A picture from our summer vacation at Mammoth Lakes, where my refrigerator was always clean. Wish I was there now.
I am literally sitting here procrastinating because I should be cleaning out my refrigerator before doing my Friday shop and I don’t want to do either. Do you have any tasks that you put off consistently? I find that the more distasteful a task, the more likely I am to procrastinate on doing it (I also find that it’s never as bad as I’ve imagined it to be). So I’m tweaking the site and posting. (Have you updated your feed reader with the new name?) I also updated the Recipe Index. You’re welcome! Anyway, without further ado:
1. From the Archives:
If you’re back-to-school mornings are anywhere NEAR as crazy as ours, you should make a batch of these Oatmeal Breakfast Bars to keep in your freezer. It’s so great to have a healthy breakfast, ready-to-go, that can be eaten in the CAR. (So great in fact that I think I’ll add the ingredients to my shopping list).
2. But What if My Kids Won’t Eat Oatmeal?
My experience is that kids will eat anything with chocolate syrup on it, so if you’re really desperate you might try that. In the meantime, you should check out this great piece on 50 Ways to Get More Fruits and Veggies into your Child’s Day. (Disclosure: my friend Carol writes this blog, and you should really check it out. She reads all these scientific studies about family and parenting, and condenses them into easy-to-understand articles.)
3. Before it’s a Buzzfeed Article …
My father in law was visiting recently and it came out that he had never seen the Princess Bride. This had to be rectified immediately! I saw it in theaters for 9th birthday party, and I still love it TO THIS DAY. This great article previewing Westley’s new book gives some of the behind-the-scenes tales from filming, and it’s great. (P.S., if you haven’t read the book
4. And Speaking of Books…
Facebook doesn’t just mine all our personal data to deliver you exceedingly creepy ads! Sometimes they use that data for education and entertainment. I don’t know if you saw that 10 Books that Stayed with me” Meme that was traveling around the ‘Book recently, but Facebook mined all our posts and published a list of the top 100 most frequently-cited books. I know a lot of mine were in that list. (You can see my list on my Facebook Page.)
5. For nerds
I don’t know if you’ve been following the kerfluffle about the problems with Ivy League education recently espoused by William Deresiewicz promoting his new book (not going to post a link to the article or the book because I think they’re not great). What is great is this critique of Deresiewicz posted by Harvard professor Steven Pinker in the New Republic. Even if you don’t care about the elite college system, it’s worth a read simply for its description of what an educated person should look like:
“A liberal education should make certain habits of rationality second nature. Educated people should be able to express complex ideas in clear writing and speech. They should appreciate that objective knowledge is a precious commodity, and know how to distinguish vetted fact from superstition, rumor, and unexamined conventional wisdom. They should know how to reason logically and statistically, avoiding the fallacies and biases to which the untutored human mind is vulnerable. They should think causally rather than magically, and know what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence. They should be acutely aware of human fallibility, most notably their own, and appreciate that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil. Accordingly, they should appreciate the value of trying to change minds by persuasion rather than intimidation or demagoguery. “
I LOVE this. I totally think that this is an ideal of thinking we should all aspire to.
What’s on your mind today? What tasks are you avoiding?
