In this issue: book of the month, social media amalgam, historical TV, garden news, and writing the next one.
Book of the month
Social media amalgam
Is it just me, or have Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Pinterest, and Bluesky all begun to look the same?
Now, it’s true, I follow authors and book stuff and people I know. I shop online, so all social media advertises the same things to me. But surely everyone curates their social media to please themselves? And once you do this, they all become the same, with a difference of perhaps a few people who don’t post on all of them. All ask the same questions to get engagement (“what book was most influential to you as a child?”,”what are you reading this weekend?”,”what was your best experience in a library?”). All use the same tricks to get around the restrictions designed to prevent you leaving the app (“full story in the bio!”, “see profile”).
As the algorithms have changed, social media has created a version of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer: those with the most followers and engagement easily get more. Those who have few followers or interactions are disadvantaged in competition and unlikely to be seen. Thus social media becomes a more difficult place in which to get the word out about anything unless you already have a large following.
If you like Meta, you can post in Instagram, Facebook, and Threads simultaneously. This speaks to their interchangeability, not just convenience. We change channels, but there’s still nothing on TV.
Historical TV: Bramwell
During the 1990s, a series about a London doctor in 1895 played on TV. It is now on Britbox. The show, despite starring Jemma Redgrave, did not seem popular enough to claim a spot on the internet. For popular shows, one can find filming locations, set designs, scripts, and production information. I have found very little on Bramwell.
In Season 1 I was delighted to see stories that dug into the subject of Victorian medicine: anesthesia, surgery, drugs before there were antibiotics. Well-filmed and well-scripted, the story focuses on a female doctor and the charity hospital she founds in the East End. This gives the viewer a chance to experience the tools and techniques of medicine at the time, the poverty in the area, and the views of a society that wanted women restricted. The attention to making the sets, constumes, and lighting accurate are apparent.
By Season 3 I had tired of the story, which had deteriorated from a focus on Victorian medicine and a doctor dealing with impediments to women to a soap opera about everyone’s feelings. I continued watching for the milk cans and the medicine bottles, the costumes and the sets. Engagements made and broken, professionalism questioned, money lost, and emotions about all of it. I recommend the first two seasons!
Garden news
Since I don’t want to kill animals, preventing squirrels and other mammals from eating my vegetables is quite the challenge. My hardware cloth cylinders, as some of you predicted, failed since the animals can climb them and shimmy down the bamboo poles.
One night, sitting gazing at the cucumber with half the leaves gone and melons trying to bloom on bare vines, I decided to do my best with just one raised bed, using the mosquito netting I have for the big umbrella.
Attractive, no? Mosquitos love me, so without the netting on the umbrella I have another challenge: being eaten alive.
If you meet me on the street, you will notice the scent of Eau de Sans Mosquito, my own concoction of Dr. Bronner’s peppermint lotion and Badger Anti-Bug Spray liquid (it’s just too sticky on its own). It works, but one must be consistent with it. Or I may waft toward you some Avon Skin So Soft original, the only commercial product that works.
What about writing?
I have finished the draft of my current novel, if one can call a work of 56,000 words a novel, and it is with a developmental editor so I’ll know more about it later. Conventional wisdom says that I should begin writing another right away, and I have several projects that at least have a small start. One is a literary novel, one is autobiographic, one is non-fiction, one is historical, and one is a sequel to Bummer at Luna Beach.
Working on this last is the most likely, as summer on the Southern California coast, even with all the tourists, makes for pleasant eavesdropping and people-watching. The first few scenes may feature a stolen money machine, an escapee from prison, and a bored senior sleuth. Stay tuned.
Till next time, keep grousing!
