Suggestion Saturday: July 13, 2013

Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

You’re Not My Mom! via FreeThinkAhead. Why pets aren’t children.

How USA General Knowledge Has Changed, 1980-2012. As a kid I read the encyclopedia for fun. Animals and diseases interested me the most, so that’s what I tended to explore. Finally logging onto the Internet as a teenager was incredible – I suddenly could answer questions as quickly as I thought of them! It will be intriguing to see how our definition of general knowledge shifts as it becomes more and more common for adults to have grown up with this instant access to information.

A Crystal Tear via CGAyling. A fairy tale that I hope will be expanded into a longer story. Let the author know if you like it as well!

Aging Gracefully via XplodingUnicorn. Why is it that people least willing to seek preventative medicine seem to live forever? The first paragraph in this link is comedy gold even if you don’t have relatives who think they should be able to patch up their own wounds.

From When The Bough Breaks:

Doctor, our insanity is not that we see people who aren’t there.
It’s that we ignore the ones who are.
Till we find ourselves scarred and ashamed
walking into emergency rooms at two a.m.
flooded with a pain we cannot name or explain
because we are bleeding from the outside in.

From What It Is Like to Be a Muslim Woman, And Why We Know What Freedom Is (And You May Not):

Saying I want to be alone, that I need space, that I do not want to reveal personal information, that I do not choose to answer that question, that it is none of your damn business, that this is my body and I can position it on the furniture however I like, that I do not have to explain to you why I am smiling, that this is my time, that this is my work, this is my mind and I can use it to read and write what I please…

I can say these things now.

I never could before.


You Are Not So Smart makes me miss studying psychology. This book is full of ways in which we trick ourselves into believing that our memories are static, our decisions are logical, and that we’d automatically make smarter choices than other people in emergencies.

Pop psychology works best when it sticks a small area of expertise and realizes its limits. While I would have preferred a more scholarly approach to the subject matter, this book was quite entertaining and it easily accessible to readers who haven’t studied psychology. There is definitely a need for more books like this, and I’m proud to recommend it to my readers.

What have you been reading?

2 Comments

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2 Responses to Suggestion Saturday: July 13, 2013

  1. tammy

    “Aging gracefully” is wonderful!

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