I wouldn't call this "procrastination" so much as "self-care"...
Hello there :)
Welcome to issue seventy of Manufacturing Serendipity, a loosely connected, somewhat rambling collection of the unexpected things I’ve recently encountered.
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Speaking of coffee, grab yourself a suitable beverage my loves, let’s do this thing…
Part I: Things I’ve Been Thinking About
Back in June I wrote about putting my nemesis to good use (an idea stolen from Dana Jeri Maier’s book: Skip to the Fun Parts - Cartoons and Complaints about the Creative Process). At that point in time, I hadn’t actually read Maier’s book, but this fortnight I finally got around to that. The book is excellent, and I’d strongly recommend reading it, regardless of whether or not you consider the work you do to be “creative”, (whatever the hell that means).
The book includes the frighteningly relatable comic about procrastination below, which was also previously published in the New Yorker:
I feel seen.
Moar serendipitous finds:
“Take a stroll through any major European city and you'll notice a trend in the names of its streets. They typically honour the same type of people: white men who were either wealthy, influential, or both. It's a subtle yet powerful reminder of who our society values, or has valued, and who it doesn't. This platform explores the lack of diversity in the street names of 30 cities from 17 different European countries, monitoring a total of 52,888 streets named after an individual.”
They found that across the 30 cities, only 9% of the streets are named after women.
“[…] there is broad variability between cities, although none come close to any kind of gender equality in street names. Stockholm tops the ranking with 19.5% of its streets named after women, followed by Copenhagen (13.4%) and Berlin (12.1%). Debrecen, with 2.7%, has the lowest share of streets honouring women, at least among the cities monitored so far. It sits at the bottom of the ranking, preceded by Prague (4.3%) and Athens (4.5%).”
Mapping Diversity is a project coordinated by OBC Transeuropa for the European Data Journalism Network
Empire of Dust: What the Tiniest Specks Reveal About the World
“Cleanliness is rarely just cleanliness, a practical, functional process of vacuuming the carpets and washing your hands with soap. It is always burdened with additional significance. The supposedly self-evident virtue of cleanliness becomes muddied when we recognise how it is often used to create categories of person: the virtuous citizen versus the marginalised. Women, in particular, are disciplined through words such as “slut”, “slattern” and “sloven” that link sexual immorality to matters of dirtiness and carelessness – the “good woman” still synonymous with the careful, “clean” housewife.”
Evidence Undermines ‘Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria’ Claims
Fears of “social contagion,” used to support anti-transgender legislation, are not supported by science:
“It is not rapid-onset gender dysphoria, it’s rapid-onset parental discovery.”
~Diane Ehrensaft, PHD. Director of Mental Health at the Child & Adolescent Gender Center; & Associate Professor of Pediatrics, UCSF.
How Sauropod Dinosaurs Became the Biggest Land Animals Again and Again
“Of all the animals ever to have roamed the planet, the iconic long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs known as sauropods stand unrivaled. No other terrestrial creatures have come close to attaining their colossal sizes. They overshadowed all other dinosaurs, from the duck-billed hadrosaurs and the horned ceratopsians to the armored ankylosaurs and predatory tyrannosaurs. Even the mightiest land mammals—mammoths and rhinoceros-like beasts that were up to twice as heavy as the largest elephants alive today—were featherweights compared with the biggest sauropods.
[…]
No other land animal has approached even a third of the largest sauropods' weight.”
An in-depth look at the 100 S&P 500 corporations that had the lowest median worker pay levels in 2022 — for each of the firms, you’ll find the total compensation and personal stock holdings of CEOs, the CEO-worker pay gap, and the overall outlays for stock buybacks. This is brilliant work.
50 of the Weirdest, most Wonderful Corners of the Web
Give your brain a break, friends :)
Part II: Books I’m Reading Right Now
Skip to the Fun Parts (Cartoons and Complaints about the Creative Process), Dana Jeri Maier — I loved this.
Western Lane, Chetna Maroo — I read this beautifully-written coming of age novel about grief, sisterhood, and identity in one sitting, and I highly recommend getting your mitts on a copy.
Part III: Things I’ve Been Watching
Wolf, iPlayer — this is not your standard police procedural. It’s weird, twisty-turny, pretty violent (so it won’t be for everyone), and includes some bizarre darkly comic moments. Honestly I’m not sure the whole thing actually hangs together, there are plot holes, the script creaks worryingly at times, and yet it’s still… kinda fun. Watch it, maybe?
Part IV: What I’ve been up to…
I’ve celebrated a bunch of people’s birthdays which has been lovely, procrastinated more than I should have done, but seemingly have managed to mostly get the things which needed doing, done.
What’s next?
I am excited about:
Going to Teignmouth Shanty Festival to watch my Dad perform
The new course I’m running with Britt Klontz (further details below)
New Digital PR Course: PR Pitch Writing
My wonderful friend Britt Klontz and I are running a brand new course in October which we’re very excited about — it's a four-week, live workshop series (delivered over Zoom) on PR Pitch Writing. It starts on October 10th.
If your PR pitches are failing to land the coverage you hoped for, or you just feel like you need a little inspiration, then join us!
Each week, there will be a 90 minute session where we’ll guide attendees through the PR pitching process we personally use; we’ll suggest a range of exercises attendees might like to complete between sessions, plus there will be plenty of time for Q&A. Full course details can be found here & you can book your spot here.
Use promo code HANNAH to get a 10% discount on tickets (valid until 9/18/2023).
That’s all from me for now :)
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Big love,
Hannah x
PS Wanna find out more about me and my work? Head over to Worderist.com