a political movement than a neurotic clown collective arrogantly spouting toxic imbecility

Sheesh 

 Liberals Once Embraced Interracial Marriages Like Mine. What Changed?My wife is black. I’m white. When we got married in 2007, progressives cheered. Today, they wonder if I’m up to parenting my own kids.

 Vivek Ramaswamy reveals his campaign has become a social-media stunt

Stuart's Saturday Miscellany 

 Ireland's prime minister condemns anti-immigrant protesters in Dublin

 Violent clashes erupt in Dublin after stabbing of 5 people, as police blame ‘far-right ideology’

 On Eve Of Hostage Release, Hamas Calls For Supporters To Rise Up

 Old Lodge Skins’ Prayer Of Thanksgiving

Stuart on gratitude 

1952 -  How to Explain Thanksgiving to French People?

 Foreign students should love Thanksgiving

 Aquaculture Accounts for Half of the World's Fish Supply

 The Decadence of Common-Good Capitalism

 Why New York is objectively America’s worst state

 The Fall of Minneapolis

 Judge Obliterates Oregon's Newest Gun Grab

 These classical teaching programs meet a growing demand

What is Left and Right? 

 The cause of free speech threatens to become the exclusive property of conservatives.

 Scientific censorship appears to be increasing. 

 'The Science' Suffers from Self-Inflicted Political Wounds. A separation of science and politics might be called for.

 Leftist Attempts to Destroy Elon Musk Won't Work in Time for 2024

 Ask every automaker – Tesla excused – that’s been pushed to make EVs before there was demand to support it.

 "Japs, Jewry And Trannies": Media Matters President's Bigoted Blogs Resurface Amid Spat With Musk

 Biden Getting Killed in Polls Because of Youth Dislike of Israel

 A Radical Democrat Proposal: Treat Black Voters Like They Matter

 German Priorities: Berlin Imposes a Spending Freeze Over Budget Crisis – AND ON THE SAME DAY, Releases a New 1.4B Military Aid Package to Ukraine

 A Self-Described Libertarian Wins In Argentina

Thanks to Squanto, the Pilgrims had a decent harvest of corn and squash (pumpkins mostly, I think) in the autumn of 1621. Also, thanks to Squanto, the friendly neighboring Wampanoags visited bearing venision. Indians likely outnumbered the English at this feast day.

It seems Turkey, roasted pumpkin, mussels, eels, cod, roasted or stewed venison, corn meal mush, and maybe lobster were on the menu:  First Thanksgiving Meal.

There seem not to have been a lot of oysters nearby (maybe the Indians ate them all), but plenty of Cod. Ever heard of Cape Cod Turkey?

They had to learn to fish and how to plant. They had no milk (no livestock on Mayflower unless you count the 2 dogs), and any sugar or flour on board had been exhausted during the voyage. The Mayflower crew (30 men) returned home on starvation rations in Spring, 1621. Mayflower was an 80-foot leaky old cargo vessel which was barely suited for anything.

JFK assassination: 60 years later we know the truth about the real killer

 LA Times Op-Ed: This Thanksgiving, Honor Turkeys By Not Eating Them

 What We’re Grateful For - Jonathan Haidt, Tyler Cowen, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mayim Bialik, and Free Pressers weigh in. 

 There Is No Good Way to Travel Anywhere in America. An Amtrak ride can go so, so wrong.

That "new" Beatles song 

What's up with the Mayo Clinic? 

 Black women of African descent were more likely to die of the medieval plague in London, academics at the Museum of London have found.

 Scarborough: If Elected, Trump Will 'Execute' As Many People As He Can Get Away With!

 Why Democrats Became The Totalitarians They Warned Us About

Stuart's  Wednesday Potpourri

 Cry no more for Argentina — it’s about to be a new model for economic reform

Great Argus Pheasant, southern Thailand, looking for a wife. Hmmm, one of these birds might make fr a Thanksgiving feast.

Penn Station is a sort-of terminal in NYC for the Long Island Railroad, AMTRAK, and the New Jersey Transit - all heavily used. One cool - if only 150 years late - is a new stop for the LIRR in Grand Central.

Grand Central Terminal has a total of 67 Metro North tracks serving the New Haven line (to Boston), the Harlem Line (s commuter line to Dutchess Co., NY), and the Hudson Line which connects to Yankee Stadium but mainly goes to Poughkeepsie. There is also a train to Montreal (The Adirondack). It might be AMTRAK - I get confused about all of the lines and destinations because there are so many.

The magnificent old (1910) McKim, Mead and White Penn Station was knocked down in the 1960s. Apparently there were some good reasons to do that . Since I almost never use that station, I am grateful that the also grand Grand Central Terminal, which I use frequently, was saved from the urban renewal wrecking ball. Lifetime of memories there.

I have not seen the new Penn Station (sort of renewed in time for the holidays). What do readers think about it?

Another look at The Band 

 The Nation: We Need to Decolonize Thanksgiving

VDH:  Can We Save our Universities?

 Six Books That Might Change How You Think About Mental Illness - These individual, honest narratives can help dislodge oversimplifications about mental health.

I've had a couple of surgeries in my life, but had never spent a night in a hospital until last week: 5 days in there. Even in a very attentive and kind hospital it is a strange, unpleasant - and disorienting - experience. Feeling like a pin cushion is the least of it.

I'd be interested in other peoples' experiences. 

Things I learned:

-  Rules about your restaurant doggy bag: Heat to 165+ degrees before eating it, and throw it out after 24 hrs. Our new rule: No more doggy bags at all (except steak) which is a drag for me because I have not finished a restaurant meal in a decade. Typical food-poisoning is Salmonella, but I got Campylobacter (which is typically minor but not in my case). Besides fatigue and constant diarrhea, my electrolytes became dangerously imbalanced which is what concerned the docs: Potassium mostly. Plus IV saline to combat the dehydration.

- When you are sick as s-, you don't necessarily appreciate how ill you are because it affects your mental clarity. I had to fall on the floor from weakness + dizziness due to dehydration to realize this was not nothing.

-  Being in hospital feels like confinement (is confinement) unless you feel too terrible to get out of bed. Plus the hospital gown makes you feel (and look) like an invalid: "How are we feeling this morning? Did we have a BM?"

- The BBC Planet Earth series has stunning videography. Also I read 2 books. I highly recommend Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World

- A "Clear liquid" diet is the worst thing. 3 times/day: Decaf tea, jello, ginger ale (which is ok), lemon ice (which I hope to never see again). Finally got a nice nurse to sneak me fresh coffee from the nursing station.

- How to fix an IV pump yourself when it beeps an obstruction.

- A regular Med/Surg floor at my place had 4 units, about 20 patients/unit. A unit has a Charge Nurse, 4 RNs, 4 CNAs (Certified Nurse Assistants) and a clerk. The RNs work 12-hr shifts for 3 days (7 -7), then 4 days off unless they want to fill in for others. I had a private room, thankfully. The hospital docs make rounds any time before 1 or 2 pm. 

- When a patient dies it is dealt with discreetly. Happens all the time, too. 

- Can you sleep normally in a hospital? Nope, even with sleep meds.

More about Med/Surg routines below the fold - 

 MURPHY'S LAW OF DUCK HUNTING

 Cheers! A bottle of Scotch whisky sells for a record $2.7 million at auction

Nobody will open that bottle 

This Is Not the Way to Help Depressed Teenagers

 One More Gone Woke: Girl Scouts Stick With BLM, Will Train to 'Decenter' Whiteness

Of course 

 New AARP Report Finds Family Caregivers Provide $600 Billion in Unpaid Care Across the U.S.

I don't get that viewpoint. 

Loneliness 

 NY Times: Pandemic Learning Loss is the 'Most Damaging Disruption' in the History of American Education

NYC:  Why Rikers Island is ripe for a rethink

Figuratively-speaking. In reality, medical.

Will fill in some things learned. 

Kmart pulls ‘Merry Ham-Mas’ bags in Australia over fears looks like a tribute to Hamas: ‘We got it wrong’

 ‘Church Shouldn’t Be Political,’ Says Pastor With BLM, Pride Flags On Building

 Why Don't Women Marry?

 The End of Feminism

 Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why I Am Now a Christian

 Young Americans Are Having Less And Less Sex, But It’s Not Because They’ve Found Jesus

 Sex With Dogs & Other Critters Back In Vogue, Thanks To Academic Peter Singer

 The Leaky Bucket Gets Leakier - Increasing fraud and overpayments since Covid are leeching U.S. welfare programs.

 Pervasive Government Surveillance To Achieve Human Perfection: Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

 The FBI Needs Downsizing, Not $3.5 Billion for a New Headquarters

WaPo: Scoop! Hamas Wanted Major War!