Good Links Wednesday

Here are some random and interesting things I've read today:

First of all, the bizarre mating habits of the anglerfish on the thinking blog. Read the whole article; I'm not interested in fish at all, but this makes me think about life and creation and ummm...our mating habits as humans.



Sometimes I feel like I'm a turmagent wife. Probably because some days I am a turmagent wife. This is a great new word. If you're not signed up for Word of the Day, why not?

Do you want to go to Hawaii really inexpensively? Here's a way to plan a trip for the fall or winter. It's not first-class, but, hey, it's Hawaii! A week in Hawaii for airfare and hotel under $500 or $600 doesn't come along that often. I've saved for three years to go on my 50th birthday trip this summer and my ticket alone cost more than that! And it's only $435 from LA to Waikiki for the flight, five nights in a hotel, a welcome lei, and breakfast the first day. Check it out.

This was sent to me by D. about aging. It's from The New Yorker. Did you know that for all of history until the past couple of hundred years, the expected life span for a human was only about 30 years of age? So "aging", as we do it today, is a fairly new field of study. Aging fascinates me. I want to be able to age well. This article is about some of the realities of aging and of the field of geriatrics.

Lastly, here is a movie recommendation for thoughtful people---The Great New Wonderful. It is definitely not a ha-ha funny comedy, as it's being billed. Nor is it light-hearted as the title implies. It's a sort of dark drama with comedic moments that is absolutely haunting. It's ostensibly about five New Yorkers and the details of their lives a year after 9/11. The characters were not involved in the 9/11 tragedy directly, but it shows how stress has affected each of their lives and the conclusions they've arrived at by the end of the movie. When I watched it the first time I thought "This is just dumb", but since then, I've never had a movie haunt me so much. The more I think about it the more meaning I find in it. It's one I'm going to buy. Have you ever watched a movie like that? I usually either love them or feel like I've wasted my time. So this movie is definitely different. It has to "sink in". If you have someone to watch movies with who enjoys discussing them afterwards (and your friend is pretty intelligent and introspective), go for it. I absolutely can't stop thinking about it!



~Photo of Anglerfish by David Paul/Mark Norman, ACF via the thinking blog
~Photo of Hawaiian gal by Me
~Photo of Forest by Hubbie Mark