Eastbound transatlantic travel is a long, exhausting journey. Direct flights to Munich are usually significantly more expensive, and a stopover in Dublin or Reykjavík is also a welcome break from being squeezed into an airplane seat.
Fourth Wing
Fourth Wing isn’t exactly a discovery: It’s a bestseller that’s being adapted into a TV show. I came across it while taking shelter at the Union Square Barnes & Noble during a heavy thunderstorm and was intrigued enough to try a sample. At first, it read like a crossover between Harry Potter and Hunger Games. The latter I didn't finish because I found reading about teenagers killing each other for survival too depressing. But ChatGPT assured me that Fourth Wing is different: people are dying, but so far, that has only happened in the background._ I also like that, while the story is a classic high fantasy playing in a medieval setting with magic and mythical beasts, it is written in first-person present tense like a modern romance. The characters speak like 20-somethings in the 21st century, including using expletives, and have names you might encounter today. The protagonist, Violet, struggles uphill for her life due to her fragile build. However, she is clever, resourceful, and possesses unwavering self-confidence despite constant death threats. While such a mix of traits might be rare in real life—since high intelligence often accompanies self-doubts—it suits the story well. After all, who would want to read about a heroine who’s always scared for her life?
Ghost Store
Last weekend, we wanted to buy a new HomePod mini for the bathroom. The nearby Apple Store didn’t have our preferred color and asked us to order it online. Later, we passed a Best Buy that displayed an Apple logo. At first, we thought it was already closed because only a lonely salesperson was cleaning up. But it was open, and they had a dusty white HomePod fixed to a table. There was a vending machine with electronic price tags and a sign inviting us to buy online or ask a “blueshirt” for assistance. The only two other people in the store wore blue shirts, but they were chatting with each other and had no interest in helping. We purchased the HomePod through the Apple Store online. There is a need for an electronics store similar to the Apple Store that sells non-Apple products. But it needs to have merchandise and knowledgeable salespeople so you can try out products and see if they work for you. Best Buy does not want to be that store.
There was a time before airlines became nickel-and-dimers that try to squeeze every penny out of their customers. Flying was fancy and enjoyable, so some airlines would hand out postcards of planes in their fleet so passengers could tell friends and family about their experience after a flight.
As a teenager, I collected postcards like these. My cousin, who introduced me to this hobby, and I would write to the airline headquarters or visit their city offices to ask for postcards. A few times, we sneaked into the office area at Frankfurt Airport and went door to door. Usually, people were friendly and happy to give us some merchandise.
There were also other sources. Many airport souvenir shops sold postcards of airplanes, and there was even a mail-order store in Connecticut that specialized in these postcards.
We weren’t the only ones. We spent days at Hamburg Airport trading postcards with other kids. Those days are gone, but there are still many aviation enthusiasts around. So, ten years ago, I took the time to scan my 400+ card collection and posted them on Tumblr.
Ela Minus <3
After a month using the new non-Max iPhone Pro, I can say I don‘t miss the larger screen, and I enjoy the smaller form factor. I guess the main benefit of the iPhone Max is the longer battery life, but for my everyday use, that doesn’t matter too much.
The latest issue of our newsletter was rooted in memories of 2011. When we looked at the photo stream from that year (isn’t it great that memories are automatically saved these days if you regularly take photos), we were amazed by all the exciting things we did in just one year. In hindsight, it was also the last year of youthful carefreeness, a peak when life stopped growing and started shrinking. There is no bitterness to this, only a realization that comes with getting older and losing people around you.
Tumblr has been mentioned quite often lately. I miss it, too. For a while, its feed was a mirror of raw human creativity. The format did not encourage discussion, just the endless remixing of ideas. Technically, Tumblr still exists, although it lost its cultural significance. Of course, even in its heyday, it occupied a niche, somewhere between Twitter and Facebook, and was loved by some and ignored by many. My own old blog is still online, so I need to see what to do with it.
On Sunday, the Pioneer sailing season officially ended. Like last year, we participated in the final trip, which featured all four sails being raised at the same time. We’ll miss the Pioneer and the W.O. Decker – but we always have the NYC Ferry for some nautical fun.
Substack is now officially social media. This time, though, co-founder Hamish Mackenzie assures, it will be good social media. Not attention-grabbing, addictive, and abusive, but a space where humans can have deep and civilized discussions. However, as a venture-capital-backed, for-profit company, they have no more guarantees to offer than the good intentions of their founders.