Welcome to another end-of-week round up, with a quote, appreciation for food, a book I finished, a competition with Chat GPT, and more pictures from my dog-walks. It’s Saturday, but I refuse to rename the post granting myself a pass for the busy day yesterday…

1.

I love the prairies. In the course of reading for my paper I came across Kenneth Michael Sylvester’s description in The Limits of Rural Capitalism: "My strongest memories are of the scale of the countryside, of fading towns with weathered false-front buildings and of cities that appeared without reason, out of nowhere, like distant harbours in a vast agricultural ocean." (p 3) Sometimes I wish academic writing encouraged more lyricism.

2.

In praise of the traditional meal. I've tended for the past four months or so, to build menus that rely less heavily on meat as a main, or to space them out a bit... Fried rice, wonton soup, creamy pasta with peas and bacon... those sorts of meals. But earlier this week, I breaded pieces of chicken (flour, egg, panko crumbs), shallow fried them, and made a side of perogies (boiled then lightly pan fried), lingonberry sauce (from IKEA!) and boiled edamame and remembered how comforting it is sometimes to come back to a traditional meal. Dress it up a bit, and you have Jamie Oliver's "Super Schnitzel" from his book Jamie's Comfort Food, with breaded veal cutlets and a special "sprinkle" (made of finely chopped shallot, pickle and parsley), potato salad and apple salad.

3.

A good book. Thanks to the podcast “People I Mostly Admire,” I learned about the work of historian Brad Gregory. (I wrote about a quote I liked from that podcast episode here). Last week, I finished reading his book The Unintended Reformation. I liked it so much, I wrote a summary of it here. Gregory’s approach with a book on “how the distant past remains influential in the present” [p 14] is unusual, as he points out in the introduction, and perhaps this is another reason why I appreciated the book so much.

4.

A competition with AI. I asked Chat GPT to take over this edition of Friday Five with the query “Write me 5 short paragraphs, each with an interesting idea on random subjects.” This was the result:

One interesting idea is the concept of "forest bathing," which is a practice that originated in Japan and involves spending time in nature to improve physical and mental well-being. Studies have shown that spending time in nature can lower stress hormones, improve mood, and boost the immune system.
Another interesting idea is the concept of "pre-suasion," which is the art of preparing people to be more receptive to a message before the message is even delivered. This can be done through a variety of techniques, such as using certain words or images to prime the audience's subconscious.
An interesting idea in the field of psychology is "change blindness," which is the phenomenon where people fail to notice significant changes in their visual environment. This can have important implications for fields such as advertising, as people may not even notice changes in a product or brand.
An interesting idea in the field of economics is "behavioral economics," which is the study of how psychology and cognitive biases influence economic decision-making. This field has shown that people do not always make rational decisions when it comes to money, and that understanding these biases can help to improve economic policy.
An interesting idea in the field of technology is the concept of "smart cities," which use technology to improve the efficiency and livability of urban areas. This can include things like smart traffic lights, air quality sensors, and public transportation systems that are connected to the internet. By using technology to improve the functioning of cities, it is believed that smart cities can help to reduce pollution, improve quality of life, and increase economic productivity.

Isn’t it comforting to know this blog hasn’t been taken over by robots? That bit about change blindness is intriguing though… I’ve often tended to feel the opposite. More like Homily in The Borrowers, which my daughter and I are reading right now. In the story, a boy is bringing the family pieces of furniture from a doll’s house and Homily, the mother, is excited about all this new décor:

…Homily was tireless; bright-eyed and pink-cheeked, after a long day’s pushing and pulling, she still would leave nothing until morning. “Let’s just try it,” she would beg, lifting up one end of a large doll’s sideboard, so that Pod [her husband] would have to lift the other; “it won’t take a minute!” But as Pod well knew, in actual fact it would be several hours before, disheveled and aching, they finally dropped into bed. Even then Homily would sometimes hop out “to have one last look.” (p 131).

I so recognize this excitement! Re-organizing a corner, changing a paint colour, or styling things a different way have the opposite effect of change blindness, instead sparking my attention every time I walk by. Cup of Jo once called this a fakeover.

5.

Pictures. Care for some Winnipeg scenery? Last week was warm and cloudy, but this week brought dipping temperatures and fresh snow. It’s a game of “would you rather…” Option 1: warm weather, no sun; option 2 cold weather, bright sun! What do you pick?

Look how the sun makes a difference: