This Week on the Lindy Newsletter

I ponder what period of history are we currently in (Subscribers Only). I discuss Jacque Le Goff's theory of the long middle ages, the writings of the Unabomber, the introduction of the television and finally the internet.

Weekend Reads

Chris Arnade writes about walking around in Bucharest. A city created in the Communist era that has huge buildings but is quite ugly.

Do you remember the hot coffee from McDonalds lawsuit? It happened in the 90s, at the time, this was universally reported by the media and accepted by the populace as an egregious abuse of the legal system. Jay Leno and the like minted non-stop jokes about it. Today, if you ask someone from that era about it, they have not seen the pictures and will ramble on about the need for tort reform. The real story is more complicated.

This is a periodic reminder that America is a very rich country. Many states have comparable wealth to European countries. Why do these states not "feel" as rich as these countries? I don't know. Michigan has a similar population level to Sweden, Austria and Belgium.

Biden extends pause on federal student loan repayments for an additional 90 days, through May 1, 2022. Forgiveness or not, as Ryan Cooper pointed out, the government is going to end up eating this money one way or another.

Very interesting seat technology. First Class bus "The JET" from Washington, DC to New York City. The fact that someone used to reviewing First-Class airline seating gives this bus seat 5-stars might mean this is a really significant idea no one anticipated. It seems obvious only in retrospect.

Colorectal cancer rates in younger adults are climbing. The race is on to figure out why

Everything looks like a Starbucks now. Call it refinement culture, minimalism or Airspace. 30 years ago it was OK to have color in public life. Now it's greyscales and earth tones.

I'm a sucker for small town crime stories

Steven Spielberg just released a remake of the musical West Side Story. You probably didn't hear about it because it bombed in the box office. However, there was a time when musicals were incredibly popular in America.

While I was watching the new Beatles documentary I thought to myself, "I know so much about this band." I think I do a pretty decent job of discovering new music. However, unlike when I was a younger person, I basically know nothing biographical about the bands/artists I listen to. Is this due to my age, or is music consumption in general like this in the age of Spotify? Contrast with the 20th century where you know everything about a band. Even personal details. There wasn't many artists on the radio in the 20th century, so you could know their story. Much different then today when there are millions of musicians available to listen to.

This used to be a common practice years ago.

The sheer size of the Roman empire and the time that it was taking for the messages to arrive on one destination, really makes a man start to think how the hell it was so well managed

Music

This track begins with an extraordinary sound— a wolf howling at the moon. In time, a saxophonist joins in, and the result is one of the most unique musical collaborations I have ever heard. There is something vital and unconstrained about this music. And the sound of both the wolf and horn shook me up.