This week's Arrow previews the new cover for PP 2.0, more tales from the connected class, Covid vaccines and death, heart disease deaths on the decline, weight loss in the elderly, longevity and natural selection, and the video of the week.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert back in the early 1980s at a South Lake Tahoe casino. I was working at Harrah's at the time. I'm not sure in which club he was playing but it was a fairly small venue and the concert was absolutely delightful.
In April last year, I attended a 70th birthday celebration lunch in a basement restaurant in London. The guests had travelled there from America, Sweden and other parts of the UK. We were there for four hours, everyone mingling and talking at the tops of their voices after the long-time-no-see hugs. I was one of the few who wasn’t a doctor, and likely the only unvaccinated one: all the others would have had every booster going.
Perfect conditions for catching Covid19...Of the twenty-three of us, twenty got the lurgy, including me (but for *me* it was the first time). Birthday boy, an eminent neurosurgeon, had told me a few months earlier at another lunch that he was going to keep getting the boosters, because “You can’t be too safe”.
May 5, 2023·edited May 5, 2023Liked by Michael Eades
Thanks for the tribute to GL. I’ve been a huge fan since childhood when my father turned me on to him. While all my friends were listening to Aerosmith and Kiss, I was the weird one with the Gordon Lightfoot albums. Never got a chance to see him live. His hits were “his hits” but a deep dive into his music really shows what an incredible wordsmith and musician he really was. RIP Gordo! Thanks for the memories!
I also love Gordon and his song, A Song For a Winter's Night, but I love this version better. I think it was done back in the late '60s. Notice how subdued and well behaved his audience is compared to today's audience.
Song for a Winter's night - I listen to this one all the time. I prefer the voice of this older Lightfoot much like James Taylor's voice in his later years.
Although my favorite Lightfoot song is If Y Could Read My Mind. Here is a wonderful musical analysis of that song. Skip the first 4 and half minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ
IYI was me in my 20s. "he never worked at a real company that makes stuff. His sanctions were destined to fail from the start."
Then I worked on real projects where failure was obvious. I enjoyed those next decades a lot. I was even head hunted. The best thing ever said to me by the CEO of a company was, roughly, many people come and tell us what we need, you are the first person to listen to us about what we need and then deliver it.
Thanks for the book tip, I ordered The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Never too old to learn new pitfalls. It took me a long time to realise that many ‘deciders’ knew little about what they were deciding.
Alas, while sales of Bud Lite have dropped, AB/Inbev reported that it beat its quarterly earnings projections. So these events may fall into the "no publicity is bad publicity" category.
The AI image generators are pretty good now if you wanted to play around with different cover images. I tried the the Bing version and got some nice results, although not ideal. Other AIs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion should be better.
Hi Mike - One question about the new cover - what are the brownish, spikey things tucked in behind the chicken drumstick? The look like crickets (surely not?). Wheat stalks? (Hope not.) Shrimp?
The AB bit is hilarious - although my British husband claims that any beer AB makes is like sex in a canoe. We're great fans of a British beer called Old Peculiar - even though I stay away from anything with wheat in it, it's the one glass of beer I will have when we're in the UK.
The lion and the stupid decisions cartoon still has me laughing. Seems to me that 90% of DC belongs in that category - and I've already ordered the book - on audible - where it was only $3.49.
I did watch the entire Joe Rogan episode with Aseem Malhotra - and also subscribe to Zoe's newsletter - so I feel as if I'm in really good company subscribing to the Arrow.
Thanks for the Gordon Lightfoot video too. Such a pleasure.
Only a couple of typos - although I was so interested in every section I might have missed some . . .
Before people starting smoking in huge numbers circa WWI,
Re the final design for the cover Protein Power 2 - does this mean the book will be published fairly soon ?
I can testify to the effects of losing weight in hospital when you are thin. I was born with a heart defect and needed open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve when I was 60. Due to eating low carb Paleo for several years and weight lifting, I was very lean and very fit, good muscles, when I went into hospital. The week in hospital following surgery I found it difficult to eat due to pain and side effects of pain meds and I lost so much weight - I could see my body "eating” away my muscles, it was dreadful. Now, ten years later, I’ve still not regained all the weight I lost. So the question is how does someone gain weight on low carb Paleo so their body has a little padding and resources (for surgery and hospital) ? I eat a lot of protein with added fat.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert back in the early 1980s at a South Lake Tahoe casino. I was working at Harrah's at the time. I'm not sure in which club he was playing but it was a fairly small venue and the concert was absolutely delightful.
In April last year, I attended a 70th birthday celebration lunch in a basement restaurant in London. The guests had travelled there from America, Sweden and other parts of the UK. We were there for four hours, everyone mingling and talking at the tops of their voices after the long-time-no-see hugs. I was one of the few who wasn’t a doctor, and likely the only unvaccinated one: all the others would have had every booster going.
Perfect conditions for catching Covid19...Of the twenty-three of us, twenty got the lurgy, including me (but for *me* it was the first time). Birthday boy, an eminent neurosurgeon, had told me a few months earlier at another lunch that he was going to keep getting the boosters, because “You can’t be too safe”.
Thanks for the tribute to GL. I’ve been a huge fan since childhood when my father turned me on to him. While all my friends were listening to Aerosmith and Kiss, I was the weird one with the Gordon Lightfoot albums. Never got a chance to see him live. His hits were “his hits” but a deep dive into his music really shows what an incredible wordsmith and musician he really was. RIP Gordo! Thanks for the memories!
I think you're nailing it with the Connected Class. There's a similar concept that I think is related -- Luxury Beliefs.
"Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class."
https://robkhenderson.substack.com/p/status-symbols-and-the-struggle-for
https://robkhenderson.substack.com/p/thorstein-veblens-theory-of-the-leisure
I also love Gordon and his song, A Song For a Winter's Night, but I love this version better. I think it was done back in the late '60s. Notice how subdued and well behaved his audience is compared to today's audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfyDs6uXww0&pp=ygUZc29uZyBmb3IgYSB3aW50ZXIncyBuaWdodA%3D%3D
Song for a Winter's night - I listen to this one all the time. I prefer the voice of this older Lightfoot much like James Taylor's voice in his later years.
Although my favorite Lightfoot song is If Y Could Read My Mind. Here is a wonderful musical analysis of that song. Skip the first 4 and half minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ
If you like that kind of analysis, check out this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRxTW8GxT8
Phil
IYI was me in my 20s. "he never worked at a real company that makes stuff. His sanctions were destined to fail from the start."
Then I worked on real projects where failure was obvious. I enjoyed those next decades a lot. I was even head hunted. The best thing ever said to me by the CEO of a company was, roughly, many people come and tell us what we need, you are the first person to listen to us about what we need and then deliver it.
Thanks for the book tip, I ordered The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Never too old to learn new pitfalls. It took me a long time to realise that many ‘deciders’ knew little about what they were deciding.
From Nassim Taleb’s book, Skin in the Game,
“You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. “Educated philistines” have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.”
I haven’t read it, but thought you’d find the last “wrong” thing listed interesting.
Alas, while sales of Bud Lite have dropped, AB/Inbev reported that it beat its quarterly earnings projections. So these events may fall into the "no publicity is bad publicity" category.
https://www.investors.com/news/bud-stock-rises-on-anheuser-busch-earnings-beat-bud-light-boycott-could-cause-hangover/
The AI image generators are pretty good now if you wanted to play around with different cover images. I tried the the Bing version and got some nice results, although not ideal. Other AIs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion should be better.
https://www.bing.com/images/create/a-photograph-of-food-in-the-shape-of-a-heart2c-incl/6455de52001f455ea59e19ced3a969c6?id=yWQXd1pS0PWYqXdKKtkECw%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&edgehub=1&lightschemeovr=1&FORM=GCRIDP
Subscriber here: I thought you were going to post a list of links?
Hi Mike - One question about the new cover - what are the brownish, spikey things tucked in behind the chicken drumstick? The look like crickets (surely not?). Wheat stalks? (Hope not.) Shrimp?
The AB bit is hilarious - although my British husband claims that any beer AB makes is like sex in a canoe. We're great fans of a British beer called Old Peculiar - even though I stay away from anything with wheat in it, it's the one glass of beer I will have when we're in the UK.
The lion and the stupid decisions cartoon still has me laughing. Seems to me that 90% of DC belongs in that category - and I've already ordered the book - on audible - where it was only $3.49.
I did watch the entire Joe Rogan episode with Aseem Malhotra - and also subscribe to Zoe's newsletter - so I feel as if I'm in really good company subscribing to the Arrow.
Thanks for the Gordon Lightfoot video too. Such a pleasure.
Only a couple of typos - although I was so interested in every section I might have missed some . . .
Before people starting smoking in huge numbers circa WWI,
Before people started smoking . . .
I thought is was a profound statement.
I thought it was a profound
Stay well!
Re the final design for the cover Protein Power 2 - does this mean the book will be published fairly soon ?
I can testify to the effects of losing weight in hospital when you are thin. I was born with a heart defect and needed open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve when I was 60. Due to eating low carb Paleo for several years and weight lifting, I was very lean and very fit, good muscles, when I went into hospital. The week in hospital following surgery I found it difficult to eat due to pain and side effects of pain meds and I lost so much weight - I could see my body "eating” away my muscles, it was dreadful. Now, ten years later, I’ve still not regained all the weight I lost. So the question is how does someone gain weight on low carb Paleo so their body has a little padding and resources (for surgery and hospital) ? I eat a lot of protein with added fat.