Suggestion Saturday: September 7, 2013

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

From Life and Death in Assisted Living:

During a tour, a salesperson gave Myron and his two sons, Eric and Mark, a brochure. “Just because she’s confused at times,” the brochure reassured them, “doesn’t mean she has to lose her independence.”

Here are a few things the brochure didn’t mention:

Just months earlier, Emeritus supervisors had audited the facility’s process for handling medications. It had been found wanting in almost every important regard. And, in truth, those “specially trained” staffers hadn’t actually been trained to care for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, a violation of California law.

Steampunk – Hybridity and Fantasy. I’ve never quite figured out why the Steampunk subculture annoys me so much, but this article gives a good explanation of why it bothers other people.

How to Disagree. I couldn’t agree with this more. A lot can be learned about someone’s character by observing how they handle disagreements. We all have bad days and sensitive topics, though, so I look for behaviour patterns over months or years if it is at all possible.

The Kindness of Beasts. These kinds of stories make me wish animals could talk. I’d love to know what’s going through their minds when they risk their own safety to help others.

The World Religions Tree. A map of every religion known on earth that shows how how they are all connected to one another. I could spend all morning zooming in and out again to discover new similarities between denominations and religions that I never would have imagined. And just think – had any of us been born at a different time or place  we very likely would have ended up believing in an entirely different religion!

Letter to a Drive-By Antisemite via AutistLiam. What a humorous reaction to what must have been an incredibly frustrating interaction! I’ll admit to feeling quite curious about the outfits some people wear for (what I assume are) religious reasons, but I’ve never had the urge to ask such personal questions. It makes me wonder about how the antagonist in this blog post grew up. Was he bullied about things beyond his control? Did his grandmother/teacher/neighbour ask him incredibly inappropriate things? Did he grow up in a family that ridiculed empathy? I believe people are born good. Emotional callousness is something that develops later on for some folks.

The Trouble with the Poor. If the first sentence of this post doesn’t make you want to read it, nothing will:

The trouble with the poor is that they are messy.


Pets are weird. My Dog the Paradox explores all of the reasons why this is so.

What is even odder is how attached humans get to the cats, dogs, rabbits, reptiles, rodents, birds, and other creatures that burrow into our hearts. Our ancestors originally domesticated them for practical reasons in many cases, but we live with them because we love them.

For several years during our childhood my oldest brother, Jesse, had a constant companion named Cubby. Cubby was a small, mixed breed dog who wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box.  He believed that bubbles were the biggest threat to our family and attacked every one that magically appeared in the house to keep us safe. You don’t have to be intelligent to love and protect your humans.

If you gave him a carrot he’d gnaw it all the way to the stub, find a quiet corner of the house and then vomit up everything he had eaten. In the summer he’d lick one side of a popsicle while my brother licked the other. He had the most terrible gas ever known to mankind (possibly because he lived with a houseful of children who fed him strange things because they didn’t know any better).

What have you been reading? What is the weirdest thing one of your pets has ever done?

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0 Responses to Suggestion Saturday: September 7, 2013

  1. The World Religion Tree

    WOW!!
    I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so cool and so detailed.
    Now THAT would be a cool poster!

  2. WOW!
    Now that’s cool!
    I don’t think I’ve seen something so detailed before!
    NOW THAT would make for an awesome poster!!

  3. Great links, Lydia! So much good reading. 🙂

  4. Michael Mock

    Once, in a former life, I had cat. I was, at the time, living in a rental house – one half of a duplex, actually. The front hall had this odd wallpaper with, I don’t know, some sort of odd weave. Not quite firm enough for a basket, but it kind of gave that impression, materials-wise.

    One evening while we’re watching television, I glance over at the cat. The cat is in the front hall. He is eyeing the wall in a particularly speculative fashion. As I’m watching, he bunches himself up and springs. He must have sunk his claws into that wallpaper, because he stuck to the wall… and then proceeded to walk right up it, almost to the level of the ceiling.

    I have no idea what possessed him to do this.

    I’m pretty sure, however, that just about the time I made my way over there – marveling as I went – the cat figured out that he had no idea how to get back down. This, I imagine, is one of the reasons that cats bother to keep humans around.

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