further reading

the archivist September 28, 2020

Tom Vanderbilt | Slate: The Single Most Important Object in the Global Economy. The pallet. Cindy Lamothe | The Atlantic: When Kids Have to Act Like Parents, It Affects Them for Life. Some people who have to be responsible for their siblings or parents as children grow up to be compulsive caretakers. Christer Petley | […]

the archivist September 21, 2020

Olga Khazan | The Atlantic: We Expect Too Much From Our Romantic Partners. A new book explores how marriage has changed in recent years, and why that’s made staying married harder. Stuart Firestein | Nautilus: How Pseudoscientists Get Away With It. “They imitate the ways in which science works and make claims as if they […]

the archivist September 14, 2020

Catherine Caruso | Scientific American: Don’t Forget: You, Too, Can Acquire a Super Memory. Learning a memorization technique used by elite memory athletes leads to widespread changes in brain wiring. Amber Rae | Fast Company: How To Schedule Your Day For Peak Creative Performance. Elizabeth Winkler | The Atlantic: Was Shakespeare a Woman? The authorship […]

the archivist September 7, 2020

Links of the week… maybe not every week, but this week! Dave Weinstein | Eichler Network: When Joe Eichler Spoke Out About Race. He made good on his threat to resign from the San Francisco NAHB over their resistance to abolish discriminatory policies. Gillian Osborne | Boston Review: Herman Melville the Poet. The author of […]

the archivist August 7, 2020

Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant Ann Gardiner Perkins Sourcebooks, 2019 Writing for an academic audience (such as in a dissertation) is totally different from how stories are told in popular non-fiction, so it is rare when an author can turn academic research into […]

the archivist August 7, 2020

I like these kinds of lists on other sites and newsletters, so why not give it a go? Judith Humphrey | Fast Company: Six Verbs That Make You Sound Weak (No Matter Your Job Title). I’m guilty of oh, 5 of out the 6. Olivia B. Waxman | Time: What Caused the Stock Market Crash […]

the archivist May 25, 2020

Review: Chasing the Bright Side by Jess Ekstrom This book covers a lot of the same ground that many positive-thinking self-help books do, but the author has some interesting stories to share. In particular, the relative she called “Uncle Bernie” became infamous when he stole away the wealth of many high-profile victims as well as […]

the archivist May 23, 2020

Review: Elgin Park: Visual Memories Of Midcentury America at 1/24th Scale This book reflects an interesting and unique project by artist Michael Paul Smith: he has created a fictional mid-century town. Using historically accurate car models (from the Franklin Mint and other sources), his own model buildings and roads, and his outdoor surroundings, he stages […]

the archivist May 22, 2020

Review: All Blood Runs Red by Tom Clavin, Phil Keith I had never even heard of Eugene Bullard before I read this book. His bravery and determination is truly inspiring, especially in the face of the many hardships he faced. It’s amazing to consider that one person’s life could take so many drastic turns, from […]

the archivist September 20, 2017

I love advice columns in general, even when the columnist is terrible at his/her job. It’s fascinating, the problems that resonate so strongly inside a person that they ask a stranger for help. Anyway. Captain Awkward is one of the good ones, but one of my favorite series on the site is generated from letter […]

the archivist September 8, 2015

One of  the first TED talks made available online in 2006, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” remains the most-watched talk on the TED.com website. In addition to the speaker’s excellent rhetorical techniques (which, indeed, have helped set the tone for many future TED and TEDx events), the subject matter, if anything, rings even […]

the archivist August 3, 2015

I thought, on the train, how utterly we have forsaken the Earth, in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness, its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes & barrens & wilds. It still dwarfs & terrifies & crushes. The rivers […]

the archivist November 25, 2014

I have been alone in Paris, alone in Vienna, alone in London, and all in all, it is very much like being  alone in Green Town, Illinois. It is, in essence, being alone. Oh, you have plenty of time to think, improve your manners, sharpen your conversations. But I sometimes think I could easily trade […]

the archivist April 22, 2013

I love, love, love T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (previously). The words, “We shall not cease from exploration” give me goosebumps every time I read them. How does one take those words to heart, to take a visceral experience and illuminate the everyday tedium with it? To just not cease from exploration? Can it be that […]