Which is as different for Humpty Dumpty as hearing “Have a great Fall” is for you. So now that the leaves are really turning and a chill is officially in the air, best to go down these little rabbit-holes before heading outdoors into the waning light.
1. Facebook’s worst nightmare. Frances Haugen is the whistleblower whose appearance on 60 Minutes and then at a US Senate Subcommittee Hearing is all over the news. But it’s worth watching her opening statement for the sheer force of her damnation of Facebook’s methods. As she said: “It’s easier to inspire people to anger than to other emotions.”
2. Steve Jobs died 10 years ago on Tuesday. This week, his design chief, Sir Jony Ive, wrote a remembrance of his mentor for The Wall Street Journal.
3. How good – or bad – is Toronto doing? Each year, the Toronto Foundation publishes its Vital Signs Report. The topline is, one in four Torontonians is struggling, and 70% say they are anxious. You can download the full report here.
4. A life well-lived and written. Boston Globe writer Jack Thomas learned he had just months to live, and after writing for his beloved paper for eight decades, he penned this final piece on love and life and death. As he concludes: “I just wish I could stay a little longer.”
5. My dear old jammies. Why didn’t we have these at the start of the pandemic?
6. Watch Beethoven’s 10th on October 9th. He wrote his 9th and final symphony in 1824. In the three years before his death in 1827, Beethoven left behind some notes and sketches for his 10th symphony. On Saturday night, a group of musicologists and AI scientists will release their best guess at what the 10th Symphony would have been, alongside a live concert in Bonn.
7. One of the Coen Brothers goes Shakespeare. This Christmas, you can see Joel Coen’s directorial debut in Apple TV’s Macbeth. Starring…? Why, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, of course.
8. Fat Bear Week. It’s the annual tournament held in Katmai National Park in Alaska to recognize local bears that prepare the best (i.e. eat the most) for winter hibernation. It was held this week, and here are the Top 5 Bears.
9. Craig. Daniel Craig. He opened his closing performance of James Bond on Thursday night in No Time to Die. The reviews are divine, and the question isn’t: Should you see it? But how and when?
10. Ode to Joyful Flash Mob. Speaking of Beethoven’s 9th, here’s a triumphal flash mob version of the final chorus on the streets of Nuremberg.
Forbidden Words. The phrase we may no longer use in polite company is “white privilege.”
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