Speaking of Memoir

So you want to investigate your own past. How to begin?

First you should access and organize your own personal records. These are going to be extremely valuable assets in your research. And it's here that packrats have an inherent advantage, although many of them may need help organizing their stuff.

Grade-school report cards, college financial aid letters, tax returns, bank statements, tax bills, car maintenance records, even simple receipts can tell a story. When was it that you had that tire blowout on the freeway exactly? You remember the exit sign but which tow company came to help, with that nice man who turned out to know your cousin?

And, yes, that's how you found out why your uncle had to leave town so suddenly back when you were a kid.

Records tell stories, you just have to allow them to speak.

An even more powerful treasure trove of your past lies in the letters, journals, photos, tapes and videos you've stuffed in an old box in the garage somewhere. Fifty times you almost threw them away; fifty times you didn't.

Now you're seriously contemplating your history they are suddenly fifty times more valuable than they were yesterday.

Most of the letters were addressed to you from someone else among your family members, friends, or associates. But you also have of your own letters, like those you wrote overseas that your sister saved for you.

Pay attention to the language usage in these letters. Look at the stamps and the postmarks. Note the dates. In stories, certain details matter.

And there is your college application essay, your first job application cover letter, an angry Letter to the Editor of the local newspaper. Your own writing is always a window into your prior self -- how you presented yourself to the world back then, and how you used language to express your feelings.

As you pore through this mass of material, think as if you are conducting a forensic analysis, as if your former self were somebody alien to you now. The reason I say this is you need to try and be as objective about yourself as possible in this process.

It should be as if you are writing a biography of another person.

Photographic evidence is particularly revealing. Note the expressions, the body language, who stands next to whom, what's in the background, which smiles are natural and which are forced. Who snapped that photo.

Every picture tells not one but many stories. Much of what you are seeking can be glimpsed through the lens of cameras past but you have to be able to see it.

Beyond physical records and let's be frank here, most of us don't have many, you have a great tool in your computer. Your grandmother didn't have that when she wrote down her memories. So take advantage of your advantage. More and more digitized history is available, as various efforts to catalogue the past and bring it online proceed here and there.

And of course there is original web content itself. Stories about you that appeared here and there. More photos. More citations. Look up your name at academia.edu. You might be surprised how many scholars have cited your work. 

For the past 25 years or so, there's the Wayback Machine hosted by the non-profit Internet Archive. You can familiarize yourself with how to use it or there are articles to help guide you. <https://gijn.org/2021/05/05/tips-for-using-the-internet-archives-wayback-machine-in-your-next-investigation/> I just unearthed an old article for a friend that brought back memories for her.

While there is the frustration of dead links <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/> you can sometimes find workarounds for that issue. For instance, try locating the author of any article you seek -- authors tend to maintain their own clip files apart from the web.

And when researching family history, please don't overlook obituaries. Many details of the lives of even people you knew well only appear in print at the end of their stories.

For deeper forensic analyses, you want to probe legal files, including criminal and civil cases, divorce judgements, adoption papers and bankruptcy filings. Property records from the assessor and recorders offices are public records you can obtain.

If this all sounds scary it isn't. Just give it a try. The clerks in most agency offices prove extremely helpful.

Do not overlook the Freedom of Information Act, which allows you to find out what data government agencies collected and maintained about you. You may think only of intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA but most FOIA files are far more mundane, but perhaps more relevant to what you need to know.

Most states have some sort of sunshine laws; in California it's known as the California Public Records Act. There are non-profit organizations that can help you draft letters of inquiry and interpret the results when the agency in question sends you the records you requested.

But all of this record-seeking is only one aspect of investigating your life, or what I call Memoir Journalism. It is other people who hold the majority of the information you with to know locked away in their memories.

To help them unlock those memories, you need to perfect your interviewing techniques. Fortunately there are many available resources to help you with this, from YouTube videos to journalism classes or  some friendly retired reporter, lawyer, investigator, insurance adjuster, historian or homicide inspector.

Many people know how to obtain information through conversation.

And conversations can be the fun part of all this. Like fossil fuels stored in the rocks beneath our feet, the memories locked in the brains of others need to be mined and released.

Just try not to be a reckless brain surgeon and try not to pollute the planet in the process.

The key to all of this, at the end, is to think like an investigator.

***

THE HEADLINES

* Being In Time -- How Much Should We Value the Past, the Present and the Future? (New Yorker)

* Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need a booster shot at this point, according to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their statement came hours after reports that Pfizer plans to file for authorization to give people a third shot of its vaccine amid the rise in more transmissible coronavirus variants around the country. [HuffPost]

* Lockdowns in Asia as some nations see 1st major virus surges (AP)

* Why Aren’t Millions of Unemployed Americans Finding Jobs?A mismatch between available workers and job openings is plaguing the labor market as potential employees leave cities or industries where businesses need them most. (WSJ)

* How New Biden Rules Could Make It Easier To Buy Hearing Aids Or Fix Your Phone (NPR)

* A Battle Between a Great City and a Great Lake -- The climate crisis haunts Chicago’s future as a warming world pushes Lake Michigan toward new extremes — higher highs, lower lows, greater uncertainty. (NYT)

* California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked people and businesses to voluntarily cut how much water they use by 15% as the Western U.S. weathers a drought that is rapidly emptying reservoirs relied on for agriculture, drinking water and fish habitat. California's most important reservoirs are already at dangerously low levels. [AP]

* The record heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that claimed hundreds of human lives also cooked to death an estimated 1 billion sea creatures, like mussels and clams, according to a marine biologist. Such a massive die-off has a major effect on the environment. [HuffPost]

* Reservoirs are drying up as consequences of the Western drought worsen -- Over the last 20 years, human-caused warming has intensified what would have been an ordinary dry period in the Southwest into a potential “megadrought” — in some ways the driest such period in 1,200 years. (WP)

* Western U.S. readies for scorching heat this weekend (WP)

* Farmworkers are calling on Congress to pass basic safety standards to protect them from extreme heat after a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest killed hundreds of people, including an undocumented worker in Oregon. There is currently no federal standard for working conditions during extreme heat. [HuffPost] 

* Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s Partnership Did Not Survive Trump -- The company they built is wildly successful. But her Washington wisdom didn’t hold up, and neither did their close working relationship. (NYT)

* Study shows dramatic gap in religious diversity between the Southeast and much of the country (WP)

* Advice for Artists Whose Parents Want Them to Be Engineers -- How to follow your heart, even if it disappoints your parents. (NYT)

* Toyota said it will no longer donate to lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 election, according to The Detroit News. Toyota credited the change to "stakeholders," but it should be noted it came hours after the Lincoln Project released a damning video attacking the car company. [HuffPost]

* In Michigan, Pro-Impeachment Republicans Face Voters’ Wrath -- Representative Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach Donald J. Trump, seeks “decency and humility” in Western Michigan, but has found anger, fear and misinformation. (NYT)

* CDC says students vaccinated against the coronavirus can go maskless in fall; some states, schools had already lifted mask mandates (WP)

* The California Geological Survey released new tsunami hazard maps for the Bay Area. If a once-in-a-millennium tsunami hit, it could inundate more of the waterfront than scientists previously feared. (San Francisco Chronicle)

* Taliban says it controls most of Afghanistan, reassures Russia (Reuters)

* In Forceful Defense of Afghan Withdrawal, Biden Says U.S. Achieved Its Objectives -- The president insisted that the United States had done more than enough to empower the Afghan police and military to secure the future of their people. (NYT)

* Why Afghanistan’s growing chaos alarms leaders from Tajikistan to Russia (WP)

* Special Report: Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as U.S. withdraws (Reuters)

* Everyone On Camping Trip Just Gets Out Of Way While Friend Who Knows What He’s Doing Takes Care Of Everything (The Onion)

***

"Sweet Memories"

Sung by Andy Williams

Written by Mickey Newbury

My world is like a river, it's dark as it is deep
Night after night the past slips in and gathers all my sleep
My days are just an endless stream of emptiness to me
Filled only by the fleeting moments of her memory

Sweet memories
Sweet memories
Mmmmmmmm

She slipped into the silence of my dreams last night
Wandering from room to room, she's turning on each light
Her laughter spills like water from the river to the sea
I'm swept away from sadness, clinging to her memory

Sweet memories
Sweet memories
Mmmmmmmm

Covid Flips Sides

"Only Connect" -- E.M. Forster

____

A big part of the pandemic experience for me was reconnecting, and given I've had a relatively long life with more jobs than the average Baby Boomer, there are a lot of people to reconnect with, potentially.

Recently partly out of curiosity I pinged a list of former employees from one company just to see if it still worked. There had not been any messages in about seven years but -- surprise! -- some 20+ people responded. So the list was dormant but not dead.

Most people seemed happy to weigh in again, some gave personal updates. A few sounded like they would have preferred not to be reminded of a time that is now long past.

But by far the most satisfying to me were a handful private messages off the list from people who told me we had mutual connections, including with my family members. These were relationships I wasn't even aware of.

I guess the message is "only connect." True in a great novel, true in life.

***

If you go back and study the previous pandemics in human history, one problem inevitably is that the casualty estimates are at best only rough approximates. Contemporaneous accounts often provide graphic detail of what the situation appeared to be to those on the ground, but we can't know with certainty how many people died or suffered lasting health damage.

We have much better tracking systems in place now but they too have their limits. Our current estimates of 33.7 million cases and 605,000 deaths in the U.S. from Covid no doubt undercount the true totals, according to public health officials.

But we know enough to say it's been bad.

Today I sifted through the latest reports from around the world to try and assess whether the danger has truly passed or whether sooner or later in the U.S. we'll face a new surge in cases. Here are my best guesses, with the caveat that I'm not a public health expert:

* For those of us who are fully vaccinated, the evidence indicates we are protected from the current, hyper-contagious delta variant. We may get infected but show no symptoms.

* Unvaccinated adults are at greater risk, however, because the delta mutant is much more contagious than the original. And also because those of us who are vaccinated will probably pass it on to them unknowingly. 

* So what we have is a complete reversal in roles. Before vaccines, the maskless fraction of the population threatened the masked portion. Now the opposite appears to be true.

* As CNN reports, there are five huge unvaccinated clusters of people in the South at particular risk of incubating new variants beyond delta. The virus has proved capable of mutating quickly among unprotected populations. This further puts all of us at risk.

* But the good news is that the major vaccines are not only effective, manufacturers will most likely be able to develop boosters in real time to protect us from new variants. They may be able to create these new vaccines in as little as three weeks.

* Next, even if the U.S. can overcome vaccine hesitancy and reach herd immunity, unvaccinated ares of poor countries around the world may well incubate new variants much like what will soon be occurring in those five clusters in the southern U.S.

* Due to vaccine inequality in the poor world, new mutations will most likely continue to emerge globally for a long time to come.

* At least, most government officials in the U.S. now realize that placing new restrictions, including masks and social distancing, in place will help mitigate any future waves, so our public infrastructure is better prepared to deal with whatever happens next.

* The preventative measures used against Covid-19 also vastly reduced the winter flu season to a non-event. That suggests that similar methods could help restrain future outbreaks of coronavirus or other pandemics.

* In the future, probably the only people who will die from coronavirus will be unvaccinated adults, with very few exceptions.

* Children who do not have compromised immune systems will probably remain free from the worst effects of coronavirus illnesses whether they are vaccinated or not. But as always they may pass on the virus to more vulnerable populations, i.e., unvaccinated adults.

* Probably Covid will be as routine a matter as the flu has been for years. Of course that still means a lot of misery for some people.

The bottom line of this summary is while most of us are probably out of the woods for now, there still is potential trouble, big trouble, for those stuck in the anti-vaccine backwoods. Their problem (in the U.S.) is ignorance. 

Meanwhile, the virus, which appears to be far more intelligent than certain members of the human family, knows how to exploit that problem.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* WHO sounds alarm as toll tops 4 million, delta spreads to 100 countries (WP)

* The global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 4 million Wednesday as countries race to vaccinate their populations while the mutant delta version spreads rapidly. The death toll is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia, but is likely to be an undercount. [AP]

* Five undervaccinated clusters put the entire United States at risk (CNN)

* New study on delta variant reveals importance of receiving both vaccine shots, highlights challenges posed by mutations (WP)

* Olympics Host city Tokyo bans Olympic spectators amid COVID-19 emergency (Reuters)

* The recent emergence of a virus that typically sickens children in colder months has baffled U.S. pediatricians and put many infants in the hospital with troublesome coughs and breathing trouble.  RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of cold-like symptoms but can be serious for infants and the elderly. (AP)

* The Latest: Virus outbreak straining Fiji’s medical system (AP)

* ‘Zero Chance of Survival’: Search for Survivors in Condo Collapse Is Ending (NYT)

* Officials Will End Search Efforts After Condominium Collapse -- Officials in Florida said after two weeks of searching for victims they would shift their focus to recovery efforts after assessing that no survivors would be found. (AP)

* Police capture, kill alleged assailants in assassination of Haitian president (WP)

* Climate Change Drove Western Heat Wave’s Extreme Records, Analysis Finds -- A rapid analysis of last week’s record-breaking heat found that it would have been virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused climate change. (NYT)

* A Young Naturalist Inspires With Joy, Not Doom -- At 17, Dara McAnulty is becoming one of Britain’s most acclaimed nature writers, with work that touches on his autism as much as the world around his home. (NYT)

* U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But autonomous war is already here. (WP)

* Research from the Scripps Research Translational Institute suggests that wearable fitness trackers — like Fitbit and Apple Watch — can not only help detect early signs of Covid-19, but they can also track lasting effects of the virus. (NYT)

* Even Marjorie Taylor Greene Thinks Mike Lindell’s Trump Reinstatement Theory Is B.S. --The Georgia congresswoman told people not to get their hopes up that Trump would be back in the White House next month “because that’s not true.” (HuffPost)

* Abbott Opens Texas G.O.P.’s Push to Limit Voting and Reshape the State (NYT)

* Sha’Carri Richardson was punished for her humanity. But it only makes her more impressive. (WP)

* The complete sidelining of U.S. track star Sha’Carri Richardson from the Tokyo Olympics stinks, White House press secretary Jen Psaki agreed. “We know the rules are where they are; maybe we should take another look at them,” Psaki suggested. [HuffPost]

* ‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master’s Degrees That Don’t Pay Off --Columbia and other top universities push master’s programs that fail to generate enough income for graduates to keep up with six-figure federal loans. (WSJ)

* FDA narrows use of Alzheimer’s drug to patients with early-stage disease (WP)

* ‘In the End We Felt Betrayed’: Vietnamese Veterans See Echoes in Afghanistan (NYT)

* U.S. considers visas for vulnerable Afghan women after military exit (Reuters)

* Scientists Discover Thousands of Ancient Tombs In Galaxy-Like Patterns (Vice)

* Coronavirus Variant Excited To Compete With World’s Top Mutations In Tokyo This Summer (The Onion)

***

Today's soundtrack comes to us courtesy of SARS-CoV-2 aka Covid-19:

"Coming for You"

Sung by Neffex

Written by Brandon Horth

And I recall the past real vaguely
I remember everything they'd say
Maybe thought that I was crazy
Thinking that one day they'd see my name

Loved being a loner, always moving closer
Know exactly what I wanted to have
Fear of growing older, chip all on my shoulder
Told myself I'm never looking back

And now I'm cold and dissonant
I'm losing my innocence
And you don't know my intent

And now you better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you

Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you
Better back down 'cause I'm coming for you

-30-

It's All In The Telling

Over a number of years I developed a fondness for the singer Norah Jones, the soulfully exotic way she sings, and her large lovely dark eyes that always seem to convey wisdom beyond her years.

But I never even did the most basic homework to know who she was. When I finally did, it turned out she is the daughter of the great Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar, who had such an enormous influence on George Harrison and the Beatles that it spread out to all the rest of us in the western world. 

Her birth name was Geethali Norah Jones Shankar.

So that helps explain a few things. She is gifted at solo performances but she really comes alive in duets with just about anybody. Via YouTube I've seen her perform with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Tony Bennett, John Mayer, Wynton Marsalis, and many more, but maybe my personal favorite is when she performed "Love Hurts" with Keith Richards.

I don't know how to categorize her singing -- jazz, rock, country, folk -- and I'm not sure that it matters, because in my mind she'll always be that person who could have stolen any show if she chose to but instead helped others to shine.

That is how it goes in life and work -- collaborators and partners invariably accomplish more together than they ever would have alone.

As a special treat for those who like Norah as much as I do, check out the one movie she starred in -- "My Blueberry Nights," a 2007 romance directed by Wong Kar-wai, and co-starring an all-star cast of Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman.

In case you've not yet seen it, I won't be too descriptive, but one of my favorite parts of the film concerns how lovable (and frustrating) two particular addicts are, an alcoholic and a gambler. Never have I seen addicts portrayed with a more loving human touch than in this special little gem of a film.

The soundtrack is also great, including a song (below) Norah wrote called "The Story." And this story is one that has a happy ending.

***

Now we can all socialize openly, I am doing so every chance I get. So Wednesday I met with an old friend from the '70s in a Berkeley coffee house. We reminisced about SunDance, Rolling Stone, CIR and the way the world seemed then. 

We had a lot of catching up to do because we hadn't met up for decades. These kinds of meetings always have a major impact on me. Anyway, in the course of our conversation my friend said something that struck me as simple but profound:

"Everyone has a story. At this point, it's all in the telling."

***

THE HEADLINES:

* From Wuhan to Paris to Milan, the search for ‘patient zero’ (WP)

* A Dutch Journalist Exposed the Mob and Defied Death Threats. Now He's Been Shot in the Head (WP)

* A heat wave is expected across the West this week. (California Today)

* From corporate America to conspiracy theories: How a Minnesota man made a career out of anonymously amplifying dark plots -- An examination of Sean G. Turnbull’s activities, based on records and interviews, offers a view of how online conspiracy promoters flourished in the last decade. (WP)

* Six months after the Capitol riot, Biden says U.S. survived ‘an existential crisis.’ -- “We can say unequivocally that democracy did prevail,” the president said in a statement. (NYT)

* Virginia ‘Bible study’ group was cover for violent militia plans, prosecutors say (WP)

* Self-Described Virginia Militiaman Is Arrested in Capitol Breach -- Prosecutors did not charge the suspect, Fi Duong, with crimes of violence but accused him of planning to use Molotov cocktails and of conducting surveillance at the Capitol after Jan. 6. (NYT)

* A rate rise in the U.S. might trigger big problems in the developing world -- Many emerging markets are enjoying some of the lowest lending costs on record, but a move by the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected could shake both those borrowers and the U.S. economy. (WP)

* Eric Adams Wins Democratic Primary for New York City Mayor (NYT)

* Why a special election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom was set for Sept. 14 -- The date was decided by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who is closely allied with the governor. It was the soonest that county officials said they could pull together a special election. (California Today)

* How extreme climate change arrived in America (WP) * COVID Delta variant could ruin summer, French government warns (Reuters) * The Latest: Utah experiencing surge in COVID-19 cases (AP)

* ‘Should We Sell?’ After Collapse, Hot Florida Market Faces Uncertainty. (NYT)

* The collapse of the apartment building in Surfside, Fla., is raising concerns about the structural integrity of San Francisco’s Millennium Tower. (CNN) 

* Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged that his state would receive about $4 billion from the American Rescue Plan, even though he and every Republican in Congress opposed the bill. He suggested that local officials "spend it wisely, because hopefully this windfall doesn’t come along again.” [HuffPost]

* Rising Oil and Gas Prices Add to U.S. Economic Challenges (NYT)

* Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence, interim Premier Claude Joseph said. Moïse’s wife, First Lady Martine Moïse, is hospitalized. The killing comes amid deepening political and economic stability and a spike in gang violence. [AP]

* A Generation of Afghan Professionals Flees Ahead of Taliban Advance (WSJ)

* Taliban fighters storm capital of northwestern Afghan province (Reuters)

* ‘Sermongate’ Prompts a Quandary: Should Pastors Borrow Words From One Another? -- The new leader of the Southern Baptist Convention has delivered sermons containing passages from those of his predecessor, causing a furor. (NYT)

* Trump files class action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter over ‘censorship’ of conservatives (WP) * Gates Foundation lays out contingency plan amid high-profile divorce (Reuters) * Chinese social media giant WeChat shuts LGBT accounts (AP)

* Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s visit to the Holocaust Museum just weeks ago apparently has not stopped the Georgia Republican from comparing vaccines to Nazi-era Germany. The far-right congresswoman known for spreading conspiracy theories tweeted on Tuesday claiming that COVID-19 “is a political tool used to control people.” [HuffPost]

* Child Being Teased About Having Crush Angrily Asserts He Incapable Of Love (The Onion)

***

"The Story"

Sung and Written by Norah Jones

I don't know how to begin
Cause the story has been told before
I will sing along i suppose
I guess it's just how it goes
And now those sprangs in the air
I don't go down anywhere
I guess it's just how it goes
The stories have all been told before
But if you don't char
The light won't hit your eye
And the moon won't rise before it's time
But if you don't char
The light won't hit your eye
And the moon won't rise before it's time
But I don't know how it will end
With all those records playin'
I guess it's just how it goes
The stories have all been told before
I guess it's just how it goes
The stories have all been told before
I guess it's just how it goes

-30-

Waiting For Somebody

Last Saturday I was going to attend my very first minor league baseball game. But after we entered the stadium, we found out that the team was on the road. 

So instead of a ballgame there was a schmaltzy movie about baseball, The Sandlot, and a fireworks show. People spread out blankets in order to sit on the field, which was nice except I can't really do that. So we found the accessible seating section for disabled people and I sat over there. 

The fellow nearest me exhibited the effects of a bad stroke. When he got cold, his caretaker struggled for a long to get a sweatshirt over his head while he balanced on his cane precipitously. I worried that it might never work out for him, but happily it did. 

Another fellow, blind, never stopped smiling. Maybe he was happy he didn't have to watch the movie. Anyway he had a nice smile.

One lady, caring for an elderly man who seemed confused as to where he was, raised her eyebrows when she noticed me sitting alone, unattended. She may have been thinking, "Oh dear, have you misplaced your caretaker?" 

So it really wasn't that bad of an outing. Mainly I watched the people coming and going through the fence, most of them utterly oblivious that life is short and brutish and they won't always be able to do this sort of thing. 

After the fireworks had their climax, I rose and slowly took my leave of the accessible area. As I closed the latch behind me for the final time, I knew in my heart I would never be returning to this place. 

And I was okay with that.

***

"Carbidopa Levodopa"

Parkinson's disease is thought to be caused by too little of a naturally occurring substance (dopamine) in the brain. Levodopa changes into dopamine in the brain, helping to control movement. Carbidopa prevents the breakdown of levodopa in the bloodstream so more levodopa can enter the brain. -- WebMD

___

One of my fonder memories of the hospital stays in 2019 was when my doctor started prescribing a medication called Carbidopa Levodopa. I just love the way it sounds as it rolls off the lips, so I challenged my nurse to repeat it ten times in succession with no errors.

She was a very pretty nurse, not long in this country, and always agreeable to my requests. So after getting a far away look in her eyes and taking a deep breath, she repeated the term ten times perfectly.

That made my day; I took the pill and have never neglected to take it for over the year and a half since. And sometime in the future if I'm ever in a good mood with a special friend again and I start behaving in a way that some might consider casually flirtatious, I'll be sure to try out this line:

"Maybe I'm falling for you, or maybe it's just my Carbidopa Levodopa talking."

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Representative Paul Gosar’s association with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes is the most vivid example of the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of extremism. (NYT)

* Texas Republicans rush to guard the Alamo from the facts (WP)

* Hunt for Capitol attackers still on 6 months after Jan. 6 (AP)

* Tesla Says Autopilot Makes Its Cars Safer. Crash Victims Say It Kills. (NYT)

* Imperiled for helping U.S. troops and stranded by bureaucracy, Afghan interpreters see Biden evacuation plan as last hope (WP)

* U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan more than 90 % complete (Reuters)

* After troops exit, safety of U.S. Embassy in Kabul top concern (AP)

* As Lebanon’s Crisis Deepens, Lines for Fuel Grow, and Food and Medicine Are Scarce -- The World Bank said the financial crisis could rank among the world’s three worst since the mid-1800s. The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value and unemployment has skyrocketed. (NYT)

* Delta Covid-19 Variant Gains Ground Among the Unvaccinated (WSJ)

* The highly contagious Delta variant is now the dominant coronavirus strain in California and several other states. (Yahoo News)

* Breakthrough cases of Covid — or infections in a person who has been vaccinated — are exceedingly rare. (CalMatters) 

* Hospitals Often Charge Uninsured People the Highest Prices, New Data Show (WSJ)

* Surging global food prices put staple meals out of reach, from Nigerian jollof rice to Russian pasta and Argentine steak (WP)

* California ranchers aren’t benefiting from high beef prices in grocery stores. And the drought has forced them to scale back their herds, which is testing the faith of business owners. (Bakersfield Californian)

* Tropical Storm Elsa Poised to Become First Hurricane in 134 Years to Make Landfall on Florida's West Coast. (CNN)

* How Bad Are U.S. Wildfires? Even Hawaii Is Battling a Surge. -- It’s among the wettest places on the planet, but shifts in rainfall, invasive grasses and a housing shortage are driving a wildfire spike on the islands. (NYT)

* Firefighters made progress on major blazes burning in Northern California. But the potential for winds this week is concerning. (NBC)

* Global warming is changing the experience of summer camp for children across the country. Some camp operators are taking it as an opportunity to educate campers about climate change. (NYT)

* Climate scientists warned us. When will we listen? (WP)

* How G.O.P. Laws in Montana Could Complicate Voting for Native Americans -- Restrictions passed by the Republican-led Montana Legislature could have stark effects on Native American reservations, where voting in person can mean a two-hour drive. (NYT)

* Republicans want to make America more like China (WP)

* After a Nightmare Year, Election Officials Are Quitting -- The draining work of 2020 has spurred resignations and retirements. In a recent survey, one in three officials said they felt unsafe in the jobs. (NYT)

* Facebook’s latest product, a newsletter platform, exemplifies a strategy that some say should be illegal (WP)

* The big GOP, real-estate, and tech money behind the Boudin recall effort -- Many of the same individuals and corporations who tried to defeat the progressives last year -- including Trump allies -- are now trying to oust San Francisco's elected DA. (48 Hills)

* Press freedoms are crumbling across Asia. It’s likely to get worse. (WP)

* 4th Of July Shootings Across The Country Killed More Than 180 People (NPR)

* Americans Eagerly Check To See If They Got Any Emails Today (The Onion)

***

"Turn Me On"

Song by Norah Jones

Written by John D. Loudermilk

Like a flower waiting to bloom
Like a lightbulb in a dark room
I'm just sitting here waiting for you
To come on home and turn me on

Like the desert waiting for the rain
Like a schoolkid waiting for the spring
I'm just sitting here waiting for you
To come on home and turn me on

And my poor heart, it's been so dark
Since you've been gone
After all, you're the one who turns me off
But you're the only one who can turn me back on

My hi-fi is waiting for a new tune
My glass is waiting for some fresh ice cubes
I'm just sitting here waiting for you
To come on home and turn me on
Turn me on

-30-

Disoriented Shades of Memory

"There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying."

-- Robert Evans. 

***

One of today's headlines involves the controversy over what causes Alzheimer's, the mysterious ailment that steals away our memory and leaves us disoriented. Let's hope the new drug recently approved by the FDA helps.

"Memory and Disorientation" might be an accurate title for a memoir, should I remember to write one.

Meanwhile, the past week served up a virtual memory orgy from my time at HotWired and Wired Digital, names for the same place. (It yielded about six business cards, too.) Although it was a brief period in my career, barely two years, it was when I made the jump from the old media world to the new one.

You don't easily forget a moment like that.

What seems to happen to me, and maybe to you, is that different periods of the past suddenly become vivid again, where every detail suddenly stands up like the hairs on your arm in a bright light, begging for attention.

Yet if you indulge those memories, you risk stirring up emotions that have long been buried -- that's why this business of memoir-writing can be hazardous at times.

When I taught "memoir as journalism" at Stanford and U-C Extension (for seniors), often the students would unintentionally reopen family wounds that had never really healed about sexual abuse, betrayals, addiction, and loss. But other students discovered family histories they'd never suspected, such as Chinese families that had changed their name when landing at Angel Island, pretending to be relatives of somebody already here -- the only way they could get into the U.S. at that time.

Or Jewish families pretending to be Protestants to avoid anti-semitic, anti-Catholic immigration laws in the U.S. as they fled the horrors of Nazism.

In the end, the consistent feedback I got from those who took the courses was that investigating their family's past was worth it. 

In the early days of the Internet media, we liked to say "content wants to be free." Maybe the past, whatever is buried there, wants to be free, too -- freed from the chains of memory, corrupted. 

I always worry when we published these types of revisions that we would get something wrong -- and that someone else would remember it all much differently.

But maybe that is the point. As Robert Evans says in the quote at the top of this post, even though we may have very different memories of the same event, nobody is lying.

Except of course those who are. And lying has a lot to do with power.

Unearthing lies that rebalance power dynamics adjusts the truth -- or something approximating it -- and that can be disorienting.

***

"The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off..."

-- Gloria Steinem

***

THE HEADLINES: 

* Controversial approval of Alzheimer’s drug reignites the battle over cause of the disease (WP)

* In ramp-up to 2022 midterms, Republican candidates center pitches on Trump’s false election claims (WP)

* Climate Change Is Making It Harder for Campers to Beat the Heat -- Burn bans, flashlight campfires, extreme heat and stronger rainstorms: Today’s campers are experiencing their summer fun against the backdrop of climate change. (NYT)

* Tropical Storm Elsa headed to landfall on central Cuba coast (AP)

* With trillions at stake, Democrats must face tough choices on Biden’s agenda within weeks (WP)

* New infrastructure deal must focus on climate, activists say (AP)

* Why America’s Politics Are Stubbornly Fixed, Despite Momentous Changes -- The country is recovering from a pandemic and an economic crisis, and its former president is in legal and financial peril. But no political realignment appears to be at hand. (NYT)

* Yes, Trump Really Did Lose Michigan (Editorial Board/WSJ)

*  As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches, victims' relatives are pressing the courts to answer what they see as lingering questions about the Saudi government's role in the attacks. (AP)

* The scientists fighting to save the ocean’s most important carbon capture system (WP)

* Almonds Swept California Farms. Then the Water Ran Out. (WSJ)

* Canada Battles More Than 180 Wildfires With Hundreds Dead In Heat Wave (NPR)

* Crews resume search for survivors amid condo rubble after collapse and demolition (WP)

* Afghan security personnel flee into Tajikistan as Taliban advance (Reuters)

* Iran, facing another virus surge, reimposes restrictions and focuses on homegrown vaccines (WP)

* As COVID Vaccinations Slow, Parts Of The U.S. Remain Far Behind 70% Goal (NPR)

* The Newspaperman Who Documented Black Tulsa (New Yorker)

* Baseball’s war on sticky stuff is already changing the game (WP)

* If Job Search Fails, Woman Knows She Can Always Find Work As Sole Protector Of Someone Else’s Children (The Onion)

***

"Come Away With Me"

Song by Norah Jones

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can't tempt us, with their lies

And I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come

Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me

-30-