Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
How Fruit Juice Went From Health Food to Junk Food via StoryRoute. What I find most interesting about this article is how our notions of what is (and isn’t) healthy are influenced by trends. Yes, new research occasionally does show that certain foods are much more (or less) healthy than what we had originally believed, but a lot of it boils down to hype.
Neptune Memorial Reef – An Under Sea Cemetery. I’ve been fascinated by cemetery art and architecture for many years. Some people are amazingly creative when it comes to designing their final resting place, and the people profiled in this article are no exception to that rule.
Yellow Pills and Green Pills. It’s so hard to comment on this comic strip without inadvertently giving away the ending. All I can really say about it is that it reminds me of something my parents used to say about the downside of intelligence.
When You Can’t Be Trusted to Hurt Yourself via dorsalstream. The best line from this piece is: “Sessions are like getting your hair cut, only your hair is broken and it hurts.”
From What I Saw:
He slumped against the gym wall and slammed his head back. The act was met with a sharp reprimand from a bystanding aide. And I know what they saw.They saw defiance. Headbanging behavior. A tantrum.I saw a student trying to block out external input. I saw. Everyone else gawked and chattered as the other kids did the warm-ups. I stood by helplessly.I saw a humiliated man sitting against a wall in a corner, helpless and outnumbered, with no way to communicate.
From Wendel’s Tips for Travellers via Skelemika:
What to seeThe Extravaganza of Personalities. This is my favorite. Admission is free, and you can stay as long as you like. You can watch the Turning Worm grow razor sharp incisors right before your eyes (rarely after). Or hear a Grand Tirade by King Sneer as he leans out across the Barrier of Insolence to address the crowd (sometimes spelled cowed).
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live in a fishbowl, Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter is the perfect book for you.
I watched occasional reruns of Little House on the Prairie as a kid, but I knew nothing about any of the child actors who illuminated Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Celebrity worship was never something that my family encouraged. It would be really interesting to hear from any readers who were big fans of Melissa Francis when she was young if there are any reading this post!
Melissa definitely didn’t live a charmed life, and what I liked most about her story was how completely different her actual childhood was from the image she portrayed. We rarely know what’s really going on in other people’s lives.
What have you been reading?