Hello there reader! This is Vishal with another issue of Kat’s Kable. I was busy last week with moving to a new apartment, so my apologies for skipping the newsletter. I also have to report that an extremely random thing just happened over the past week or so. I’ve had ~900 new signups to the newsletter which I think all are fake/scam signups, so I’ve had to do some housekeeping to get rid of them. I’ve been toying with the idea of moving away from Mailchimp (to Email Octopus), and I think this is finally a sign that I may as well make that change. Mailchimp is the sort of platform that takes what enthusiasm I have for the newsletter and dims it by 50% by the time I’m done using it. So… yeah. That’s all from my end, I’ll catch you later! And as always, enjoy the list.
If you got this from a friend and want to subscribe, here’s the link. Also, if any of the links are paywalled and if you don’t want to pay for a subscription, try opening the link in incognito mode in your browser. This works if the website has a “soft” paywall. If that doesn’t work, you can access the website using a different browser on the same device, or use a different device altogether. Another, slightly involved, method is to try to disable JavaScript and reload the page. This works on some websites for me.
1. Why migraine means so much more than just bad headaches, it’s a disabling brain disorder - iNews
I learnt quite a few things about migraines via this article, and I’d say it’s pretty well done. The most interesting thing is that looking too hard for triggers can be counterproductive or not that useful. This is because sometimes symptoms of the migraine can be mistaken as triggers.
2. Mapping the brain to understand the mind - Knowable Magazine
Looks like it’s going to be a mini series of articles about the brain today–this one is an interview with neuroscientist Jeff Lichtman, who talks about the progress we’ve made on mapping the brain’s neurological “wiring”. The idea here is to make a map of the brain’s neurons, and it’s believed (sorta) that this will give us a good idea of how the brain works. It’s not super clear how useful this exercise will be, but it’s an interesting thing to do nonetheless.
3. How a Tourette’s Diagnosis Helped Me Understand Who I Am - The Walrus
This is a well done personal essay about the authors tics as a kid and young adult, and finally receiving some comfort in the form of a Tourette’s syndrome diagnosis. The essay goes into a number of historical details, interspersed with personal anecdotes. What made me chuckle was that of the nine cases of the syndrome documented by Gilles de la Tourette in the 1800s, at least five were most likely not Tourette’s cases at all.
4. Collections: Why No Roman Industrial Revolution? - A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (Bret Devereaux’s blog)
Looks like we’ve finally got clear of the brain articles for this week. I haven’t followed Bret Devereaux’s blog in detail lately, but I read this article in its entirety and I was glad I did. It’s about the Roman empire and society, and whether or not it was at all close to an industrial revolution (it definitely wasn’t). I like reading things like this because I think it’s really cool to be able to delve into the past like this. And if you didn’t get a chance to read last issue’s The Industrial Revolution That Almost Was about Bengal’s almost-Industrial revolution, then it might pair nicely with this article too.
5. Rapture of the Deep - Sports Illustrated
I recently discovered the Grown Up Story Club and it’s so great. It’s a long-form compilation platform, like the Kable, but with topical posts, each having five or so recommendations on a particular topic. What I love about it, and which I’m not good at, is that the recommended pieces can be from long ago. This, for example, is from their Love collection and it’s a marvelous and haunting essay from 2003 about two of the world’s best freedivers–Audrey Mestre and Francisco ‘Pipin’ Ferreras. The story is gripping, the writing is excellent, I highly recommend it. It also reminds me of issue #257’s The Secrets of The World’s Greatest Freediver.
6. How Many Errorrs Are in This Essay? - The Millions
You know, I don’t know how exactly to describe this essay to you, so I’m going to reproduce the top comment it’s received:
“What a marvellous and scholarly piece of writing. It moves from erratas to psychology to philosophy to religion so neatly, whilst having the reader wondering what is coming next. It was the most pleasurable piece of writing that I have read today. Thank you.”
7. Just how important is eye contact between musicians? And what does it signal? - Classical Music Magazine (by BBC)
I love reading about subtler aspects of things that I broadly know nothing about. I don’t know how classical music works, I don’t know how orchestras work either, but I sure did enjoy reading people’s opinions about eye contact between musicians in orchestras, and in particular how important the facial expressions of the conductor are.
It’s no different to talking to someone, conductor Sian Edwards explains: ‘It’s like any conversation with another person – you use your eyes. I can just look at you, or I can look at you with the kind of energy I want you to transmit to the musical phrase. That involves the body as well, but as human beings we’re used to extremely precise, directional eye contact, and we use that in music all the time. It enhances what we’re doing with our ears, which is first and foremost.’
8. It’s What You See - Eashan Ghosh’s Medium page
There had to be at least one article about Roger Federer in this week’s issue, and it’s this one. I am very happy to be sharing this one by Eashan Ghosh (whose sports writing I am a big fan of!) and not one by a more mainstream sports outlet. It’s a long read, so I’d devote half an hour or so to it, but worth your time. In particular, I liked the way the piece chronologically went through the different parts of Federer’s career, and even more, I liked the way it summarized Federer’s effect on the modern tennis game. I was too young to appreciate Federer’s 2004-2007 dominance, so the part of his career that is most impressive to me is the way he was “still great” for a whole decade post his peak.
I’m hard-pressed to exaggerate how incredible this Federer was to watch, across days, weeks, months, years. He was, of course, lucky with injuries and recovered well. Even allowing for all that, Federer operated with dramatic contempt for the properties of physics and time. He showed he could be still-great at an age when, prevailing wisdom dictated, he had no business playing top-tier tennis at all. Nadal and Djokovic have since, with different, perhaps better tools, confirmed that Federer’s late career trajectory is repeatable and sustainable. But Federer showed it was possible.
9. Family Recipes Etched in Stone. Gravestone, That Is. - The New York Times (soft paywalled)
Ha! Love this.
10. The World Needs Uncles, Too - Esquire
Very wholesome article here by Isaac Fitzgerald. He talks about his decision to not have kids himself, while also making a conscious effort to be around for his friend’s and siblings’ kids. At the same time, this article makes me feel a sense of.. weirdness. Like, some sort of cognitive dissonance. But I can’t really put a finger on it.