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"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof." - Barbara Kingsolver

Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

Augustine, the patron saint of brewers, printers, and theologians, is reputed to have said that hope has two daughters; Anger and Courage. Anger is pissed at the way things are, and Courage insists that they do not need to remain this way.

I write this letter every week because I am hopeful. I'm certainly flipped out about the way things are, and I insist that we've got the smarts and the heart to learn our way out of this mess.

Happy Friday.

Civics, Libraries
Two protesters thought that "book displays based on how adults experience gender identity have no place in a public space for children". Their community disagreed.

The San Diego Public Library’s parade contingent marching in the San Diego Pride Parade on the 15th of this month. Credit John Francis Peters for The New York Times

In June Adrianne Peterson, the manager of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library made a modest display of L.G.B.T.Q affirming books in honor of Pride Month. In short order two people took it upon themselves to check out every single title. Subsequently they sent what amounted to a ransom note, stating that "We plan to keep these books checked out until the library agrees to permanently remove the inappropriate content from the shelves".

The community had other ideas. Writing in the New York Times Jill Cowan reports that "stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system, which after a city match will provide over $30,000 toward more L.G.B.T.Q.-themed materials and programming, including an expansion of the system’s already popular drag queen story hours."

Article: They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired.

Community, Cooperation
The way that humans cooperate is remarkable to biologists — most animals don’t behave that way.

Preparing Phyllis’s 70th Birthday. Photo by Fabrice Florin via CC

“'Even the least cooperative human groups are more cooperative than our closest cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos,' says Michael Muthukrishna, a behavioral scientist at the London School of Economics. Chimps don’t tolerate strangers, Muthukrishna says, and even young children are a lot more generous than a chimp.

"Human cooperation takes some explaining — after all, people who act cooperatively should be vulnerable to exploitation by others. Yet in societies around the world, people cooperate to their mutual benefit. Scientists are making headway in understanding the conditions that foster cooperation, research that seems essential as an interconnected world grapples with climate change, partisan politics and more — problems that can be addressed only through large-scale cooperation." - Bob Holmes

Article: The Secrets of Cooperation

Personal Development, Learning
The research of the last 20 years shows that positive thinking doesn't actually work. What works? Effort.

Gabriele Oettingen is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and at the University of Hamburg. She is the author of more than a 100 articles and book chapters on thinking about the future and the control of cognition, emotion, and behavior. Her research has led her to conclude that if we really want to change ourselves, to make meaningful positive change, we can'r rely on positive thinking alone.

Her research suggests that people who put energy into visualizing "positive dreams have the same consequences that people who put in low effort have, and they experience low success. Over time they experience low wellbeing, low mental health, low physical health and low personal development."

Video: Rethinking Positive Thinking (Gabriele Oettingen, New York University) | DLDwomen 14

Economy, Culture
Arun Gupta leads food tours around New York City. He's often asked why the same dish might be three of four times as expensive in one restaurant than another restaurant a block or two away.

Some of the best - and cheapest - dumplings in the city, from Sunset Park

"The reason for this divergence in price and quality comes to down to how migration, labor and immigration laws, supply chains, and culture all interrelate." - Arun Gupta

Article: The Political-Economy of Chinese Dumplings or Why the Cheapest Foods are Often the Tastiest

Related Article: Nine Of The Best Strip Mall Gems In L.A.

Learning
A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it.

"It’s easy to see why librarians of the 1970s set out to revolutionise search. Work across the academy was expanding to such a degree that, soon, there would not be enough human librarians to support all of it. Yet, to get the information they needed, researchers would face a time-consuming, physically involved process that required librarian intervention. While academic researchers could browse new issues of journals in their field, for a focused search of all that had come before they still had to consult with a reference librarian to look up the correct Library of Congress subject headings within a multivolume manual. Armed with a set of subject headings, the researcher would then search across the library catalogue for books and in citation indexes for journal articles, including subscription databases such as the Science Citation Index as well as hand-built bibliographies created by their university’s subject librarians. Finally, they would physically track down the correct books and bound periodicals that included articles they thought might be relevant – if the volumes happened to be on the library shelves." - Monica Westin

Article: Ingenious Librarians

Innovation, Industry
How a 19th-century shoe-making technology was adapted to mass produce toothpicks

Charles Forster's Toothpick Mill, Strong, Maine ca. 1900

"While working in the import-export trade for his uncle in Pernambuco, Brazil in the late 1850s, Charles Forster (1826-1901) saw widespread use of toothpicks by the Brazilians. He then saw an opportunity to mass produce them when he returned to Boston. Lacking mechanical skills, he became aware in 1859 of a shoe-pegging machine (i.e., a mechanism for attaching soles to their upper parts) developed by Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant. By 1861 Sturtevant had granted Charlotte Bowman, Forster’s fiancé, the exclusive right to use his 1863 patent for making wooden toothpicks – a byproduct of shoe-peg innovation." - Edward T. Howe, Ph.D.

Article: The History of Maine’s Foremost Toothpick Mill

Brand Communications
How to sell a computer to people who wonder if they could ever use a computer.

Here's the brochure that Apple used to introduce the Mac in 1984.

Portfolio: Apple 128K Macintosh Brochure , 1984

One-liners

Article: Based on users’ locations, the Banned Book Club provides e-book editions of titles banned in nearby libraries.

Article: New Zealand becomes the first country to ban all plastic grocery bags.

Article: Dairy co-op develops the first fiber-based milk carton cap with Swedish start-up, reducing plastic consumption by more than 500 tons a year.

Article: In an effort to address health equity, decrease obesity rates, and improve mental health outcomes, Missoula, Montana built more sidewalks. And they were just getting started.

Playlist

When Tony Bennett invited Amy Winehouse to the Abby Road studios to participate in the Duets II sessions in March of 2011, many in his crew were nervous. She was at the height of her alcohol addiction and had a reputation for showing up at sessions drunk.

Tyler Golsen takes the story from here: "However, the Winehouse that showed up to these sessions was sober, professional, and, as Bennett recalled, shy and terrified of working with a figure that she truly admired.

“'She said she was nervous because she had never recorded a song with someone she considered one of her idols,' he explained. 'After running through a few bars, she said she hadn’t recorded for a long time – her only reference to the problems she’d been living through.'

Still, after a few false starts, the two began to key into each other’s vocal nuances, both of which were rooted in the traditional stylings of the past. Bennett would famously call it 'the right way” of singing: never showing off, never using autotune, just playing off the song’s feeling. Despite their nearly 60-year age difference, Winehouse and Bennett sang like they were old souls with decades of history together."

Article: The Moment Amy Winehouse Met Her Hero, Tony Bennett

Video: Tony Bennett, Amy Winehouse - Body and Soul (from Duets II: The Great Performances)

In 1994 Tony Bennett showcased the Great American Songbook on MTV Unplugged. During that show he introduced k.d. lang by saying that "There are certain performers who come along who are blessed with a destiny. It goes beyond success. It becomes immortal." He held up Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Hank Willams, and added k.d. to his very rarified list.

You know that Tony Bennett died last week at the age of 96. In an amazing 70 year career, he sold more than 50 million records: 61 studio, 11 live and 33 compilation albums. He charted his first #1 hit in 1951 and in 2014 he became the oldest living artist to reach #1 again when he teamed up with Lady Gaga to sing “Cheek to Cheek.”

Yes, Tony, there are certain performers who come along who are blessed with a destiny. It does goes beyond success. It does become immortal.

By now there are scores of great reminiscences and obituaries. I'll hold up just one by Jose Valentino Ruiz. He honors that Bennett's amazing journey was a "testament to the power of amazing innovation." Bennett arguably did more than any other musician to celebrate the standards that form the foundation of popular American music. But in doing so he never stopped looking forward. He never stopped reimagining and recasting these amazing songs.

Article: Tony Bennett: the Timeless Visionary Who, With a Nod to America’s Musical Heritage, Embraced the Future

Weekly Mixtape
Frank Sinatra called Tony Bennett "The best singer in the business." Here's a playlist of songs that he and friends sang "the right way."

Playlist: "The right way" of singing. Tony Bennett

Image of the Week

Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini, “Barbie: Virgen de Lujan (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception),” plastic, MDF, acrylic in window box, 17 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 4 inches

"Barbie is known as the most popular doll in the world, but also as a symbol of consumerism, beauty standards and gender stereotypes. But what if Barbie could also be a symbol of spirituality, diversity and tolerance? That’s what two artists from Argentina, Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini, tried to explore with their art project 'Barbie: The Plastic Religion'.

"In 2014, the artists created 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls that represented different religious figures, such as Jesus Christ, Buddha, Saint Patrick, Kali, Mary Magdalene, Virgin of Lujan and Baphomet. They dressed them in custom-made outfits and accessories, and packaged them in boxes that resembled Mattel’s original ones. They also gave each doll a name and a description that explained their role and significance in their respective faiths.

"The artists said that their intention was not to offend or mock anyone’s beliefs, but to celebrate the diversity and richness of human spirituality. They also wanted to challenge the stereotypes and prejudices that often surround religion and culture. They said that they used Barbie as a medium because she was a universal icon of pop culture and childhood, and because she could adapt to any role or situation." - Design You Trust

Article: Barbie: The Plastic Religion – A Controversial Art Project That Reimagines Barbie As Jesus, Buddha, Baphomet And More

What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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You can learn more about me and my work here: mitchanthony.net

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