Tag: Divorce

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

This week: The resilience of U.S. democracy / Preparing for death out of a love for life / The magic of kokedama / Amanda Shires builds her post-divorce life / ‘Platoon’ was Charlie Sheen’s Vietnam

Most of these items come from my social media networks. Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism. Learn more about my academic background here and about me here.

1. Six Ways to Start Early and Lift Your Mood
By Arthur C. Brooks | The Atlantic | September 2025
“Try my protocol for a happy start to the day and see what works for your own well-being.”

2. Transform your houseplants into art with this Japanese gardening technique
By Jessica Damiano | Associated Press | September 2025
“The Japanese method of growing plants in a living planter made of a moss-covered ball of soil, is a simple, DIY project that elevates common houseplants into works of art. They make great gifts, too.”

3. Amanda Shires Tells Her Side of the Story After Divorce From Jason Isbell: ‘I’m Not Scared’
By Natalie Weiner | Texas Monthly | September 2025
“The Lubbock-raised singer-songwriter-fiddler’s new album, Nobody’s Girl, is a raw and revealing look at falling out of love and finding resilience.”

4. I Tested How Well AI Tools Work for Journalism
By Hilke Schellmann | Columbia Journalism Review | August 2025
“Some tools were sufficient for summarizing meetings. For research, the results were a disaster.”

5. American Democracy Might Be Stronger Than Donald Trump
By Jonathan Schlefer | Politico Magazine | September 2025
“Yes, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. But the country has a few attributes that make it more resilient than you might think.”

6. We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself
By Stephen Greenblatt | The New York Times | September 2025
“We are currently governed by a leader indifferent to scientific consensus if it contradicts his political or economic interests, hostile to immigrants and intent on crippling the research universities that embody our collective hope for the future. The menace now is within. And with very few exceptions, the leaders of American universities have done little more than duck and cover.”

7. ‘I love life:’ The man who has scheduled his death so he can enjoy living
By Amandas Ong | Al Jazeera | September 2025
“Despite Alzheimer’s, Alex Pandolfo leads a full life. But when his health declines, he plans to have an assisted death.”

8. Historian Jill Lepore explores the Constitution and its interpretations in ‘We the People’
By Geoff Bennett | PBS News Hour | September 2025
“Originalism is often countered by the idea that the Constitution is a living, breathing document meant to be interpreted and changed along with the times.”

9. What If the Next Democratic President Governs Like Trump?
By Matt Ford | The New Republic | September 2025
“Between a permissive Supreme Court and his own governing innovations, the president has greatly expanded executive power. Liberals, take note.”

10. Cats and Dogs in History
By Christopher Rose, Joan Neuberger and Henry Wiencek | 15 Minute History :: UT Department of History | 2014-2020
Also see: Indian Ocean Trade and European Dominance | Indian Ocean Trade from its Origins to the Eve of Imperialism | Ukraine and Russia | Urban Slavery in the Antebellum United States

11. Charlie Sheen’s Lifestyle Couldn’t Kill Him. ‘Platoon’ Nearly Did.
By Charlie Sheen | The Hollywood Reporter | September 2025
“In 1986, well before the sex scandals, the crack and the tiger blood, the 20-year-old actor embarked on the most intense shoot of his career. In an excerpt from his explosive new memoir, Sheen reveals how Oliver Stone’s epic Vietnam War film changed him forever.”

12. Theaters bet big on massive screens, booming sound and recliners to lure movie fans
By Harshita Mary Varghese and Dawn Chmielewski | Reuters | September 2025
“Auditoriums with enhanced visual and video formats, such as IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and ScreenX, account for a record 14.9% of all tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada this year, up from 9.8% in 2019, according to data from research firm Comscore exclusively compiled for Reuters.”

13. Orchid Fever
By Susan Orlean | The New Yorker | January 1995
“How seductive are orchids? Connoisseurs spare nothing for a rare bloom — the issue in a battle between Florida, the Seminoles, and a man with a passion.”

14. The South’s Inner Civil War
By Eric Foner | American Heritage | Summer 2025
“The more fiercely the Confederacy fought for its independence, the more bitterly divided it became. To fully understand the vast changes which the war unleashed on the country, you must first understand the plight of the Southerners who didn’t want secession.”

15. 6 More Things E.R. Doctors Wish You’d Avoid
By Jancee Dunn | Well :: The New York Times | September 2025
“Stay out of the emergency room with these tips.”

16. Strawberries in Winter
By Adrienne LaFrance | The Atlantic | September 2025
“Most Americans do not want civil war. Anyone who is declaring it should stop.”

17. Why your nose could be the perfect window into your mental state
By Gillian Forrester | New Scientist | September 2025
“Diagnosing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression can be difficult, but it turns out that your nose could help doctors understand when you are feeling the strain.”

18. ‘We wanted to make it real:’ How ‘Goodfellas’ reinvented the gangster film
By Myles Burke | BBC Culture | September 2025
“Martin Scorsese’s crime epic was released 35 years ago. In 1990, the director and his stars, Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta, revealed its secrets to the BBC.”

19. Laughing in Hell: How We Tell the Stories of Other Peoples’ Suicides
By Sarah Adler | LitHub | September 2025
“I was drawn to memoirs about suicide even before Rebecca’s death, probably because when someone you love travels often against the thin curtain between life and death, these stories can feel like windows.”

20. Echolocation
By Melvyn Bragg | In Our Time :: BBC 4 | 2016-2018
Also see: Animal Farm | Agrippina the Younger | The Sikh Empire | The Gettysburg Address

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    Romney’s way / The sexual marriage / The Mexican crimefighter / Fear of divorce / Mistletoe’s secrets

    Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.

    1. No votes, but things seem to be going Romney’s way
    By Steve Peoples | Associated Press | Dec. 21
    “[H]is preferred scenario is looking more plausible now, thanks to Ron Paul’s helpful ascent, Newt Gingrich’s slide and fractures among conservatives who have not rallied behind an alternative to Romney.”

    2. Sex And Marriage: The Secret To Better Sex With Your Spouse
    By Margaret Paul | The Huffington Post | Dec. 20
    “Love-making in long-term relationships is the result of loving energy flowing between two people. If something is blocking this loving energy, the sexual energy between them often gets blocked as well.”

    3. iProtest
    By James Leong and Lynn Lee | Activate :: Al Jazeera | September 2011
    “Activist Debby Chan takes on one of the world’s favourite brands in her fight for workers’ rights.”

    4. A Crime Fighter Draws Plaudits, and Scrutiny
    By Damien Cave | The New York Times | Dec. 23
    “Like a boxer or wrestler, he treats his tough-guy image as a necessary tactic. In Tijuana, he punched a dead cartel gunman in the face as bystanders watched.”

    5. Is Fear of Divorce Keeping People from Getting Married?
    By Belinda Luscombe | Healthland :: Time | Dec. 22
    “A new study suggests that young cohabiting couples are saying ‘I don’t’ so as to avoid the heavy toll of divorce”

    6. Using Gmail’s Canned Responses
    By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | Nov. 2
    “If you are tired of sending out the same e-mail response from your Gmail account … the Canned Responses feature from Gmail Labs can save some time and typing”

    7. What’s the Deal With Mistletoe?
    By Christopher Beam | Explainer :: Slate | Dec. 14
    “How the plant came to be associated with Christmas kissing”

    8. Sinaloa cartel OK’s Mexico’s newest drug ballads
    By Galia Garcia-Palafox | Associated Press | Dec. 21
    “The songs are filled with unusually explicit lyrics about decapitations and torture, and praise for one drug gang in particular: the Sinaloa cartel and its bosses, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada and Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.”

    9. My too-demanding overseas job makes me want to go home
    Troubleshooter :: The Yomiuri Shimbun | Dec. 16
    “There are so many things I want to do but haven’t done yet in the country where I live and work now, so I’m reluctant to leave everything behind. As a result, I feel mortified about using my sickness as an excuse to go back to Japan, and can’t forgive myself. What should I do? ”

    10. The destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan
    Witness :: BBC News | March 22
    “When the Taleban were in control of Afghanistan they decreed that the largest standing statues of Buddha in the world were un-Islamic. It took them several weeks to destroy them using high explosives.”

    **************

    TUNES

    My soundtrack for today included:
    1. NADIE LLORE Pepe Castillo & Cuatromania
    2. JONNY’S BUGALU Grupo X
    3. LA NATURALEZA Ismael Miranda & Andrés Jiménez
    4. MENTIROSA Louie Ramirez & Ray de la Paz
    5. BALCON DE SANTIAGO Compay Segundo
    6. MALAGUENA SALEROSA Chingon
    7. EL WATUSI Ray Barretto
    8. JUVENTUD DEL PRESENTE Tito Puente
    9. GUAGUANCO CALLEJERO Ibrahim Ferrer
    10. TUMBAO PA’CHANGUITO Orlando “Maraca” Valle

    Recommended reading / viewing / listening

    Latinos ready to ‘teach’ … GOP candidate spouses … New approach to sex ed … The GOP debate … Rivers that go nowhere.

    Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.

    1. 11 ways to skip weight gain this Thanksgiving
    The Dallas Morning News | Nov. 15
    “Thanksgiving kicks off a season of plentiful food, parties and stress. Staying healthy, both mentally and physically, can be a challenge. Avoid common pitfalls with these healthy strategies, adapted from a story by health reporter Nancy Churnin.”

    2. Couple forced to exchange Facebook passwords during divorce
    By Michael Gartland | New York Post | Nov. 20
    “The legal precedent, in the midst of a nasty custody battle between Stephen and Courtney Gallion, could mean more battling couples will be forced to give up their social-networking secrets.”

    3. Aging in place: A little help can go a long way
    By David Crary | Associated Press | Nov. 20
    “According to surveys, aging in place is the overwhelming preference of Americans over 50. But doing it successfully requires both good fortune and support services. …”

    4. Taking First-Class Coddling Above and Beyond
    By Jad Mouawad | The New York Times | Nov. 20
    “Carriers on international flights are offering private suites for first-class passengers, three-star meals and personal service once found only on corporate jets. They provide massages before takeoff, whisk passengers through special customs lanes and drive them in a private limousine right to the plane. … The amenities in the back of the cabin? Sparse.”

    5. Not All Rivers Reach the Sea
    By Rachel Nuwer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | Nov. 17
    “For six million years, the Colorado River ran its course from its soaring origins in the Rockies to a once-teeming two-million-acre delta, finally emptying 14 million acre-feet of fresh water into the Sea of Cortez. But now, a multitude of straws are drinking from the river. …”

    6. GOP debate: Newt Gingrich beats back immigration critique
    By Alexander Burns | Politico | Nov. 22
    “Ascendant Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich delivered an unapologetic defense of his views on immigration Tuesday night, declaring in a foreign policy debate that the GOP should not adopt a platform on immigration that ‘destroys families that have been here a quarter-century.’

    7. The meaning of 9/11’s most controversial photo
    By Jonathan Jones | The Guardian | Sept. 2
    “Thomas Hoepker’s photo of New Yorkers apparently relaxing as the twin towers smoulder says much about history and memory”

    8. Teaching Good Sex
    By Laurie Abraham | The New York Times Magazine | Nov. 16
    “Across the country, the approach ranges from abstinence until marriage is the only acceptable choice, contraceptives don’t work and premarital sex is physically and emotionally harmful, to abstinence is usually best, but if you must have sex, here are some ways to protect yourself from pregnancy and disease.”

    9. GOP candidate spouses — secret weapons or dangerous millstones?
    By Chris McGreal | The Guardian | Nov. 18
    “Gloria Cain helped dent harassment accusations against her husband but Anita Perry’s defence of Rick made things worse”

    10. Latino men are always the most critical of me
    NewsTaco | Nov. 18
    “Latino men are the ones who have most insulted my intellect and tried to ‘teach me’ how I should navigate the world.”

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