That at the Lord's house, ev'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday,
-from Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns
Base Ball in the Scottish Rain
My mentor and friend James McManus published “Uncle Sam’s Gain,” a brilliant piece in Baseball Prospectus, about a swath of notebooks made amidst the first World War by his grandfather, a mine-layer and baseball-lover. McManus the elder filled his notebooks with coverage of a mine barrage and a Scottish-American baseball season. McManus the younger gives us a winning treatment of that odd wartime stew of leisure and peril, all with the underlying flavor of a deadly pandemic. One is enriched by baseball's capacity to alleviate misery while suffering a stomach cramp from the knowledge that baseball shouldn't be the only salve. "There were many ways to die in this war," writes the younger, as he gazes back in time, all too aware that “base ball” abided even as it did little to reduce the toll.
- Ted
And a Bonnie Burns Dinner To You
Adam sent me a link to Dundeeian folk singer songwriter Michael Marra singing the Burns song "Green Grow the Rashes" (Apple/Spotify) last week. The first song on the album, “The Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke,” is also well worth the click. Tears veiled my vision on my drive to work the first time I heard it
I am ashamed to say I knew nothing about Marra and while reading more about him, I also learned it was Robert Burns Day (25 Jan), the Scottish legend’s birthday. Per Joseph Micallef, “At the heart of the celebration is the Burns Supper or Burns Night—a traditional Scottish dinner typically accompanied by numerous speeches, recitals of Burns poetry and, of course, numerous toasts accompanied by drams of Scotland’s golden elixir.”
This Britannica article on Robert Burns shines with the snarky editorializing and a satisfying sense of authorship that every Wikipedia article lacks. Would group editing ever allow this gem of a line describing the low lights of Burns’s first book?: “There were also a few Scots poems in which he was unable to sustain his inspiration or that are spoiled by a confused purpose.”
-Ted
More Munch!
Shaun Usher shared Edvard Munch's diary entry (at Diaries of Note) which seems to clearly capture the moment he saw and felt what he captured months later in his painting The Scream. He also links to the Munch Museum website which allows you to scroll through Munch's many diaries page by page. I don't think readers of this newsletter will be disappointed scrolling through hundreds of pages of the old violet journal. (Somehow this is the second Edvard Munch reference in the newsletter. Go back to Ted’s McManus link if you missed the first.)
-Adam
Burkeman's Backlog
In a recent newsletter, Oliver Burkeman shares an simple and effective solution for a problem plaguing all mortals: email backlog.
Move the backlogged emails to a separate folder.
Now your top priority is not the backlog but the new incoming items.
When incoming items are under control, dip into the backlog, attending to maybe 10 per day.
-Adam
Episode 171
Last week we discussed the rare occasions we are against notebooks on an episode called Bartok. Thank you for reading, listening, and generally supporting this endeavor. You can support the show on Patreon if you’re so inclined.
In the subject line, “Violent” should be “Violet”. Not a mistake, of course, but a desperate attempt for extra opens.
Email backlog solution... genius