Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
The Writer’s Almanac redirects to a statement from NPR this morning–if you haven’t heard, Garrison Keillor joins the latest in the ranks of men behaving badly.
While I really enjoyed getting a poem a day, I would rather see every creep who abused his power get what he deserves. So instead of a poem, here’s some Queen. Keep ’em coming.
For your long read today, learn about “coded patriarchy” and why women are “the largest disruptive force in business” in Danielle Kayembe’s “The Silent Rise of the Female Driven Economy.”
I loved all of it, from the wheel track analogy to the author’s takedown of the current business establishment:
After decades of an “I’ll ask my wife” or “just make it pink and charge more” mentality when it comes to women’s products, along with decades of resistance to calls for diversification — which would have resulted in less hostile environments for female employees — existing institutions don’t have the internal resources and knowledge necessary to adapt. After fostering and rewarding cultures where the most capable women are talked over, poorly paid, rarely promoted and shut out of innovation, these firms will continue to lose their best female talent.
It’s long but it’s honestly exciting: Change is coming! Women have the [spending] power! And there’s a huge opportunity out there for a woman’s next big idea:
“…as a woman, every pain point you’ve experienced walking through daily life is an empire-building business idea that has never occurred to a single one of the Fortune 500 CEO’s named John, Mark or James.”
I’ve been patting myself on the back this year for starting handmade gifts so early (famous last words). Here’s another one done over the Thanksgiving break: a Stowe Project Bag from Grainline, made up in a linen-cotton canvas from Japan (via eQuilter).
This is for Doc’s niece, who is a crocheter and brings her yarn along to family visits like I do. But she just carries her yarn and project out in the open (!). She also loves penguins so when I saw this fabric it all came together.
Sure, she may not use it, but it shows some thought and didn’t come from a sweatshop (well, I am my own sweatshop, but I’m a willing participant). She can always carry her lunch in it and I had a good time for a few hours.
Oh it was nice to have five days off. We gave thanks and saw both families. We went for a hike. I spent four or five hours every day sewing (with help from Toby).
I could get used to this.
Let’s call it a week, eat Tofurkey, and #OptOutside.
1. Before the internet, you made your own fun.
2. How am I just now learning about Alice Coltrane? (Short answer: colleges run by the patriarchy!) Read her Wikipedia entry–which includes the subhead “Ashram years”–and then listen to this: sitar drone, harp, saxophone, some honest-to-god sleigh bells. It’s my kitchen soundtrack today.
As I age into the Eileen Fisher years, the preppiness of J. Crew just doesn’t have the appeal it used to. The cool-girl neutral vibe at Madewell is closer to what I like right now, but it’s still a J. Crew-owned company with ridiculous prices and questionable labor practices. This is why I sew.
I really loved two things from Madewell’s fall collection: An $80 shirt and a $150 jumpsuit. I saw the plaid for the shirt and thought, “There’s a Mammoth Plaid just like that!” and there was. (I’m working on this right now, using the Archer shirt pattern.)
For the jumpsuit, I couldn’t find that classic “mechanics coverall” style of pattern–until I thought, “I wonder what 80s jumpsuit patterns are on Etsy?” There was a very similar one, it turns out. I think some Art Gallery Smooth Denim would work really well for this.
The jumpsuit probably won’t happen until spring, but rest assured that I will try to recreate both model poses when I have these done.
There was rain in the valley on Friday, which was snow in the mountains. But the clouds cleared for the weekend and we had brilliant blue skies and cold sun–and a transformed canyon to hike in.
1. Timothy Ferris has an essay in the New Yorker about the making of the Voyager golden record and it’s wonderful:
Ann [Druyan] had obtained beautiful recordings of whale songs, made with trailing hydrophones by the biologist Roger Payne, which didn’t fit into our rather anthropocentric sounds sequence. We also had a collection of loquacious greetings from United Nations representatives, edited down and cross-faded to make them more listenable. Rather than pass up the whales, I mixed them in with the diplomats. I’ll leave it to the extraterrestrials to decide which species they prefer.
2. The Woman in the Room project gives you some handy posters to give voice to the frustrations of working with men who don’t get it (honestly, everyone female could use this, right?): 
I knew that Aaron Copland had written a single opera but I’d never heard any of it until I went to the Renee Fleming gala earlier this fall. The Utah Opera Chorus did an arrangement of “The Promise of Living” during one of Renee’s breaks and it was beautiful.
It’s also pretty perfect for Thanksgiving (it says “thanksgiving” and “harvest”!) so here it is to try for yourself.
The video is a little over the top but it has the lyrics (or you can read them here).
As much as I’ve started to embrace neutrals in my Eileen Fisher years, I’m getting tired of the solid brown and gray that is the November landscape and wanting some snow–“the easy way out.”
November for Beginners
by Rita Dove
Snow would be the easy
way out – that softening
sky like a sigh of relief
at finally being allowed
to yield. No dice.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give.
So we wait, breeding
mood, making music
of decline. We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
We ache in secret,
memorizing
a gloomy line
or two of German.
When spring comes
we promise to act
the fool. Pour,
rain! Sail, wind,
with your cargo of zithers!
November 1981