May 9, 2024

Five for Friday 337

Welcome to Friday,

As I write this, the sun is shining on a cloudless eighty degree day; that’s about as close as we get to perfection here in west Texas. I’ll be reading outside all weekend, soaking up this beautiful weather.

Here are the best links I discovered this week:

Did you know there was a riot in 1922 in New York City over men wearing straw hats past the socially acceptable date of 15 September? Across eight days, the Straw Hat riots raged as a crowd of mostly teenage boys smashed hats from men walking on the street, resulting in several arrests and hospitalizations. More here.

“You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if…?” from Neil Gaiman.

We have a college gender gap problem, but few seem concerned just yet.

A beautiful and enlightening thread on traditional vs modern urbanism, which explains how western civilization went from erecting quaint buildings built from locally available resources to modern cubes with all the charm of an airport.

This crazy piece breaking down the slimy tactics Doordash and similar food delivery services employ to … lose millions of dollars. It’s a lesson in economics and an exercise in head-scratching, which is to say, an absolute trip.

Currently reading: A Collection of Essays by George Orwell

Have a great weekend.