Dovi’s Digest Volume 81
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
G’day! Welcome to Volume 81 of Dovi’s Digest.
I’m told relatively often that the Digest is a nice escape from the usual tomfoolery that is taking place all around us by bringing in unusual and not topical articles. I generally try to keep to this. Never more so than when a new variant is announced, and my travel plans to elsewhere in the world get cancelled. I don’t want to think about it and I’m sure many of you don’t either. However, I’m going to make an exception this week.
We’ve all been affected by the last two years, some for better, although the vast majority for worse. This trauma will more than likely be carried by us for many years to come, even when we no longer wear masks when walking the apocalyptic hellscape that the earth has become. Even if unconsciously, we’ll still retain traits that we’ve learned.
This week’s headline article is about how the last great pandemic (the Spanish flu of 1918) affected a family for years afterwards, even if the younger generations weren’t aware of it. I won’t say much more, but it’s a beautifully told tale family secrets and their consequences.
For something a little lighter (and definitely more beautiful), the winner of the Natural Landscape Photography awards was announced a couple weeks ago, and all the submissions are just wonderful. Definitely desktop worthy. You can find the overall winner, as well as the runners up and category winners, over here.
There were ZERO correct answer to last week’s brainteaser. The answer and this week’s riddle are not below. I’ll leave it up for another week as I think it’s a real doozy.
I won’t only make you more aware of the possible ramifications of all that’s going on. There are also articles on the beauty of moths taking off in slomo (highly highly pleasing), why a serial killer expert was such an expert, cute little marsupial gliders, how watermelon became the de facto summer fruit, the young people taking up arms against Myanmar’s junta, and how a Jewish rapper became huge on TV. Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week and happy channukah/Hannukah/hanooka/chanika,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
The pandemic shaped my family for generations. Not COVID — the 1918 flu
A century from now, someone who has not yet been born will come to a haunting realization: Their life was shaped, in ways they may never fully understand, by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.
Witness The Majesty of Moths Taking Flight At 6,000 Frames Per Second
“Whose day isn’t gonna be better after watching a pink and yellow rosy maple moth fly in super-slow motion?”
What Lies Beneath: The Secrets of France’s Top Serial Killer Expert
An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stéphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his past.
Australia's Charismatic Glider Marsupial
The discovery of two new Australian glider species is a boon for biodiversity yet presents a serious challenge for conservation.
The Young Generation Risking All To Topple The Myanmar Junta
Former tour guide Gue Gue had never considered herself particularly political until the bloodbath on the streets in the wake of the coup in Myanmar. Now she’s in a clandestine rebel training camp.
The Hidden, Ancient History of Summers Favourite Fruit
Here’s how the watermelon got it’s groove.
The Big Ambition of Lil Dicky
The rapper and star of FX's surprise hit Dave opens up about his regrets, what drives him, and the powerful source of all his anxieties. (Hint: It's in his pants.)
Quote of the Week:
"My mother’s advice was, don’t lose time on useless emotions like anger, resentment, remorse, envy. Those, she said, will just sap time; they don’t get you where you want to be. One way I coped with times I was angry: I would sit down and practice the piano. I wasn’t very good at it, but it did distract me from whatever useless emotion I was feeling at the moment. Later, I did the same with the cello. I would be absorbed in the music, and the useless emotion faded away." — Ruth Bader Ginsberg's Life, In Her Own Words
Facts of the Week:
10 out of the 12 water companies in the UK still make use of divining rods.
An underwater pipeline discovered by border officials in Kyrgyzstan in 2013, was used to smuggle alcohol into the country from Kazakhstan.
Kazakh engineers have invented reusable toilet paper.
British soldiers in the Second World War had a ration of three sheets of toilet paper a day. U.S. soldiers were allowed 22.5 sheets a day.
The penalty for taking an unofficial photo during the First World War was death by firing squad.
During the Second World War, Finnish frontline soldiers were provided with saunas.
When Peter III of Russia caught a rat gnawing one of his toy soldiers, he had it court-martialled and hanged on miniature gallows.
Piglets prefer new toys to ones they’ve already played with.
Cartoons of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
(Courtesy of David Greenway)
Headline of the Week:
(Courtesy of Jackie Labovitz)
Brainteaser of the Week:
What number comes next in this sequence?
7 8 5 5 3 4 4 ?