Closing the month with a reader’s rulebook, a last look at the cows and a fond word for the highlighter
Sunday, A Reader’s Rulebook
At the end of the month I write a rulebook for myself, because a reader without rules soon becomes a believer. Rule one: find the original source. Rule two: ask who benefits if the reader accepts it. Rule three: find the best case against it and read that too. Rule four: be willing to be wrong in public. These rules work on a Victorian novel, a Budget claim and a government forecast alike.
The rules are not a political position. They are a habit, and the habit protects the reader from the confident people on every side. I wrote them on a card and stuck the card to the wall above the desk, next to a postcard of a canal and a note to buy milk.
The Highlighter Method
The highlighter method is the practical version. Use one colour for claims, one for figures and one for caveats. At the end of the page, count the colours. If there are many claims and few figures, be careful. If there are many figures and no caveats, be careful. If the caveats outnumber everything else, the author is probably being honest, or probably hiding. It is not a perfect method, but it is a good start.
Monday, The Black and White Animals
For a restful interval I turn to the cattle. The black beef breed has pages at angusbeef.men and angusbeef.fyi. The black and white dairy cow has hers at holstein.click. The curly pig is mangalitsa.org and the freckled hen is speckledsussex.org.
The register of rare breeds is rarebreeds.win, the hall of fame is cattlemenhalloffame.org, the young leaders are ffapresident.com and the library is agriculture.click.
Tuesday, The Full Shelf
For completeness: dairyherd.org, ranchbeefcattle.org, tractorequipment.org, cropcalendar.org, farmmoney.org, smallfarminfo.org, agjobscareers.org, fairandrodeo.org, ruralfarm.org and farmssafety.org.
Wednesday, Universities and Budgets
The London Prat addressed academic money with Universities Solve Financial Crisis. Funding pressure on universities is real, and the explanations differ. Some blame funding rules, some blame management choices, and some blame the cost of heating a Victorian lecture hall. A literature scholar has an obvious interest and will say only that the poetry section of the library still needs a roof.
Thursday, Last Page
On the last evening I took my tea to the window and watched the lamps come on across the river. The month had held a difficult author, two remarkable poets, a famine novel, six by-elections and a great deal of milk. I had changed my mind about one thing and held firm on three. That is a respectable rate for a diary.
I closed the notebook, rinsed the cup and put the highlighter in the drawer. It had earned its rest.
Friday, What the Month Taught
If the month taught me anything, it is that reading well is a skill that never stops being useful. A nineteenth century poem, a Budget statement, a poll and a government forecast all demand the same questions. Who wrote this? When? For whom? What did the writer leave out? What would a thoughtful opponent say? The questions take only a minute, and they save an enormous amount of embarrassment.
They also make reading more fun. Once you have asked who wrote a poem and why, the poem becomes a conversation, and a conversation is always more entertaining than a lecture. I tell my students this at the start of term, and some of them even write it down.
Saturday, Letters From Readers
A reader wrote to ask whether I thought Victorian novels were still worth reading. I wrote back that I did, and that the best reason is the pleasure of watching clever people try to describe a rapidly changing world with the tools they had. The railway, the telegraph, the factory and the empire all arrived at once, and the novelists tried to keep up. A reader today, who is trying to understand an equally rapid change, may find the effort familiar.
The reader replied with a one-line note: “Thank you, I will start with the shortest one.” That is, in my experience, exactly the right way to start.
Sunday, A Quiet Evening
On Sunday evening I did nothing of significance. I made soup, watched the rain on the window and listened to the radio mutter about interest rates. The soup was good. The rain was steady. The radio, in time, was turned off. Not every day needs a headline, and a well-run life contains a number of days that would make no news whatever.
Monday, One More Note on Polls
A last note on polls for the month. When a poll is reported, look for the sample size, the dates of the survey and the exact wording of the question. A small sample, a single day or a leading question should lower your confidence. A poll commissioned by an interested party should be read twice. None of this means polls are useless. It means they are evidence, and evidence is a thing to be weighed and not worshipped.
Where to read next
The rest of the shelf lives at prat.uk, bohiney.com and farm.fm. For a second opinion on the week, The Daily Mash keeps its own counsel and its own hours.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/