The Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 23
Helping you zoom out from it all ... and further out ... and further out still ... there y'go
Hello, you. How’re you doing?
I’ve got a bunch of good stuff for you to read that I hope will keep you entertained and occupied through until at least lunchtime. Put the kettle on and some bread in the toaster, and get stuck in?
But first: why not become a member of the Hello You family by subscribing, if you haven’t already? Pull up a chair to the Hello You virtual kitchen table:
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Starting off, as usual, with …
Something to listen to while you read
The Beat: March of the Swivelheads. 12" dub version of the track from the album Special Beat Service
What went right this week
A plan was hatched to create England’s biggest bird sanctuary, and publishers took a stand against censorship, plus more good news from the good people at Positive News
OK then, on with the Good Stuff!
Gen X women are having the best sex
Your assignment: Care out loud
Modern Languages degrees at risk in UK unis
Video games can be an antidote to stress and anxiety. Shame I'm so rubbish at them, then! Fantastic design on this piece from Reuters
A mindful hobby could help you break your after-work ‘doomscrolling’ habit
Ozzy Osbourne, dark prince of old-time singing traditions
Birmingham is not just heavy metal
Cyclist builds 700-person network of volunteers, leads bike drives to deliver donations to London's homeless people
Urgent action needed to protect Gen Z from false information online
'There is not a single user asking for more, cheaper content. They want connection, collaboration and care' - Hello? Anyone (still) listening?
Soon, I’ll return to sitting on benches in Shropshire, recording random conversations with whomsoever sits alongside me, and sharing those conversations with you on Hello You, the Shropshire podcast. But where should I go?
If you can think of a bench in a public location in Shropshire where people might stop and have a chat with me, let me know where that bench is?
It might be a bench on a street, in a park, at an event or a special attraction. It might not even be a bench, just a spot or a monument or somewhere people gather. Tell me about it, and I’ll go along to record whoever’s there. All suggestions welcome!
‘“You are still that person,” she replied. “You are just ill"’
Meat and dairy’s methane emissions must be on the table
Station of despair: What to do if you get stuck at the end of Tokyo’s Chuo Rapid Line (I actually dreamed about being stuck at the end of a train line last night …)
In which the eccentric genius who is Ordinary Sausage attempts to recreate a Chicago tradition. It doesn't go well. I laughed more than was decent
Why can we be such terrible allies?
Roasting powerful men is not just a hobby, it’s a public service
More of the good stuff in a moment, but first …
Hello You 85: Paths, Power Cuts, Pantomimes
... and a Place of Welcome, all alongside the River Severn in Buildwas
Shropshire is a welcoming place … and it’s also home to many Places of Welcome.
Places of Welcome is a national network of more than six hundred local spaces, each offering an unconditional welcome to local people to meet for few hours each week. They’re places where everyone can go for a friendly face, a cup of tea and a conversation if and when they need it. Places where all people can feel safe to connect, belong and get involved.
I visited a Place of Welcome last year in Hello You 28: Margaret’s Monocle and other stories from Harlescott and Sundorne, Shrewsbury. Ever since, I’ve wanted to drop in on other places in the network, and when I heard the story about why Buildwas’ Place of Welcome had been forced to relocate, I decided to take myself off there. Hear some of what happened in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast!
Hello You is about people, stories and ‘the complexities of life’. To make sure you don’t miss anything, whether it’s an episode of the Hello You podcast or the Sunday Supplement, why not subscribe? If you really love what I do, you can take out a paid subscription (and I’d be very happy and grateful) but you don’t have to. Hello You will remain free for everyone, for ever. You might just help keep it - and me - going, though
OK, back to your weekly good-stuff round-up!
Info sources, messaging & actions (after reading this, I'm now on Signal)
A UK national disgrace
‘We should be grateful and thankful that forums like Substack exist … Imagine where we’d be without them’
How to protect democracies from falsehoods
‘Our job is to be truthful not neutral’
'Star Trek' and the Gene Roddenberry problem
Who knew cyber-farting was a criminal offence?
John Coltrane's Love is still Supreme at sixty
Here's a fun game: Guess the price of a new Middle-of-Lidl product each day
If you read one thing this week, make it this
The importance of public media
Final Thought, à la Jerry Springer
"All they will call you will be deportees..."
77 years ago Woody Guthrie penned "Plane Crash at Los Gatos" (aka. Deportee), six days after a plane crashed that was carrying twenty-eight Mexican nationals home. When the newspapers reported the story, they only named the American crew, the other passengers were simply called "deportees".
This is the first version of the song Guthrie wrote in response:
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting, the oranges piled in their creosote dumps They’re flying ‘em back to the Mexican border to pay all their money to wade back again Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane, all they will call you will be ‘deportees’
How was that for you?
I hope you enjoyed the Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 23. If you have thoughts, questions, suggestions, whatever then leave a comment
I’m always glad to hear from you
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Thank you for being there
Take care of yourself, and take care of the people around you. I hope they’re taking care of you, too
