five things: twitter, podcast hosts, bird names for birds, perfect books, keyboard remapping

[sophia_sol]

one

it is very convenient that my computer refuses to load twitter anymore. whenever I am tempted to go to twitter, the gods of technology reach down and say: no. you will regret it.


two

when I first started listening to podcasts I did not understand the scale of the problem of the gender distribution of hosts within the podcast sphere. I get it now.

these days for a new podcast to feel worth checking out for me, all I ask is that it have at least one host who is not a man. if it is only men, it needs to have The Most Interesting Premise In The World at this point!

any individual podcast is not the problem, but the pattern is exhausting


three

the latest update to the AOS's resolution to change all eponymously-named English bird names for north and central american bird species is a very interesting read!

https://americanornithology.org/english-bird-names/aos-pilot-project-to-change-harmful-english-common-bird-names/

I think they're doing a great job of talking through what's behind the move, what complications are having to be dealt with, and what care is being taken in developing the process for changing the names. Including starting with a pilot project! (I love pilot projects.)

I was also delighted to learn from this article that one bird species I know and love, the long-tailed duck, is actually one that had its name changed in the year 2000 due to its previous name including an offensive word! The current name is such an obvious, memorable, and useful name. I'm glad they made that change and I look forward to more changes like it.


four

I was recently having a convo with a friend and it's making me wonder... is there any book you would call a perfect book? and if so, what book(s)?

I started looking through my 5 star reviews and being like.... ok so I adored these books with so much of my heart but there are still things that could have been done differently to make them technically better

I do think that Kate Beaton's Ducks might be perfect though. and Nghi Vo's When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain.

but of course even if a book is perfect to me doesn't mean it's a book that will work for everybody!


five

ohohoho I have learned the power of remapping shortcuts on my laptop keyboard! I now have the power to create this unicode symbol ➤ in any program, without having to copy-paste it from somewhere else!

(the secret, if you're on a windows computer, is to download microsoft powertoys from github: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/)

Comments

[minutia_r]

I have long been of the opinion that Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones is a perfect book. It is also a book of my heart, but it's also so sharp and well-constructed and does everything it sets out to do.

[sophia_sol]

gosh yeah, it's so so good at everything it's doing... but tbh it's a little too good at capturing the feeling of the awfulness of middle school and I find it too much of a harrowing read!

[minutia_r]

Understandable, but I like that aspect of it--at the time, it made me feel seen, and when I reread it as an adult I'm like, well thank goodness I'm not in middle school anymore!

[sophia_sol]

oh yeah, at the time I loved it, but I never reread it the way I did the other chrestomanci books. It was emotionally important to have read, but too real to return to regularly!

as an adult....last time I read it was a fair number of years ago, actually, and I wonder if it would be an easier read for me now that I've done a bunch of therapy!

[pauraque]

3. I agree, they've done well at making the case for this change. (Though "Bird Names For Birds" makes me picture them asking the birds what they call themselves.)

Do you get a lot of Long-tailed Ducks where you are? I saw my first ones earlier this year! I was actually familiar with their old name because they're a rare visitor where I grew up. My dad was in charge of recording the local Rare Bird Alert messages (on a physical answering machine people called in to, because it was the '80s) and I always overheard him at it when I was going to bed. I think that name stands out to me because I didn't know what it meant or recognize it as offensive; I just thought it was a strange-sounding name for a bird. And, of course, completely non-descriptive and unhelpful for anyone trying to learn or remember what it looks like.

4. There might be books I couldn't think of any complaints about, but I am very hesitant to apply the label "perfect" to any book even if we limit it to perfect for me at the specific moment when I read it. I'm not sure if I can explain why. I guess I feel like it implies a level of perfection in my own ability to evaluate the book that I don't think it is possible to have.

[china_shop]

(Though "Bird Names For Birds" makes me picture them asking the birds what they call themselves.)

Ha, me too! :D

[sophia_sol]

hah, very fair! it's a catchphrase that was used by the group who were agitating for the official body to take action, and I also did not find it intuitive what it meant at first

[sophia_sol]

Long-tailed ducks do come through the southern ontario region during duck migration. I generally have to travel a bit to see any, but it's very doable to be able to see them every year. Congrats on seeing your first ones! they're lovely birds.

That's so cool that your dad did the rare bird alerts back in the day before the internet took over, I never thought about how they would have been handled in that era! I get the rare bird alert emails from ebird every day and it's so convenient. and the rare birds I see get automatically reported to the people in charge when I input an ebird checklist!

That's a very reasonable perspective to have on perfect books. I do hesitate to use the word myself (except for when I'm speaking in obvious hyperbole as a compliment) - for exactly that reason. I'm not personally able to notice and evaluate everything a book is doing, because I'm inevitably coming with my own perspectives and biases!

[china_shop]

I'm trying to decide whether the idea of a perfect book is analogous to the idea of a perfect person, or if I'm just being intellectually lazy. (If I love something, I generally want to revel rather than poking it to find its weaknesses... which is why I'm terrible at book reviews. :-)

(Also, hi, I love your posts! Sorry I don't manage to comment more.)

[sophia_sol]

haha your perspective on books and other things you love is also perfectly reasonable (:D) I get great joy and pleasure from picking at and analyzing a thing, because it gives me more dimensions and frameworks through which to consider it -- and if I love it, it makes that love more robust! but it's definitely not the universal experience.

(Also, hi, I love your posts! Sorry I don't manage to comment more.)

<33333333

[silverflight8]

Yeah the long-tailed duck had an especially bad name. Most people have switched over - except one guy locally, and everyone p much is like NO, [NAME], STOP. I hope they choose good names that are not too similar. Colour-x-birdtype is so common the wrong name sometimes comes out of my mouth.

Twitter threads don't work for me as I don't have an account and that cured me of following twitter links LOL

[sophia_sol]

oh noooo that one local guy is Bad and Wrong, ugh! I wonder why he's so committed to the old name.

I hope they choose good names that are not too similar. Colour-x-birdtype is so common the wrong name sometimes comes out of my mouth.

I think that the intention is to prioritize consultation with groups that are local to the bird, especially indigenous peoples, to find out what other names the bird species might be called by or have been called historically. So hopefully that will get some interesting variety in the names! Because yeah I agree, colour-birdtype is so rarely helpful. which yellow warbler is the Yellow Warbler, for example? and I've definitely accidentally said yellow warbler when I meant yellow-rumped warbler in the past.

[silverflight8]

That would be awesome! One thing I enjoy about a lot of European birds is, as of course I learn bird names in English, there are more folk-named-birds in Europe than here (whereas we just don't really have them - and of those we had, we've dropped; we'll all say red tailed hawk instead of chicken hawk these days). But I love bird names like 'rook' and 'skylark' and 'hawfinch' and 'smew' and such. As English hasn't been spoken for very long in NA - and now modern people just don't interact with birds day to day anymore, so it's not even like folk names are developing either - there just aren't any folk names around. But indigenous names be more interesting and less-dry, I hope!

[sophia_sol]

yes, more folk names from a variety of sources would be so good! I know that older birding books from north america did have a lot more folk names mentioned for various species. Like the northern flicker (of the yellow-vaned subspecies in the east) used to be called the yellowhammer! the northern flicker isn't one of the species up for renaming but I do rather wish it were still the yellowhammer.

so many north american species, like the flicker, are the northern [bird] or the eastern [bird] or the american [bird] and it gets awfully repetitive. and almost none of the north american species have single-word names like the european birds you mention. so much less satisfying to refer to! There are occasional good ones, though, like the veery and the killdeer.

[chestnut_pod]

I want more than anything for the AOS to ask me about my hummingbird name ideas. I have good ones! I love that they mentioned that they're thinking of renaming the Maui Parrotbill to its original name in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Really, that option should probably be at the top of the brackets when possible, however much I think "sunset phoebe" suits.

Hm, perfect books. I think there are books that accomplished precisely what they set out to do with no fuss or extra, and yet, I am not sure I would call all of them perfect. I think for me a perfect book has to have achieved that self-actualization and be personally enjoyable to me in some way (not necessarily "fun," but enjoyable). And, somehow, I just don't think I can include non-autobiographical nonfiction in this; I think science mustn't be labeled perfect or it ceases to be science.

Then, I think Go Tell it on the Mountain is a perfect book. In a very different way, Fingersmith is a perfect book. Perhaps also Anna Burns' Milkman. Not quite sure what kind of reading list you could cobble together around these. I just think they hit this sweet spot of innovation, fascination, and self-actualization.

[sophia_sol]

I want more than anything for the AOS to ask me about my hummingbird name ideas. I have good ones!

AOS should definitely ask you your hummingbird name ideas!!! I do know that they're planning consultation in the processes, so maybe they even WILL. but I want to know ahead of time. What are your hummingbird name ideas?

I love that they mentioned that they're thinking of renaming the Maui Parrotbill to its original name in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Really, that option should probably be at the top of the brackets when possible, however much I think "sunset phoebe" suits.

yes, agreed!! in previous communications they've indicated that indigenous names for species are one of the things they're planning to consider whenever possible, which I really appreciate.

I think for me a perfect book has to have achieved that self-actualization and be personally enjoyable to me in some way (not necessarily "fun," but enjoyable).

yes I think you've captured something here with how to conceptualize a perfect book! someone else brought up on mastodon the idea of a book achieving exactly what it set out to do in the best possible way, and gave Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as an example, and I'd for sure agree with that one. It really is the pinnacle of success at gothic novel, and a fascinating and compelling read!

I've actually never read any of the three books you list as perfect books. None of them are the sorts of books I would generally gravitate to, so despite their perfection I would hesitate to pick them up. Do you think I'd like any of them?

[chestnut_pod]

The two common hummingbirds here are the Allen's and the Anna's, so presumably in line for changes. The Allen's is a beautiful orange and green, and I think it should be the tangerine hummingbird! The Anna's hummingbird has this glorious magenta-to-red throat and a green body, and I think it should be the tourmaline hummingbird!

Do you think I'd like any of them?
I feel positive in saying you'd enjoy Fingersmith. It's just a phenomenal mystery novel and so well-crafted. It's not nearly so violent as The Handmaiden, if that's a concern, although of course it has darkness. The others I'm less sure, but for the Baldwin, if you've never read Baldwin, I think this one is a good place to start. It's beautiful, of course, and it does such a great job of sucking you into this young man's world. Milkman is probably the toss-up: it's got a pretty sui generis style which you might love or hate, and of course, it's all about stalking and victim-blaming and people's MMV there. That said, it's impeccably controlled in its stylistic experimentation, and it just feels generous, if that's the right thing to say about a book, in all it has to say, and all it has to say seems up your alley.

[sophia_sol]

those are excellent hummingbird names! and thanks for your thoughts on the books - defs will add fingersmith to my tbr at least, then