The rains settled in over the Bay Area on Pi Day, which for all math geeks is a special one. It also this year was tax day for me and some of my dependents as we compiled the documents and did the calculations that will help our accountant or Turbotax take it the rest of the way.
Traveling through the rain reduces the usual spectacular landscape around here to a tiny tight bubble, where there might as well be no ocean, no bay, no mountains, no huge city, just one car ahead, one car behind, and the spray beating on your windshield.
That's a moment worth remembering, the windshield wipers slapping' time...
On a much more personal note, the essay I published yesterday called "My Song" happens only when I'm singing on tune. A couple of you likened it to an impressionist painting, which gratified me. Not only is that a school of art I love but my life feels like it belongs as one, framed. A veteran publisher told me recently that if I were to publish a memoir I should consider calling it "Slivers" or "Slices," because that's the only way my life made sense to him.
Carrying that metaphor forward, if every life can be likened to a loaf of bread, some can probably be seen as a whole, whereas it is extremely difficult to view mine that way. My life got cut up along the way as I veered over this way and then back that way. I did one thing, then another, quite different thing I was in one relationship, then another, then another, then another...I had a child, then another, stopping at six. I'd had roughly 25 jobs when I stopped counting. I lived in lots of different houses, buying and selling a half dozen of them. I checked in and out of many hospitals and nursing facilities; am no stranger to the back of an ambulance with an EMT vehicle, lights on or off.
Depressions? Moods? Diagnoses? Therapists?
Books. I published four books. Articles -- many hundreds. Words? Millions.
Slices. Slivers. Whenever I try to put it back together it makes no sense at all, not to me. Once he falls, Humpty Dumpty stays in pieces. Only a romantic would see a whole.
I'm a leaf not a tree.
***
One frustrating thing about publishing at Facebook is the company strips the links out of the news headlines I collate here, so they become naked. You can't just click through and see the whole article for yourself. Today, for one day only, I'm adding the links back in, as an experiment.
Even with this, for most of the content you'll hit a paywall unless you subscribe to that news service. But some of them -- CNN, AP, Reuters -- should yield the entire story when you click because those are free, like me.
The battle over who makes money off the content we journalists create is a central feature of our time, which I have been noting here regularly for the past year, and elsewhere for the past 25 years. The coming of the Internet disenfranchised the established media, which media executives were slow to comprehend. By the time they did, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple and Amazon had already won the war.
In fact the world of media didn't know the tech companies were in the advertising business until they had a monopoly over it.
Now those original content providers are fighting back here and there, winning little victories in Australia and Europe and pinning their hopes on dubious legislation here in the U.S. The corruption of money is so complete in the U.S. political system that there is little hope of any relief soon, other than perhaps the good will of the good folks at the helm of the giant tech companies.
These are not bad people; I know some of them, but they disintermediated mainstream media people from their audiences and revenue sources before they knew what had hit them or why.
***
The news (with links one time only)
* Two Decades After the ‘End of Welfare,’ Democrats Are Changing Direction <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/business/economy/child-poverty-stimulus.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210314&instance_id=28048&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=57875746&segment_id=53393&user_id=e9c50ecce0bae13e757cc06f3250b959> -- The pandemic and a set of other economic and social forces changed the calculation for Democrats when it comes to government aid. The question now is how long the moment will last. (NYT)
* U.S. push for Afghan peace has renewed ‘urgency,’ but some fear it could backfire <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/13/afghanistan-us-plan-risks/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_headlines> -- The approach is an attempt to reach a peace deal within weeks by applying unprecedented pressure to negotiating teams on both sides of the conflict. (WP)
* The Imperious Rise and Accelerating Fall of Andrew Cuomo <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/us/politics/andrew-cuomo-scandals.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210314&instance_id=28048&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=57875746&segment_id=53393&user_id=e9c50ecce0bae13e757cc06f3250b959> -- Even as he tries to plot a political survival strategy in the face of sexual misconduct allegations, Mr. Cuomo is an object lesson on the dangers of kicking people on the way up. (NYT)
* At least 14 Myanmar protesters killed in Yangon suburb, local media say <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics/at-least-14-killed-in-myanmar-district-after-chinese-factories-burned-media-say-idUSKBN2B602C?il=0> (Reuters)
* U.S. and Iran warily circle each other over reactivating nuclear deal <https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/online-harassment-female-journalists/2021/03/13/ed24b0aa-82aa-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_evening_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening> (WP)
* Paris may face new lockdown as ICUs fill up <https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-pakistan-islamabad-coronavirus-pandemic-europe-48d675ad33ab33fff3c78fe74e36dfcc> (AP)
* The Past Year Has Taught Me a Lot About Nostalgia <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/opinion/covid-isolation-narrative.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210314&instance_id=28048&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=57875746&segment_id=53393&user_id=e9c50ecce0bae13e757cc06f3250b959> -- Yearning for the Before Times as a mythic era risks obscuring the ways in which the Before was really many different kinds of before. (NYT)
* White House Weighs How to Pay for Long-Term Economic Program <https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-weighs-how-to-pay-for-long-term-economic-program-11615714201?mod=hp_lead_pos3> (WSJ)
* Protesters Defy Covid Restrictions to Rally for Slain London Woman <https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000007652762/sarah-everard-memorial.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210314&instance_id=28048&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=57875746&segment_id=53393&user_id=e9c50ecce0bae13e757cc06f3250b959> -- Thousands of people gathered at Clapham Common on Saturday, the London park near where Sarah Everard, 33, was last seen alive. Her death led to an outpouring of anger and solidarity over violence against women. (AP, Reuters)
* Microsoft Executive Says Tech Consolidation Threatens Journalism <https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007652363/microsoft-journalism-tech-hearing.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210314&instance_id=28048&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=57875746&segment_id=53393&user_id=e9c50ecce0bae13e757cc06f3250b959> -- Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, told Congress he supports the Journalism Competition and Protection Act, which empowers news publishers to collectively bargain with online platforms like Facebook and Google. (AP)
* Some Senators Want Permanent Daylight Saving Time <https://www.npr.org/2021/03/13/976859476/some-senators-want-permanent-daylight-saving-time> (NPR)
* Last Pickle Delighted To Finally Have Whole Jar To Self (The Onion)
***
When I's feelin' near as faded as my jeans
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained
And rode us all the way into New Orleans
I's playin' soft while Bobby sang the blues
Windshield wipers slappin' time
I's holdin' Bobby's hand in mine
We sang every song that driver knew
Nothin', it ain't nothin' honey, if it ain't free
And feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know feelin' good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee
Yeah, Bobby shared the secrets of my soul
Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done
Yeah, Bobby baby kept me from the cold
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