“If he'd gone to some proper cockney, like me, we'd have got a bit more background.”
Reads
Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
👓 The story behind the gas lamps and leeries in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ | Business Insider
In 'Mary Poppins Returns', Lin-Manuel Miranda plays a lamplighter. Here's the history behind the lamps and the profession.
The Victorian periodical The Westminster Review wrote that the introduction of gas lamps would do more to eliminate immorality and criminality on the streets than any number of church sermons. ❧
👓 Silicon Valley pledged to break up the boys’ club of investing in 2018. How did it do? | Recode
Venture capitalists spent 2018 welcoming women to the fold, but the welcome has been fitful, uneven and, scariest of all, tentative.
Lack of diversity is going to be like the cigarette problem of the early 70’s. We know that it’s bad for us, but in the present it doesn’t seem as significant on a marginal individual basis. But worked on over decades it will make us and our society much healthier and richer for having solved for it.
👓 Watched: “Future of the open web and open source” by @webdevlaw and others | Amanda Rush
I suspect that, as a general rule, open source treats the open web the same way that corporate software companies like Apple or Microsoft treat open source: It’s existence and that there are people to take care of it for you while you do the flashy stuff...
👓 Impact of Rose Parade Float Fire, Chaotic Ending Still Being Felt | Pasadena Now
The fire which disabled the Chinese American Heritage Foundation’s “Harmony Through Union” Rose Parade float Tuesday is still under investigation by the Pasadena Fire Department. The fallout from the parade’s chaotic ending caused by the float’s blaze and breakdown may continue for a while, however.
The incident left tens of thousands of parade-goers along the length of the parade route bewildered as it caused delays and the premature appearance of the closing act as the parade stretched over thirty minutes past its television timeslot.
They spend such a large chunk of the article on the unseen South Pasadena float and didn’t bother to throw in a photo of it?! Such a missed opportunity.
👓 Scots Word of the Season: ‘Leerie’ | The Bottle Imp
Leerie n. a lamplighter, who lit gas lamps in towns and cities (before electric light)
The word leerie is perhaps best known nowadays from the nostalgic poem ‘The Lamplighter’ by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). The character, ‘Leerie’, is depicted as a romantic wanderer who charms th...
I have to wonder if traffic on the site has picked up for this word based on the recent opening of the film Mary Poppins Returns?
It seems that leeries are just as pictuesque and poetic in other incarnations as they are depicted in Mary Poppins Returns. Why the romanticism for such a menial and dirty seeming profession?
👓 Progress on eradicating polio has stalled – Infectious disease | The Economist
Cases caused by viruses derived from the vaccine are a growing worry
👓 Side-effect: Vaccine-derived polio | Economist Espresso
The steady countdown to zero new cases of polio has stopped, and last year even went into reverse,
I wish the GOP could rise to its challenges, but there have been too many lies for too long.
👓 What I learned at work this year | Bill Gates
A few thoughts about what went well and what didn’t in Alzheimer’s, climate change, polio, and more.
👓 2018, Month by Month | Ire Aderinokun – Medium
2018 has been a year of many challenges for me, both professionally and personally. Although it has been hard, I have probably grown more…
👓 The end of 2018 | Oh Hello Ana
Ana (Oh Hello Ana)This may be the first time that I am writing a year review before the year actually ends so it is a good sign. Also, It’s really hard to create blog post titles so I decided to go dramatic. I had a couple of goals for this year. I wanted to work on my wellbeing, do a talk at a meet up, go to the g...
👓 2018: A year in review | Andy Bell
<what-a-year>
It’s safe to say that 2018 has been a jam-packed year for me, both personally and professionally. I’m going to reflect on this year in this post and also look forward to 2019. Let’s dive in!
👓 My 2018 | Remy Sharp
With the 12 year of this blog's existence, I present to future me: stuff that happened in 2018 that 2019 version of me has already forgotten. And yes, content warning: this will be me, me, me!
👓 2018 in numbers | Adactio: Journal | Jeremy Keith
I posted to adactio.com 1,387 times in 2018
An awesome and quite beautiful annual update here. I can’t imagine that I posted as much as Jeremy (or wrote as many longer posts in particular), but I do know that my posting velocity has increased since I began using my own website in preference to all other social media several years ago.