Footnotes to a Conversation, September 6, 2021
Last week’s Footnotes to a Conversation was pretty serious. Hopefully I can lighten things up a bit this week. So let’s start this week’s edition with some good news for mystery readers.
Miss Marple Returns
Twelve writers, including Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, and Kate Mosse, will contribute to a new Miss Marple short story collection, reimagining Miss Marple ““through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery”. [The Guardian]
Grey Power
New research has demonstrated that we get smarter, even in old age. We may respond more slowly to new information, but we’re better at selecting the important information and at screening out the stuff that isn’t important. [Nautilus]
Who Profits?
“Books, like music and movies and TV shows, are increasingly something that libraries and readers do not own but, rather, access temporarily, from corporations that do.” Purchasing e-books rather than physical books comes with a heavy price tag for libraries and could become untenable. Experts in the field say libraries will have to innovate, “for example, by experimenting with new formats and license models in partnership with independent or international publishers.” One consultant says, “Libraries have more power than they sometimes realize.” [New Yorker]
Farming is Big Business
Small-scale farmers continue to be hit by the ongoing corporatization of agriculture. Danone has just announced that it is terminating its contracts with organic dairy farmers in the northwestern United States and replacing them with large operations in the west with enormous herds that are able to produce milk at a lower cost. “It’s cheaper for Danone to buy milk from them and ship it east than it is to buy from smaller local dairies. This is Big Organic Dairy in action,” but it may not be truly organic. [Food Politics]
Let’s End on a Happy Note
In Marseille, a McDonald’s has been turned into a community centre and food bank run by volunteers. There are food parcels, garden patches, a library, and a kids’ room. [gal-dem]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. If you enjoy reading it, please share it with your friends.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces (downloadable directly from the website).