Health habits

Art, the dark, and a bullied fish

Crossing the Saguenay River, Baie-Sainte-Catherine, Quebec

1. I’m currently in residency at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, where I’ve been working on a novel. Earlier this week, I was featured on EBF’s instagram page.

   ellisbeauregardfoundation

   

   A post shared by Ellis-Beauregard Foundation (@ellisbeauregardfoundation)

2. The recent NPR article “Making art is good for your health. Here's how to start a habit” by Malaka Gharib argues that making art should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle. “While there are no hard and fast rules for how much time you should devote to engaging in art, Strang has a suggestion: ‘as much as you can get away with.’” I especially love the printable zine accompanying the article halfway down the page.

3. An article from earlier this week suggests Duolingo is probably a better Alzheimer’s treatment than the newest breakthrough drug. That’s the title, anyway. But what the article actually says is “speaking two languages is remarkably protective against [Alzheimer’s], delaying the onset of symptoms by five years on average” and “proficiency with a second language matters more than when the new language was learned.” With all due respect to Duo, that might not mean Duolingo. (Or, at least, not exclusively.)

4. I just learned from a fellow resident that blobfish don’t look like blobfish. Per my source: “Normally they look like regular fish. They only blob when they come to the surface because of depressurization, they look like that because they are very dead.” National Geographic’s blobfish facts page confirms, and goes on to say that the blobfish’s reputation as the ugliest fish is a “vast bullying campaign.”

5. This week sunset ekes back past 4:30pm where I am. In December, sunset got as early as 3:45 here. Just three weeks from now, sunset will cross the 5pm threshold in Portland, ME.

6. I recently discovered this incredible flash essay by Victoria Buitron, “What We Omit”

7. A friend recently recommended Carl Phillip’s 2018 poetry collection Wild is the Wind. I’m passing the recommendation forward. I particularly loved Phillip’s poem “Golf Leaf.” In June, I read and loved Carl Phillip’s 2014 book on craft The Art of Daring, and I’m looking forward to reading his new book My Trade as Mystery.

Thanks for reading,

Kate