Bad Ideas, Blue Collars, and Black Holes
Good afternoon, and welcome to another issue of The Jumpstack! This week, we’re doing the best we can in the shortest amount of moves. Let’s jump in!
Mr. Big Shot
I’ve heard from readers that some of you will save long form stories from The Jumpstack for your commute home, as a way to unwind. I’m quite pleased about this: it’s an honour to be included the daily transition from workplace to residence.
So, this week, try this astounding story by Michael Lista, which reads like the plot of a heartbreaking, previously undiscovered Tragically Hip song:
What starts off as a cold case murder of young mother almost 50 years ago suddenly transforms into an absurd nightmare orchestrated by cops:
To develop their fiction in the Alan Dale Smith sting, the detectives relied on fact: Alan’s psychiatric history. They mined his imagination and weaponized its vulnerabilities. They focused on his love of fishing, his loneliness, his longing for a real friend. A plot was taking shape. They called their production Project Fearless, and Detective Sergeant Leon Lynch, who’d taken over Beverly’s file in 2003, would oversee the whole thing. Given the macabre drama that was about to unfold, you couldn’t make up a better last name for a showrunner.
I can’t tell what’s more disturbing: the lengths to which the police would go to continue the pointless and torturous charade, or that there’s an untold number of operations like this going on right now in this country against unwitting individuals. Surely, in the pursuit of justice, the ends do not justify such unethical, immoral, and, hopefully one day, illegal means.
This charming man
Need a palate cleanser after that last story? How about this lovely profile of author Bud Smith by Gareth Watkins, which reads like a bear hug:
Is it because the image of him eating his lunch, while thumbing out stories on his phone, is so different from how writers usually portray their labour? Is it because he seems unbothered by not following the conventional path to literary success? Maybe it is because his perspective is divinely pragmatic:
Smith has a similarly unpretentious attitude toward work: “Being in a society is work. Being in a family is work. If you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded because you’ll grow as a person. If you avoid the work, you’ll always stay the same, and you’ll be cheating yourself.”
I think it’s because, by example, he obliterates excuses for not writing, and I’m entranced, because I am a font of excuses for not writing.
I’m looking forward to reading more of him.
Out of the blue
A town that paints the ceilings of the porches a specific shade of blue. A technique and a trade abducted from Africa, enslaved in America, and now reclaimed by the descendants of survivors of the slave trade. This is a story of indigo:
In this stunning article by Shoshi Parks, we’re brought to Beaufort County, South Carolina, to discover the fascinating history of an industry that was a casualty not of the Civil War, but of the War of Independence:
South Carolina’s indigo production came to an abrupt halt at the end of the Revolutionary War. “The people in South Carolina were producing indigo exclusively for the British market,” says Lance. “So when [the United States] was no longer a British colony, they no longer had that market anymore.”
Parks introduces us to the practices and people for whom indigo is uniquely tied with their history, spirituality, and community. As modern corporations profit from the traditions of the Lowcountry, and outsiders seek to learn the processes for their own means, the descendants of the enslaved are reclaiming the trade on their own terms. Dive in to this lovingly researched article and see the colour blue in a different way.
How to steal energy from a monster
January hasn’t been kind to my family. After the loss of our cat, my grandmother died a week later. A couple of days after that, we were informed my son will have surgery this week, which was a surprise for everyone involved. I can only hope that this is the year getting all the miserable stuff out of the way of the good fortune just around the corner: to be honest, that is my current operating premise. Based on world events, I suspect I am not alone in that hope.
Since my son is home as a precaution against catching a cold that could cause problems for his procedure (schools are hives of flu at the moment) this means I’m a captive audience for every video he wants to share with me. I don’t mind, he has great taste, and this is a phenomenal explanation of a theory completely new to me:
I’m the one getting an education on ergospheres, and the concept of a ringularity, as my kid leads his own personal Space Rocks for Jocks homeschool. I remember the solar system placemat he had as a toddler, and acknowledge this is my fault. The Kurzgesagt in a Nutshell videos are family-friendly explainers, and while it can be tempting to binge watch, take your time: too much, and your brain will feel like it’s collapsing on itself.
With all the upheaval, disaster, and tragedy in the world, the idea of life finding a way to survive in a darkened universe is a welcome one: that ingenuity and adaptability in the face of apathetic fate is the way we endure, and always have.
At least for now, the stars still shine, and so do we.
And that’s it for The Jumpstack this week! If you liked it, how about hitting that heart over there? Thanks for reading!
— Jump