At Home
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| Strawberry season is too short! Local strawberries DO NOT taste like everyday berries! |
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| What valley does our food come from? Len has made a number of really good recipes this week! |
Books I reviewed this week
Why am I seeing this word everywhere?
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| Ouroboros |
Is there a fad for using this word: OUROBOROS? It refers to an image of a snake or a dragon that is swallowing its own tail, and it’s an ancient symbol for an eternal cycle of life and death. It had a role in the mythology of ancient Greece and Egypt, in Norse myths, in Medieval alchemy, in the Marvel Universe, as a trendy name for fictional characters and for products and apps; and has been a popular image for tattoo artists. Though I have been coming across this word a lot recently, it’s not really new: searches also find older articles that also use it. In fact, it’s so frequently used that Wikipedia has a “disambiguation page.”
Anyway, the more I search, the more I think there’s nothing new except my noticing this word in use, mostly just meaning something that repeats itself. Consider this description of an AI text generator: “a machine-powered ouroboros that could squeeze out sustainable, trustworthy journalism.” (NYT, June, 2024) Or the use of the word in a movie review: “The latest ouroboros of intellectual property juicing to get under my skin is the new Mean Girls film.” (The Atlantic, January, 2024) Or in a story about tradwives: “She didn’t like how her lifestyle, which she’d pursued out of genuine interest, had slowly become symbolic and politicized. She noted how her content had become an ouroboros…” (Washington Post, April, 2024)
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| For those who love this kind of thing, there are many options for creating an ouroboros wall mural in your home. (Etsy) |
Remembering the past this week
This week saw commemorations of D-Day 80 years ago this Thursday. Many of the veterans who participated in these celebrations are 100 years old, and it’s feared that at the next major anniversary of this very important historic event, there will be almost no veterans left.
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| From the D-Day Celebrations in Normandy. (New York Times) |
“We will not walk away,” says Biden, drawing parallel between D-Day and Ukraine
“Biden says the dark forces the Allies fought 80 years ago have not faded. He says the struggle between dictatorships and freedom is unending. He says Ukraine remains as a stark example and says it has been invaded by a tyrant but the Ukrainians are not backing down. ‘We will not walk away,’ says Biden.” — From the Guardian
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| “President Biden emphasized the importance of global alliances at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 in Normandy, France” (Washington Post) |
Concern for the Future
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| From the Washington Post. |
Blog post by mae sander, 2024
Shared with Deb at the Sunday Salon
