CHRISTMAS LIGHT CHATS

Joseph and I have been working on going to bed earlier. There are two times in my life that I can remember having a consistent "bedtime". One was my senior year in college. I'd go to bed between 9 and 10pm and wake up at 5am completely refreshed and excited for the day, sometimes with so much energy I would voluntarily go on a 8 mile run and watch the sun crest because I had nothing else to do. I know...

I think with a small child, the tendency is to feel like once they go to sleep that the world is your limit, and time is this open ended, beautiful thing where you can do whatever you want without being interrupted - like pursue novel writing dreams or watch addicting TV shows. On top of that, for the past few months I was working late evenings and early mornings doing time sensitive contract work (hence my absence in the blogging world). But the dark circles around my eyes were beginning to appear permanent. So Joseph and I are committed now to the nightly wind-downs beginning much, much earlier.

So at night now we sit together in the glow of Christmas lights and spiced candles and listen to a podcast, accompanied by decaffeinated coffee or tea and conversation that does not involve finances or all the undone to-do's. We are currently listening to this podcast, which is about as addicting as Netflix but actually requires brain use. The absence of a screen's bluish glow makes it much easier to put a cap on things. The whole evening evokes a sort of nostalgia for fireside chats.

I wish for every evening to be thought provoking, connective, and cozy. The day of my dreams would close with family gathered together on an night that rings only with laughter, conversation and the crackle of a fireplace.

For now, our twinkly Christmas lights will do just fine.

some other podcasts we enjoy:
This American Life
All Songs Considered
TED Radio Hour
Radiolab
Planet Money
Stuff You Missed in History Class



photo found here

WHAT MAKES YOU RICH

Today I became obsessed with these shoes. I crave them. Badly. After eyeing them all day on Instagram and imagining myself walking around like this in the olive ones with a slouchy sweater and my jean cuffs rolled, I've decided they are the perfect synthesis of modernity and leather, masculinity and grace, and my feet need their effortless guise for the cool undertones of October afternoons. I've already considered selling our dining table to pay for them.

I'm going to tell you a somewhat related story that my father-in-law shared with me.

In order to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, an American manufacturer moved one of its production facilities to a remote region of Mexico. The manufacturer hired 250 hourly workers and paid them only 25% of what American workers were paid for the same job. But in a region where standard of living was the lowest in the country and annual family income was about $1,200, the workers were becoming rich, earning more in one month than they had been in an entire year. 

Something strange happened. After about six months, just when the employees had become well trained and the plant had reached optimal productivity, the workers began quitting. And within just a few weeks, half of the employees no longer came to work and productivity plummeted. 

Having thought his employees were elated to be earning so much money, the plant manager was baffled and asked his shift managers to talk to the workers who were left to find out why everyone was quitting. After two days, this was the report: the workers had more money than they could spend. There were no shopping centers or malls for hundreds of miles, and the only stores were one-room shacks in small villages where only the barest of necessities were for sale.

And then the plant manager had a brilliant idea. He had hundreds upon hundreds of catalogs sent to the plant from leading retailers all over the United States and Mexico. He had clothing, tools and sports equipment catalogs hand delivered to workers who had quit, and catalogs with toys and bicycles for the children. Within two weeks, everyone was back to work and productivity soared. For many years the plant was the American manufacturers' most profitable production facility.

I really should just stay off the internet until spring.


photo credit here.
my amazing father-in-law.

POETRY: BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

poetry is motion graceful 
as a fawn 
gentle as a teardrop 
strong like the eye 
finding peace in a crowded room 
we poets tend to think 
our words are golden 
though emotion speaks too 
loudly to be defined 
by silence 
sometimes after midnight or just before 
the dawn 
we sit typewriter in hand 
pulling loneliness around us 
forgetting our lovers or children 
who are sleeping 
ignoring the weary wariness 
of our own logic 
to compsoe a poem 
no one understands it 
it never says "love me" for poets are 
beyond love 
it never says "accept me" for poems seke not 
acceptance but controversy 
it only says "i am" and therefore 
i concede that you are too

a poem is pure energy
horizontally contained
between the mind
of the poet and the ear of the reader
if it does not sing discard the ear
for poetry is song
if it does not delight discard
the heart for poetry is joy
if it does not inform then close
off the brain for it is dead
if it cannot heed the insistent message
that life is precious

which is all we poets
wrapped in our loneliness
are trying to say


^^ written by Nikki Giovanni 

WHEN THE EARTH RUMBLES (IN SAN FRANCISCO)

My sister, Bridget, who has lived in San Francisco for over a year now, experienced her first earthquake yesterday morning. While thankfully this 6.0 earthquake didn't cause much more than a soft rumble in San Francisco, she informed me that the last earthquake of similar magnitude was in 1989, and it caused widespread damage to the city.

The devastation was largely located in parts of the city built on a landfill made during the city's reconstruction after the historically catastrophic earthquake in 1906. During strong earthquakes the soil in the landfill is susceptible to liquefaction. Building neighborhoods on such unpredictable foundations is unnerving and clearly not the best case scenario - but buildings in earthquake prone areas are typically constructed to withstand earthquakes, and recent developments in architectural engineering are even more promising.

The method which fascinates me the most is called the seismic invisibility cloak. The system's name is well suited, as buildings are made transparent to surface waves produced by an earthquake. Waves encounter 100 concentric, plastic rings beneath the buildings foundation, and as they enter the rings they are compressed into a bottleneck. They then zip beneath the foundation and exit the rings, where they resume their original speed and amplitude. Being both economical and feasible, this system has been installed beneath many older buildings - including city halls in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angelas.

Other buildings are built to actually deform and then return back to their original shape. These contain Rocking Frames, which are engineered with steel frames, steel cables, and steel fuses. When an earthquake causes the frames to rock up and down, the energy is directed from the cables to several tooth-like fuses that gnash together. Even if the fuses fail, the frame stays intact. Once shaking subsides, the frames pull the building back to its original upright position.

So next time you're in San Francisco and the floor begins to rumble beneath you, don't panic. Likely the violent shaking means your building was designed so that the walls would not snap and crumble around you. Just follow this relevant guide to safety. (And maybe review these liquefaction maps before booking a place to stay.)

more on earthquakes:
the culprit behind California's many earthquakes
earthquakes 101
top 10 deadliest earthquakes in history
and because, why not?

THE SCIENCE OF EMPATHY

A smile is, quite literally, contagious.

Our brains are programmed to feel other people's experiences in such a way that we relate to their emotions. It's all due to mirror neurons, which are fired by the actor and the observer such that the observer feels as though they were acting.

When you watch a football game, the same area of your brain is activated as the player running the field. You cringe when someone takes a tumble up a brick staircase, as if you fell yourself. And when someone smiles at you, your brain fires up its neurons to smile.

So the next time you run into a grumpy coworker or an angry cashier, resist the "bad day" mirror neurons in your brain, and fight back with a smile.


more on empathy... or the lack thereof:
neurological basis for the lack of empathy in sociopaths
how to spot a sociopath at work
why (some) psychopaths make great CEOs

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PARSONS TABLE

My favorite thing I have ever helped make, ever,  in my entire life is our Parsons table. I swoon over furniture that has a modern feel but evokes a sense of tradition, and when I first discovered the Parson's table, I fell in love with it's neat lines and elegant stature - a paradox of strength and delicacy.

At first glance, it's a simple concept - yet something about the design is unexpected, and so intentional. Because of my compulsive need to know, I researched the design's origination.

• While there are several versions of the Parsons table's history, the generally accepted tale you're most likely to hear is that the table was born at the Paris Branch of the Parsons School of Design in the 1930's. 
• The story goes that design legend, Jean-Michel Frank, "challenged students to design a table so basic that it would retain it's integrity whether sheathed in gold leaf, mica, parchment, split straw or painted burlap, or even left robustly unvarnished." (Quote) 
• While again, the story varies, according to school records, the Parsons table (originally called the "T-Square table") emerged from Frank's work with the American designer Joseph B. Platt and an unknown student: a simple table, distinguished by it's square legs - always the same width as the table top, regardless of it's length or width.
• Favorite fact: the first model was built by the school janitor. 

Knowing the history of something you own is inspiring, and the things made with your own hands are often the most exhilarating.


photo found here.

WHY DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Last weekend we celebrated the engagement between my brother-in-law, Jacob, and his fiance, Alex. As I stared at her gorgeous halo-encircled princess cut diamond, I started to consider how in the Western World diamonds became the expected engagement stone.

I did some research, and here are a few of the facts:

• Engagement rings are thought to have originated in Egypt and picked up by the ancient Greeks, but the history of engagement rings can be tracked as far back as ancient Rome. Then, it was believed that the "ring finger" contained a vein that led to the heart. 
• The first diamond engagement ring was given by the Archduke Maximilian of Austria to his betrothed, Mary Burgundy, in imperial court of Vienna in 1477. This popularized diamond engagement rings among those of higher social class or significant wealth.
• Diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1866. By 1872 the output of diamonds minds exceeded one million carats per year, and they became affordable to those of lesser means. In 1886, Tiffany & Co introduced the solitaire Tiffany setting.
• After World War I the popularity of diamond rings began to decline, and the price of diamonds collapsed during the Great Depression. Diamond cartel, De Beers, began a marketing campaign to persuade consumers that engagement rings were indispensable, and that only diamond engagement rings were acceptable. He introduced the slogan "A Diamond is Forever". 

And there you have it. A flawed scientific theory, one 15th century Archduke, and a successful marketing campaign are likely the reason why I'm sporting a solitaire today, and the reason why the U.S. currently makes up the world's largest diamond market, consuming 40% of gem quality diamonds.


more on diamonds:
why diamonds sparkle.
the rarest of them all.
most expensive diamonds in the world.
gemstones more precious than diamonds.

CREATION

If you chalked the road

in dribbles of water and light,

and something could emerge—

(something fluent),

then something fluid could spring

in such a way, that after it fell,

like a dusk after rain

(that wet scent of earth),

you’d find that the dust

on the road was splattered

with apple red spots.

OLIVE OIL FRAUD?

It's amazing how quickly after a morning of light reading a bottle that appeared to brim and glow with exotic, natural oil can suddenly look so yellow and rancid.

This morning I came across this expose from the NY Times on fraudulent extra virgin olive oil. Apparently 69% of olive oils sold in supermarkets are labeled deceptively and do not even test positive as olive oil.

I cook with olive oil at least once a day, so I was curious if the liter of  Trader Giotto's Extra Virgin Olive Oil that I've purchased the last few times from Trader Joe's was truly made in Italy, or if it was moldy or spiked with other nasty oil mixes... and unfortunately it didn't make the cut. I'm disappointed with Trader Joe's on this one... but I still ran out this afternoon to buy their Premium 100% Greek Kalamata.


more on olives:
health benefits of olive oil
the greatest gift
clever uses for olive oil
indoor potted olive trees

FOCUS

Don’t be afraid of an unbalanced life.
Some are meant to weigh in one direction,
and spreading talent where it’s worth
defeats a steady scale.

HOPE

Someone's drink had scribbled cup rings on the table—

cigarettes butts were stuffed into the cracked wood like chewing gum.

It occurred to her that with small hope for success,

she should not have sat where the last person failed.