№ 658. Tempus Fugit

"Tempus fugit. Time flies." --- The Crown, Season 5, Episode 4, "Annus Horribilis"

№ 657. Marital Vows

Conde Nast

 

WIFE writes: 

My husband heard on the radio that banana peels were edible. Later, I was eating a soup he prepared when he revealed he had put banana peel in it. Please tell my husband to stop this. (P.S.: Since I first wrote you, he put pumpkin in my oatmeal, sprinkling it with cinnamon so I wouldn’t notice.) 

 

ADVICE: 

One might be tempted to dismiss your husband’s pumpkin-spicing your oatmeal as a seasonal joke. But banana-peel soup is a gag in every sense: both prankish and revolting. You deserve to eat food in your own home without fear that it has been laced with compost. And while that oatmeal sounds as if it could actually be pretty good, sneaky is never delicious. Here’s a hint for newly engaged couples: Never dose your partner’s meals with anything, no matter what the radio tells you to do. This should be part of your vows, honestly.

№ 656. Truth, Reality & Illusions

 

№ 655. Climate Status

The Week

 

You can never really see the future, only imagine it, then try to make sense of the new world when it arrives.

 

Just a few years ago, climate projections for this century looked quite apocalyptic, with most scientists warning that continuing “business as usual” would bring the world four or even five degrees Celsius of warming — a change disruptive enough to call forth not only predictions of food crises and heat stress, state conflict and economic strife, but, from some corners, warnings of civilizational collapse and even a sort of human endgame. (Perhaps you’ve had nightmares about each of these and seen premonitions of them in your newsfeed.)

 

Now, with the world already 1.2 degrees hotter, scientists believe that warming this century will most likely fall between two or three degrees. (A United Nations report released this week ahead of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, confirmed that range.) A little lower is possible, with much more concerted action; a little higher, too, with slower action and bad climate luck. Those numbers may sound abstract, but what they suggest is this: Thanks to astonishing declines in the price of renewables, a truly global political mobilization, a clearer picture of the energy future and serious policy focus from world leaders, we have cut expected warming almost in half in just five years.

 

№ 654. Traveling

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” ---Ibn Battuta

 

 

Reader's Digest

№ 653. Resilience

 

Adam Grant

 

№ 652. New Paths

 

№ 651. Federer

Maybe you have a favorite. If so, we have given you some ammunition to make your argument while you are waiting for the next match at Rod Laver Arena or Arthur Ashe Stadium.

But no matter who your choice is, it is clear that Federer’s retirement is the beginning of the end of a Golden Age for men’s tennis. Maybe young Carlos Alcaraz will scare some of these numbers in 20 years or so. Or maybe we will never see the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, at least all at the same time, again.

Some metrics on the big three.