Good Things Friday (211) and Link Love
March 10, 2023
1. After two weeks of scout ants creeping into the kitchen, without leaving a trail for me to follow back, I spotted one ant under a baseboard and lined that whole wall with boric acid. It seems like it’s working? After two days, the incursions stopped.
2. Weekend to dos: I didn’t cut anyone’s hair but all three are due. I did trim the hedges. That turned into a family activity and they look much better now.
Challenges this week:
Money named our very own Tanja Hester one of 50 Money Change Makers: “Now, Hester is focused on a longtime passion: Teaching people how to make sure their financial lives are aligned with their values. … Hester offers a framework to help you start to make choices based on what you think is most important.
Of course, Hester is quick to point out that those priorities aren’t in opposition: “Our environmental causes and our social challenges are both urgent and inextricably linked,” she writes in Wallet Activism. “We cannot care about the planet without also caring about the people with whom we share it.”
Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market
This list of so-called basic recipes includes a dish that’s eluded me for years. My family used to roast or bake whole fish, usually a tilapia, for spring rolls and it was delicious. But I’ve never figured out how to replicate it. I wish I’d asked how to make it when my mom was still alive or when I was still on speaking terms with the other parent.
How Much Would It Take For You to Shill Like Tucker Carlson? Probably more than $50M a year but honestly I already struggle to look at myself in the mirror (family reasons). Don’t think I’d take mere money to make that worse.
A TikTok shared on Twitter about Ernst Röhm sent me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole ruminating on how our January 6 attempted coup feels like the equivalent of the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Ernst Röhm and Hitler got off lightly and look where that ultimately led. There was supposed to be a link but I don’t know where it got to. Still, the thought matters.
Day 4 with @gradydoc, Dr Manning
Re: how much would it take for me to shill like Tucker Carlson?
You couldn’t get me to is the short answer. Mostly because I have the capacity to bring in a good, albeit not multi-million dollar, income without those sorts of moral compromises. I think for me to go down that path, I would need to be desperate and unable to provide for myself and my family in any other way. I don’t think that kind of desperation lines up with somehow also only being able to get one job, and that one job being one that requires sacrificing so much personal integrity in exchange for millions of dollars.
I think the problem with Tucker Carlson is that he doesn’t seem to base his choices on any sort of integrity– either his own or those of others. I don’t think it’s actually about the money, though I’m sure the money is something he likes. From what I see in the news, he seems very much a the-ends-justify-the-means sort of person. His dislike of Trump is irrelevant to his commitment to his goals, as are his beliefs about what is and isn’t actually true. I’m not sure what line he wouldn’t cross in pursuit of the outcomes he wants. He’s evidently very fine with lying and obfuscating.
Agreed. It’s hard to fathom his choices because it doesn’t seem driven by anything that makes sense.
My answer was on the level of “unimaginable money” because truthfully, I cannot imagine being willing to be that person for ANY reason. So, no.
I’m loving the Dr. Manning series — thank you so much for that. Also for various personal finance next-reads; a while back you introduced me to A Purple Life, which I’m eating up, and now I’ve got Hester’s book on my “to read” list.
There are actually 100+ books on my “to read” list. I am looking forward to my sabbatical like you wouldn’t believe.
G’luck with hair cutting!
I’m glad you’re enjoying them! I love everything Dr Manning tweets and will very much miss seeing them when Twitter breathes its last. I also miss Nicole Cliffe’s tweets and wish I’d saved some of those before she left.
Yay, your sabbatical is going to be so rich with good reading!
I’m going to carry this haircutting luck into next weekend because it didn’t happen this weekend.