I really appreciate getting these shoutouts, and I agree that inserting discussions into certain sections of the book is the way to go.

Not since I was a kid. There definitely weren't any when I went for a dip, which was like bathing in melted snow by the way.

No worries, glad it arrived there safely!

Yep, doesn't have to be perfect, just put the pen against paper and move it around, and once it's done stick it in a mailbox. I'm treating it like a writing assignment and sending out one a month regardless of whether I get replies or not, since regularity is good for me. Second batch is on its way!

Happy to see this happening.

I recommend playing as the Flâneur in Paris.

I am interested in connecting with more than one pen pal.

Ditto.

Dear Diary, Today lil followed me! It was the best day ever! Love, Lou (except instead of typed lines, it's the usual tangled scrawl)

I would also love multi-pen-pals.

Please sign me up for this. Though I should warn you, I've been journaling for 9 years and sometimes there's no cure for bad handwriting!

Well, now I'm in the mood to board game. And take a train across Europe.

It is an interesting and well-thought out essay, but while I emphatically agree with the second passage you quoted, I question what it means in the first one for those in the Middle Ages to have "known" where they came from, were going, and why. Can we call this "knowledge" true? He makes statements that their worldview was ordered and comprehensible, and that the inflow of information from the printing press muddled and unraveled things. I say that it is vital to be able to filter all the input we get today, but having a limited amount of input is not the same thing. He says, "there was a scarcity of information but its very scarcity made it both important and usable." So regardless of what the information was, it had value. I don't like that. Information needs to stand on its own merits, or be filtered out. He states that Galileo and Kepler disturbed folks' faith concerning their place in the universe with the heliocentric model. They also revealed truth to us.

Absolutely. And thank for pointing out that comic!

This is what I prefer the internet for. It makes a great seasoning, but not a great meal. When I've let myself binge in the past, I've regretted it. But that could be just me. And technology aside, I think it is a natural-but-regrettable process to lose the wonder of a familiar place. As if we've seen all they have to offer! I'm gonna go take a walk. P.S. Just last month a friend of mine convinced a few people that Christmas Carols were invented by a woman named Carol. He has an excellent poker face.

It takes all kinds to make a world, and while I put more merit on time with people and nature (and food and books and music and architecture and ...), there are others who sincerely prefer time spent on tweets and likes. May it bring them happiness. But I pray that there is at least one person in their lives that they can turn off "ant autopilot" and be human with.

P.S. How accurate is the board game Ticket to Ride?

I am amazed that I can access even the most trivial knowledge in a heartbeat. And I am amazed that I can reach and talk to anyone in the known world, regardless of the distance. But I also believe that there are some things out there that technology can't teach us. And that there are some things that we can only learn about people by being wholly with them. So what I'm ultimately saying is that you are definitely using your phone the right way. I'm just sorry for the people using them the wrong way.

I think you've nailed the problem right there.

Now that I think about it, maybe it's just that I want to live in Italy, where strangers are comfortable talking to strangers.