I don't want to live in a beige world | LISB

Hey y’all!

Yesterday, while driving through traffic, I saw an orange car. At least, orange is as close as I can come to describing it. It had a bit more red in it than the orange you would expect from a pumpkin. It was a very new-looking SUV and I wish I had not been driving, because it was so striking, I would have taken a picture of it.

We were on the interstate, so we were surrounded by cars. I could see a mile or so ahead, and as far as I could see, all the cars were grey or white or that putty color you see now days. And this orange one. Keep in mind I saw all of this while driving my white pickup.

It just struck me how beige our world is now. When I was a kid in the 70s, McDonald’s were full of primary colors, and now they are all brown. Our home was built in 1950, and is a sturdy brownish yellow – close to the color of Dijon mustard. But when I removed the porch light fixture last year, you could see that before it was this color, it was teal.

The top photo shows what the coliseum in Jackson MS looked like when it was built in 1962, vs what it looks like now. It used to have personality and a point of view. Now it looks generic.

I’m not sure when it happened, exactly, but we are becoming more and more homogenized as a society. When we did our kitchen renovation a few years ago, we were told by several well meaning folks that we should not use tile for the countertops because a future buyer may not want them. This ignores the fact we, the people who live here now,  wanted tile countertops. I should not rearrange my life to deprioritize my wishes to center some hypothetical future person.

Last night, as I set the table for supper, I opened the drawer where we keep the dishes. We use Fiestaware, and rather than stick with a single color, we have every color. Last night my wife’s plate was purple, mine green. I looked around, and our walls were blue, the bouquet of flowers that came from our yard was filled with blues and yellows, and the vintage metal signs we collect that lined the wall were of every color in the rainbow.

None of this was done consciously – we just like to have a lot of color in our life. But now, I’m going to try to make it a priority. I don’t want to live in a beige world.

Nikon has posted the finalists for their comedy wildlife awards. As it gets harder and harder to trust images online, I really appreciate their no AI stance.

Check out this collection of photos of tattoos from the 1930’s in France. They are pictures of arrested criminals, and were put together for a resource for mental health workers to help them “understand” the psychology of criminals. While that has been discredited, the photos are amazing.

At a prison in southern Vermont, male prisoners are learning to quilt. The end results – for both the quilts and the men - are staggering.

A look at the esthetics – fonts, images, layout – of the Black Panther (yes, those Black Panthers!) newspaper. This hits so many buttons for me.

Meridith Whittaker is, according to Time Magazine, one of the most powerful people in AI. She runs the messaging app Signal. When asked to participate in a lighting round of questions for the BBC, things did not go as planned. If she is worried, I am definitely worried.

The most clicked link last issue was this Thread of low-effort ways to show your partner you care.

Over on my blog, I posted the story of Momma Tom, the feral cat who adopted us.

I also announced that I am rebooting my blog. I will continue the occasional long-form post but will be moving to a much more link heavy format. If you like the sort of things I link to here, you will like this, I think. To learn the whole story, including how to read it and the story behind its new name, check out this post.

Can you do me a favor?

I have been publishing this newsletter for almost 12 years. For a number of reasons, I don’t have copies of early editions. If you are an email hoarder (no shade - game recognizes game) and you have copies of any LISB emails from before 2021, please forward them to [email protected], an email account I made just to get these, so my regular inbox does not get swamped. I appreciate it – this will help me build out the archive on the new site.

On the membership site, I shared a short memoir essay about my grandmother, who died when I was four, and me.

Membership starts at just $5 a month, and makes it possible for this email to be ad-free and AI-free for everyone. Members also get access to bonus essays, first dibs on things I decide to sell, and generous discounts, among other perks.

Thank You!

Link ideas for this issue came from Kottke, Ethan Marcotte, and Seth Werkheiser.

Thank you for reading - it means the world to me. If you have links you think I shoudl see, please just hit reply and tell me about them.

Take care.

HH

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, there are 3 WAYS THIS WEEK! PICK ONE right now before you forget: