- I've been following Meaghan Daum on social media ever since I picked up her book "Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on The Decision Not To Have Kids" -- which I have yet to finish/read completely -- but it's an essay collection, i.e., the type of book you can easily dip in & out of. I did blog about the book when I first discovered it, here. It comes from a mostly childfree perspective but includes stories from people whose "decision" not to have kids was not necessarily a clear-cut or entirely happy one, by the way.
- She recently posted a promotion for an episode of her "The Unspeakable" podcast on her Facebook page, titled "The Tyranny of the Midcareer Pivot." My interest was piqued, and so I had a listen (it's just a half-hour long monologue). I'm 9 years older than Meaghan, who is 51 (I'm 60 = a borderline Late Boomer/Early GenXer), but wow, there's a LOT here that's familiar. Very (VERY) grateful that I was able to "pivot" into retirement in my early/mid-50s. It's tough out there. (For everyone, I know, but she articulates the particular difficulties of the midlife worker in the current environment very well.)
- I didn't listen to this podcast episode from Anne Bogel (aka "Modern Mrs. Darcy") and "What Should I Read Next?" but I did enjoy reading through the transcript (thank you to podcasters who provide these!). Episode #293 features a reader/listener from Calgary and discusses how to "Streamline your (digital) TBR." My own Goodreads "want to read" list currently numbers 350+ (and let's not get into how many unread books I have on my Kobo e-reader and Kindle phone app...!). Some great suggestions here.
- Speaking of reading -- I just finished my first book of August -- "The Mother of All Dilemmas" by Kathleen Guthrie Woods. Review to come shortly.
- This fabulous interview with Jody Day of Gateway Women in The Age Buster blog first appeared last November (2020), but I only just discovered it. Some eye-opening thoughts from Jody on the "unholy trinity" of ageism, sexism and pronatalism.
- And speaking of pronatalism -- David Frum (conservative writer and commentator) and I do not always see eye to eye, but I very much appreciated this brief Twitter thread from him related to pronatalism. (Perhaps more so because it's 23 years today that I went for an ultrasound and heard the words no pregnant woman wants to hear: "I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat." :( ) The comments are mostly supportive -- although a few people bring up adoption (eyeroll) and more than a few do not seem to know what pronatalism is.
- (I am not sure what triggered these comments from him -- he has three grownup children -- but I suspect, from the comments, that it may be the recent comments by the author J.D. Vance, who is running for the Republican Senate nomination in Ohio. I vented about Vance's comments, and the approving reaction from Fox News, in a recent post.)
- As a self-confessed fan of the Bay City Rollers ;) you can imagine my amusement when Telus (a telecom provider here in Canada) released a new TV ad featuring the 1976 BCR version of Dusty Springfield's classic 1963 song "I Only Wanna Be With You" as background music. :) I can't find a video clip of the ad itself (yet?), but here's a vintage video of the Rollers singing the song (with both the late great Les McKeown, lead singer, and the late adorable Ian Mitchell, just 17 years old here). :)
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Odds & ends
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Wow, that BCR clip brought back some memories! lol
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely reading the "What Should I Read Next?" article. My Goodreads to-read list is almost 700 books, and I don't have enough years left to get through that many! Gulp. I add about 5-10 new ones for every 2-3 I read. Oh dear.
Reading that twitter thread, I wondered if someone he knew had been through pregnancy loss and infertility. At least he said it. And, by the sound of it, to an audience that doesn't always hear these things.
Loved Jody's interview too.
Hugs for the 23 years.