The Dawn Patrol

 Up and at them before church.

Probably not as much depth as I would have liked, but still learned Hittite was the first written Indo-European people: What’s Hidden in These Hittite Tablets Left Experts Stunned

Shakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in Stratford, letter fragment suggests | William Shakespeare (The Guardian). But what about that second-best bed?

I learned my spelling by rote learning. When I heard my nieces and nephews learning to spell by phonetics, I was appalled. How does phonetics solve this problem: which witch? Enough Is Enuf by Gabe Henry review – the battle to reform English spelling (The Guardian)

Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman review – why you should quit your job to make the world a better place (The Guardian)

But this story and others illustrate a tension that Bregman never quite resolves – and which perhaps doesn’t lend itself to resolution. His appeal is very much to the high-flyer, looking for a cause that will give the fullest moral satisfaction; and there are pages where some readers at least will be tempted to mutter about white saviourism. Yet he is also admirably realistic about the need to park one’s own desire for a certain kind of sainthood, to accept the need for ordinary self-care so as to avoid falling victim either to burnout or – worse – to one’s own mythology, and to remain clear about what measurable differences might look like – never mind whether they are as dramatic and global as you would have wished. Because the book is pitched so strongly towards the young and gifted, there is a lot of emphasis on achievement and satisfaction – but the book as a whole probes more deeply, aware of the risks of self-dramatising.

Seven Stories Press has Civic Self-Respect by Ralph Nader. I have never been a big fan of Nader; 2000 did nothing to improve my view of him being destructively7 idealistic. However, I can gladly8 agree with this:

This book explains why our educational system must include teaching the essentials of civic responsibility beyond its occupational or technical emphasis, because the emergence of public-mindedness is crucial for understanding the world and shaping civil societies.

Everybody's favorite Beatle closes out this morning's patrol:

 

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