Category: ideas

Keeping a commonplace book is hard.

February 19th, 2025

Brett McKay: Do you keep a commonplace book?

Roland Allen: Do you know what? Literally two weeks ago, I thought I’m going to have to do this. I started one and what I did was I went and got a little Moleskine address book. I’m holding it in my hand now. You know, the sort which has the tabbed pages.

Brett McKay: Yeah.

Roland Allen: Because what I wanted to avoid was having to go through and if I would need to write down the Alphabet and all the head words hundreds of times. So, yeah, so I’ve got those little tab pages down the side and I’ve made a few entries, but really, I should be making more. You’ve reminded me. But like I say, keeping a commonplace book is hard work.

It is hard.

Worth it.

As heard on the latest Art of Manliness podcast: The Power of the Notebook — The History and Practice of Thinking on Paper

McKay, Brett. “Podcast #1057: The Power of the Notebook—The History and Practice of Thinking on Paper.” Art of Manliness, [Date of Publication]. https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/reading/podcast-1057-the-power-of-the-notebook-the-history-and-practice-of-thinking-on-paper/.
Omiyage

February 9th, 2025

Never show up empty-handed after a trip. “I am a big fan of the Japanese custom of buying local food and drink when travelling, otherwise known as omiyage,” Clark says. “I’ve adopted this custom on a more personal scale, seeking out things to bring home to support local producers whenever I travel, like yuzu kosho from Japan, chilli peanut butter from the Netherlands (it’s a big thing there), or a bottle of Wye Valley mead from a trip to Wales.”

As read from the article, 33 Ways To Improve Your Life, Japanese Style

H/T Recomendo
Newton observed

February 8th, 2025

Newton observed that if others would think as hard as he did, then they would be able to do the same things. Edison said genius was 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. It is hard work, applied for long years, which leads to the creative act, and it is rarely just handed to you without any serious effort on your part. Yes, sometimes it just happens, and then it is pure luck. It seems to me to be folly for you to depend solely on luck for the outcome of this one life you have to lead.

– Richard Hamming

As read from the transcript You and Your Research.

H/T Gwern
The Glorious Grocer

December 30th, 2024

It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious.

Dickens makes you feel like you’re standing right in front of the grocer during the holidays.

A Victorian writer who’s descriptions and similes sounds so modern.

Read it out-loud.

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol: And Other Christmas Books. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011. pg 46
Christmas Work

December 27th, 2024

Presents are unwrapped. Chocolates munched. A giant turkey dinner with all the trimmings devoured. The queen’s Christmas address is watched, and the national anthem emotionally hummed to. Then I usher the kids out to get some fresh air, which none of them want, but they are nicer for it. They all have to do some jobs every day and Christmas is no different. This way they learn about duties and responsibilities. Working makes the food and family times later in the day more meaningful: we have earned the rest through work, not idleness. I’d hate not to work at Christmas.

James Rebanks

Part of savoring Christmas is learning about other people’s Christmas traditions, whether at the dinner table or through a book.

Rebanks, James. The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape. United States, Flatiron Books, 2015. pg 228, 229

How many blogs make it to 900 posts? Thank you dear readers.
Haunches of venison

December 26th, 2024

At Christmas the cheese and fish which the L’Estranges often dined on were set aside and instead roast beef and turkey, venison and goose were served in quantities, enriched with capers and olives, sugar and spices. New Year’s gifts were given, haunches of venison and cuts of veal were dispatched in the hands of retainers to gentry neighbours and civic worthies. At home Sir Hamon presented seasonal tips to his servants, several pounds each to his older grandsons and a few shillings to the littlest boys. The old man might have been ageing, and his health had not been good, but he was still beautifully dressed.

As read from Anna Keay’s The Restless Republic.

A little Boxing Day entry to keep the Christmas spirits flowing.

Keay, A. (2022). The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown. United Kingdom: HarperCollins Publishers. pg 181 & 182
20,000 geese

December 23rd, 2024

Before the Carol was published, Christmas Day was not a public holiday in Britain. By 1846 the newspapers were reporting that ‘Experienced salesmen at Leadenhall-market state that the demand for Christmas geese this year exceeded that of any previous season, and that the establishment of clubs has, within the last few days, brought upwards of 20,000 geese into the market. In some parts of the metropolis, “plum pudding clubs” have been established.’

Strange to think there was a time where Christmas was not a public holiday in Britain.

The power of Dickens.

Also Leadenhall Market still exists.

Wilson, A.N.. The Mystery of Charles Dickens. United States, HarperCollins, 2020. pg 158, 159
Leo Tolstoy, December 21, 1850

December 21st, 2024

Must not read novels.

Leo Tolstoy

Haha, what a diary entry.

Proves you don’t need to write long paragraphs about your day. One important thought will do.

As read from The Assassin’s Cloak.

The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists. United Kingdom, Canongate Books, 2020. pg 619
Punchline

December 15th, 2024

I miss my pigs the most–friendly, intelligent animals, tasty meat.

A.L. Snijders

As read from the short story Helpless Because of Respect.

Every A.L. Snijder story is a punchline.

Snijders, A. L.. Night Train. United States, New Directions, 2021. pg 81
Shepherd your fears

December 14th, 2024

Learn to overcome your fears and shepherd your project to completion, no matter what. It’s the essential moments of struggle over the decades that I have learnt from and which have brought me to this point. When I think back to my earliest years in this business, I see I am nothing today but a product of my defeats. When I was burnt I learnt about heat, and when I was belittled I learnt about power structures. Instead of going to film school, for me it became a process of trial and error, and for the first few years it was mostly error.

Werner Herzog

Applicable everywhere. Building toward the new year.

Also, Merry Christmas.

Cronin, Paul. Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Faber & Faber, 2020. pg244