Survival of the Fittest

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

I finished reading my last book of the year on December 27 (Sugar, Salt, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss, which was very good), and figured that was it for the year. I had too much going on to rush another book but I just couldn’t go without reading something, so I grabbed one off my To Be Read shelf – Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which has so many recommendations the cover should be 14-carat gold.

Every review was correct. I read the book in a day and a half – I probably could have finished it in five hours, if I’d had uninterrupted time. I just could not put this book down. It’s a sparse novel about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world – you don’t even find out what happened – as they try to survive travel on foot an unknown distance to the south shore to get out of the freezing winter weather. I’m guessing by the fact they crossed over high mountains they were heading to California, but no clues are given (in the movie, the map shows Florida). This book was beyond compelling, certainly worthy of every accolade. But I didn’t feel like writing an entire blog post about it. Nothing is worse than a review that gives a play by play recap of a book.

So I went and looked up books like The Road, because I’ve read enough post-apocalyptic fiction to have covered all the basics. What is it compared to? For decades (and arguably still) my favorite novel of all time, by number of rereads, is Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, a post-nuclear war novel from 1959. A little dated, but not much. In the chaos of 9/11, I sent my oldest friend a two-word text: Alas, Babylon, and he knew exactly what I meant.

But a couple of similar-to lists had the nerve to list Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart. My father was always after me to read this one, the Alas, Babylon of his youth, before the Cold War. Eventually I did, and honestly, it’s one of the worst apocalyptic books I’ve ever read. Okay, maybe they didn’t realize in 1949 that you should never dust pregnant women with DDT. The chemical world was still pretty much in denial that some things were deadly. But these “survivors,” instead of focusing on long-term survival, worry only about immediate needs and then go hungry when canned food runs out. They have no concept of gardening, let along farming and food storage. They think nothing about education, don’t teach their children even basic reading skills, and so that, although they have public libraries to learn survival skills from, in just one generation, no one can read the books. It’s difficult to root for their survival… After learning what to do and how to do it from Alas, Babylon, I truly hated this book. 

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other really good books (and movies!) out there. And post-apocalyptic doesn’t necessarily mean science-fiction. Stephen King’s The Stand can be drama, horror, alternative history, Christian fiction, speculative fiction, or loosely science fiction, depending on how you want to interpret it. Same with The Road: It’s a story about father-son relationships, survival during hardship, and climate destruction.

Post-apocalyptic fiction simply means that some calamity has befallen society, tearing apart what used to be normal. If a country – China, Turkey, Peru, Afghanistan, etc. – was utterly destroyed by earthquake and subsequent famine and plague, you could call their recovery post-apocalyptic, even though the rest of the world continued. How we formed trade networks and moved to online commerce during the Covid epidemic can be seen as apocalyptic in a way; we are in a post-apocalyptic society from Covid, as many of our bedrock companies folded, telehealth and working from home became a thing, and society as a whole changed. There are many, many excellent “post-apocalyptic” stories out there, some focusing on disease ( The Andromeda Strain), on climate (Day After Tomorrow), natural disasters (asteroids, etc.) (Solar), nuclear holocaust (Planet of the Apes), the death of oil (Road Warrior), electromagnetic pulse (One Second After), and more. How do people adapt? Can mankind survive? What determination does it take? How can you stay hopeful in the face of annihilation? What can we learn from these stories to avoid such scenarios, or how to survive them? Apocalyptic fiction can be quite imaginative (Hunger Games), and appeal to a wide range of readers (and viewers). Sometimes the book is meh, but the film is far better (Planet of the Apes, for one), sometimes the book is excellent but the movie is okay (Girl With All the Gifts), and sometimes there is more than one film version of the book, with differences between them (The Stand, Planet of the Apes, Day of the Triffids, War of the Worlds). All of them will question your morality and make you wonder about your ability to survive a serious disaster.

(Fun fact: the final battle in War of the Worlds was filmed at the old Uniroyal plant in Naugatuck, CT)

Here’s a wide array of post-apocalyptic novels and films sure to keep you engaged. Which do you like best?

Films (some from novels):

Books (some with accompanying films):

Version 1.0.0

Pure Food

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

The FDA has been under increased scrutiny in recent years. When discussing its value and the ways it promotes public health, it’s important to dive into its history.

A hundred years ago, infant mortality in New York City was 25% – one out of FOUR children would die before the age of one. While diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, small pox, mumps, polio, scarlet fever, cholera, and pneumonia were as common as fleas in crowded, dangerously sub-divided tenements, the greatest cause of infant mortality was… milk. Toxic milk.

Back then, cows were often fed cheap “swill” – the discarded mash from distilleries. Sometimes it was still boiling hot, and needless to say, it made cows – who stood in filth up to their bellies and were often tubercular and covered in udder abscesses – malnourished and ill. They gave off a rancid, thin, blue-gray milk that had no nutritive value. To counteract public opinion, it was often “recolored” with chalk or even plaster. Bread was full of fillers such as sawdust, alum, and plaster. Spoiled meat might be colored up with toxic copper. Lead, copper, and mercury were used to color candies.

Babies died.

Enter the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. Partly fueled by the nascent science of chemistry which could detect what was really in the food, and partly by the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a novel based on real events that exposed the horrific true conditions of the Chicago stockyards and meat packing industry, people began to raise a stink about the condition of their food supply. Teddy Roosevelt, a libertarian at heart, was opposed to regulation. He was heavily lobbied by the industries, but eventually signed laws against selling tainted food. Milk, a major spreader of tuberculosis, had to be pasteurized if it was to be sold across state lines. Meat could not have more than a minute amount of contamination. Items sold as remedies had to list their actual ingredients. Infant mortality dropped by 68%.

By 1938 (note: 32 years later), the US Food and Drug Administration was created after more than 100 people died from cough syrup that used anti-freeze as a sweetener. Because of legal loopholes, the only law it broke was mislabeling. The FDA was in charge of overseeing and regulating food, drugs, and cosmetics, making sure that such items were safe for the general public, to the wails of businessmen. The FDA was designed to work alongside the US Department of Agriculture, founded under Abraham Lincoln. Hairs are often split between the two, pushing responsibility back and forth. When a food poisoning outbreak was traced to frozen pot pies, the blame was focused on the FDA for not watching the factory. BUT, the culprit was further traced to the grain in the crust, and grain safety falls under the USDA.

It is almost impossible to eradicate all sources of food poisoning. Chickens can be born Salmonella positive. Listeria survives in soil, then gets tracked on animal feet and into your food. The toxic dose of botulism – that thing people willingly inject in their faces to paralyze muscles? – is so minute it is measured in nanograms (that’s a billionth of a gram. A raisin is about one gram, so think of a raisin in one billion pieces). One single gram – a raisin’s worth – can kill more than a million people. Food poisoning – usually through inadequate cooking – kills more than 3,000 people a year, with an estimated 48 million illnesses in the US alone. As always, children and the elderly are most at risk, as many of these bacteria target kidneys.

Every law regarding food safety –every law – has been enacted because people have been sickened or killed by toxic food. Sellers are trying to maximize profit, and since most US food is owned by a small number of companies (just 4 companies own 90% of US meat production), they can afford an unstoppable army of lobbyists to pressure lawmakers to vote against public interest. So what can you do? Buy from quality sources. Read your labels. If your bread doesn’t mold in 5 days (like all those name-brand hot dog buns), consider it suspect for chemical preservatives, approved or not. Know that meats should be cooked to a specific temperature (depending on the meat), and that no food – hot or cold – should be left out more than 2 hours, probably less in hot weather.

Think you don’t have to worry? Frozen food was recalled last September because six people had died from listeria contamination. In November, more than 10 infants were infected with botulism from baby formula. Poisoned food kills. Support the agencies fighting for you.

Check out these books, and keep yourself informed!

Protecting America’s health : the FDA, business, and one hundred years of regulation by Philip J. Hilts

Eating Dangerously: Why the Government Can’t Keep Your Food Safe, and How You Can by Michael Booth

The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum

Death in the Pot by Morton Satin

Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety by Timothy Lytton

Swindled: The Dark History of Food Cheats by Bee Wilson

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat by Jeff Benedict

Sifting for Truth in Media

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment


Feeling bombarded? Feeling like every minute of every day someone is throwing information at you, demanding your attention? Do you feel like you have to “Like” everything, or that you want to hide in a closet just to catch your breath? If it’s not a skewed news headline, it’s an unwanted advertisement. Throw in AI-generated content, and how do you even know what’s real and what’s fake anymore?

Deep breath. 

You aren’t alone.

And there are ways around it.

Cheshire Public Library recently hosted a talk by John B. Nann on exactly that – Navigating the News, and how to trust what you’re hearing and seeing is real. It doesn’t matter if you swear that headline makes total sense. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen similar photos on the news. It doesn’t matter where you fall on the political spectrum – anyone can be easily manipulated by false or heavily biased information. Here’s an example: Would you approve of your seven year old’s school class watching a movie about a girl who kills an old woman, then joins up with a bunch of dysfunctional friends to kill again – on screen, in technicolor? 

No? Opposed to that? Angry that some people would be okay with that? 

That’s the plot of the movie The Wizard of Oz. It’s all in the wording, and you’re not alone if you fell for it.

If you’re on social media, you may have seen the Media Bias Chart. Professional media analysts have decided (in sometimes hard to read print) where a source is on the spectrum of a) fact and b) political bias. The further you get from the middle – either side – the less likely what you’re reading is actually true, and more likely you’re reading propaganda deliberately meant to upset you. Let’s face it – calm, soothing news doesn’t sell copy or clicks. Mainstream, respected media such as Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, MSN, Forbes, BBC, tend to be factual and reliable. If the headlines on your paper start with “Bigfoot Gives Birth to Alien Werewolf Baby,” you should probably consider it suspect.

Don’t feel like digging for truth? Run the idea past Snopes.com, which relentlessly searches for facts, and facts only.

If a photo looks sensationalized or “off”, do a reverse photo search (Google image search). It’s possible the photo has nothing to do with the claim, or is outdated, or happened somewhere else. Here, in a viral photo, the ship is not dumping waste into the ocean, but churning up sediment with its turbines before anchoring. Check the dates on articles – articles can sometimes reappear ten years later. Sorry, that celebrity died 8 years ago. It’s not news.

Another way to check for devious sites involves looking at the URL – the website address in the search bar. Look at the last letters. If there’s a two-letter ending after a dot, the source is questionable. Every country has a country code, or domain. You won’t see it on domestic sites, but the code for America is .us.  Russia is .ru, China is .cn, Rwanda is .rw, Moldova is .md, not to be confused with Maryland. If it’s not coming from the US, it could be a scam. The .co code is technically for Colombia, but it’s often used when companies or organizations can’t get the .com address they want. Approach these sites with an extra grain of salt.

On The Media, a podcast by WNYC, New York Public Radio 93.9 FM, lists the following points to think about:

  • Big red flags for fake news: ALL CAPS, or obviously photoshopped pics.
  • A glut of pop-ups and banner ads? Good sign the story is pure clickbait.
  • Check the domain! Fake sites often add “.co” to trusted brands to steal their luster. (Think: “abcnews.com.co”)
  • If you land on an unknown site, check its “About” page. Then, Google it with the word “fake” and see what comes up.
  • If a story offers links, follow them. Garbage leads to worse garbage. No links, quotes, or references? Another telltale sign.
  • Verify an unlikely story by finding a reputable outlet reporting the same thing.
  • Check the date. Social media often resurrects outdated stories.
  • Read past headlines. Often they bear no resemblance to what lies beneath.
  • Photos may be misidentified and dated. Use a reverse image search engine like TinEye to see where an image really comes from.
  • Gut check. If a story makes you angry, it’s probably designed that way.
  • Most importantly, if you’re not sure it’s true, don’t share it! Don’t. Share. It.

Finally, here are the resources included on the handout Mr. Nann passed out after his presentation at CPL. Stay informed!

Navigating the News, a presentation at the Cheshire Public Library
John B. Nann, MSLS, JD, LLM, retired law librarian

Organizations and other resources

Sources used in presentation

Emerging Genre Highlight: Healing Fiction

/ Adam / 1 Comment

To call healing fiction an “emerging” genre is a bit of a misnomer. It’s emerging to us Americans, but it’s enjoyed decades long popularity in South Korea and Japan, where it has its roots. Only in the 2010s and (more so) the early 2020s has it made waves in the West. Many see the genre’s newfound success as a logical response to the heightened political, epidemiological, economic, societal, and (*checks notes*) general turmoil that many have been subjected to as of late. In times of strife, healing fiction offers solace. You see this in reviews:

“It’s like a cup of cocoa in front of the fireplace,” says one reader about Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum.

“This book was all the hope you need and want to see in the world,” says another about The Second Chance Convenience Store by Ho-Yeon Kim.

These books are not propelled by conflict, narrative threads are not left dangling uncomfortably, and cynicism is verboten. In a world that (at times) seems designed to erode the soul, healing fiction offers escape.

These stories share a number of traits. Found family, cozy settings like coffee shops or book stores, a sprinkling of magical elements, depictions of physical and emotional sustenance, second chances, feline friends, and traumatized protagonist who ultimately, well, heal. But more important than any individual story element is the pervasive idea that change is possible, that there is hope no matter what.

Before sharing some great introductory examples of healing fiction, I want to add that it’s possible you’ve already come across a Western read-alike. One example is the immensely popular The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, where protagonist Nora is transported to a mystical library after attempting suicide, each book representing a life she could have led. Though lacking the warmth generally apparent in healing fiction, its optimism and magical atmosphere are in line with the genre. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree and A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers are cozy fantasy/science fiction that borrow healing fiction’s slice-of-life narratives and hopeful, feel-good tone. If you enjoyed any of these books, or are merely curious about the genre, here are a handful of healing fiction books to get you started.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it. A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose. In Komachi’s unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners. 

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by… The father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

Tucked away in an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who are struggling in their lives and genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take” their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.

Disappearing Authors

/ Susan O. / 1 Comment

Barbara Newhall Follett was a writer who disappeared. Not fell out of favor or faded out of print, but disappeared. Considered a child genius who published a successful novel at the age of 12, The House Without Windows (it helped, of course, that her father was an editor at Alfred Knopf publishers), Follett was emotionally destroyed by her father’s divorce when she was 14, and never did much more. In 1939, Follett had a fight with her husband, walked out her door in Boston, and was never seen again…

Some authors are known for being extremely reclusive – J. D. Salinger, for one. Salinger had numerous personal and family issues, many, his daughter believed, stemming from PTSD from serving in World War II, and he hid from the intense fame he acquired from Catcher in the Rye. He seldom gave interviews or made appearances.

Thomas Pynchon is another, not having given an interview or even having a photo published in more than fifty years. He has no media accounts. In his late 80’s, it’s believed he’s living in Mexico, but no one except perhaps his publisher knows for certain.

Some authors aren’t lost, they’re just taking forever on that next novel – sometimes 10 years or more (staring right at you, George R. R. Martin). There are only a handful who have actually disappeared, becoming their own mystery.

Agatha Christie is perhaps the most famous. The Queen of Mystery herself disappeared in 1926, after a fight with her husband over his request for a divorce. Her car was discovered, empty. More than 15,000 people turned out to look for her, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle going so far as to hire mediums. Eleven days later, she turned up in a hotel, 185 miles away, with no memory of what happened. Some publicists called it revenge against her husband that backfired when so many people got involved, while doctors said she had a nervous breakdown from the strain.

Solomon Northup is a name you may be familiar with. His memoir was made into an Oscar-Winning film, Twelve Years a Slave. Northup, who was born free in upstate New York but kidnapped and sold into slavery, wrote and published his memoir in 1853. Then, in 1857, he seems to disappear from historical records. Some thought he may have been kidnapped again, but his age at the time (around 50) made it unlikely. A Methodist minister in Vermont claimed to have worked with him in the early 1860’s, and last saw him in 1863. It’s assumed he died sometime between 1863 and 1864.

Elena Ferrante is a well-known author of more than 30 books, some of which have been made into movies or TV series, such as My Brilliant Friend. It’s also a pseudonym. Her true identity is a secret and almost nothing is known about her, except that she was born in Naples. In interviews, she claims it’s from shyness and fear of coming out of her shell. Speculation claims the author is actually Anita Raja, or her husband. Both people, and Ferrante’s publisher, deny it emphatically.

Antoine de St. Exupery is most famous for the timeless classic, The Little Prince, which was partly based on an airplane crash he and his navigator survived in the Libyan Desert. St. Exupery became a pilot in the 1920’s, joining the French Army, and later the French Air Force. Much of his writing has an aviation theme. When France was pulled into World War II, St. Exupery was assigned to reconnaissance missions, as an experienced pilot. On July 31, 1944, he left the airbase on Corsica in a Lockheed P-38, and was never heard from again. It wasn’t until 1998 – 54 years later, that a fisherman found a bracelet with his name on it. No one believed it, as it was some distance away from his intended flight plan. In 2000, a diver near the same area discovered wreckage of a Lockheed P-38. In 2003, the pieces were recovered and tested, proving indeed it was St. Exupery’s plane, downed in the war, though the details remain a mystery.

Ambrose Bierce was a short story writer and Civil War veteran, most famous for the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. His stories influenced Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway, and he is considered one of America’s best satirists. At the age of 71, he went on a trip to visit his old Civil War battlegrounds, crossed over into Mexico, and wound up joining Pancho Villa’s army, documenting the battles. His last letter is dated December 26, 1913. His secretary believed he threw himself into the Grand Canyon in a suicide move, but witnesses saw him in Chihuahua in January of 1914.  Mexican legend has it he was executed by a firing squad.  Either way, it’s a great story!

Jack Black is one rough figure- no, not the actor! A drifter and burglar born around 1871, his 1926 autobiography You Can’t Win described his life of crime on the road. Disenchanted with both “genteel” life and that of the judicial system, he spent 30 years as a traveling criminal (15 of which he spent in prison). The book was influential for William S. Burroughs, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Another odd fact: The author who helped him with his autobiography was none other than Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. You Can’t Win was adapted into a movie starring Michael Pitt and Jeremy Allen White, but has been in a liminal post-production stage for years. Black himself disappeared in 1932, and is believed to have committed suicide.

Returning to Barbara Newhall Follett’s story, there is something of a conclusion. After her disappearance, her husband didn’t report her missing for two weeks. The police eventually put out a bulletin – four months later. They used her married name, not her maiden name. A body was found, then determined not to be hers but a woman who had been missing years before. Thirteen years later, her mother insisted the police look harder, but nothing new was found. In 2019 – eighty years later – writer Daniel Mills proposed a theory that her body had been found in 1948, just not properly identified. The body had been found in New Hampshire – just a half mile from where she had a rental property and not terribly far from her home in Boston. The possessions found with the body were things Follett was known to have. The cause of death was barbiturate overdose, a substance Follett had taken before. The police in New Hampshire had no idea she’d been missing.

Authors, even the most famous ones, are still people, with the same dramas as everyone else. Does art imitate life, or does life create the art?

For books on “prodigies” who turn away from their potential, check out Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, or Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies by Ann Hulbert.