Lydia Likes It

Letters Against Isolation

Never say that nothing good came out of the pandemic. Letters Against Isolation might never have been born had Saffron and Shreya Patel, two high-school-age sisters from Newton, Massachusetts, not decided to write letters to their self-isolating grandmother to alleviate her loneliness and lift her spirits. They also reached out to a local care home to ask if residents might like to receive letters, and the rest, as you might expect, is history. Since April 2020, more than 21,000 LAI volunteers have sent more than 250,000 handwritten letters to 17,500 seniors around the world, in assisted living, nursing homes, independent senior living, memory care, and through senior centers and Meals on Wheels. It's incredibly easy to sign up, and you can choose where and how many letters to send. I try to write one or two short letters every few weeks; I hope the recipients enjoy photos of my cat and my baby grandson, along with news of life in Boston. Letters Against Isolation is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and the two founders have some adult help organizing volunteers and fielding questions. Really, though, LAI is just a good idea, well done, and it's a program that's sure to outlive Covid.

Joseph Palmer, bearded man

Atlas Obscura has introduced me to some surprising and wonderful people, places and things that I never would have discovered on my own. Recently, my husband and I made the acquaintance of Joseph Palmer, a 19th Century farmer who resides in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster, Massachusetts. The Atlas Obscura write-up is so perfect that I'm sharing it with you here, word-for-exquisite-word: 

"Despite the conception that the past was a hairy wonderland of bearded outdoorsmen, bushy facial hair was long considered the mark of lunatics or worse, heretics. Today there is a Massachusetts gravestone that still remembers one man’s heroic fight against the forces of anti-hirsute vigilantes and a whole town’s persecution against his epic mane.   

"A veteran of the War of 1812, Joseph Palmer began wearing a beard in the 1820s. Beards had gone out of style in the 1720s, and Palmer was considered by most all in his small town to be slovenly and ungodly. He was even criticized by his local preacher for communing with the devil, famously responding to the accusation, “…if I remember correctly, Jesus wore a beard not unlike mine.”

"In May of 1830, Palmer was attacked by four men outside a hotel in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Armed with razors and scissors, the men attempted to forcibly shave Palmer’s face, but the bewhiskered man stabbed two of his attackers with a pocketknife, and was subsequently arrested for assault. He could have avoided jail by paying a fine and court fees, but Palmer refused, maintaining his innocence, and more importantly his right to a glorious beard. He was subsequently jailed for 15 months, including time in solitary confinement.

"Upon leaving prison, Palmer joined the Fruitlands utopian community in nearby Harvard, Massachusetts after being influenced by his friendship with fellow Fruitlander, Louisa May Alcott. The character Moses White from Alcott’s Transcendental Wild Oats is later based on Palmer. Palmer died in 1865 and his tombstone displays a portrait of him with a long beard, and as a final act of rebellion, the inscription Persecuted for wearing the beard."

Book Junkie Bingo

How does your book group get warmed up? One of my groups has fallen gleefully under the spell of Book Junkie Bingo. There are more than 750 book-related bingo sets on their list, including very up-to-the-minute choices, and with a few weeks' notice, they will generate one for any book. You order by the number of people in your group, and you'll get a kit that includes bingo boards, questions, and little plastic playing pieces (though your own beans or coins will work just as well if your cat decides to scatter the plastic disks all over the room). The games go quickly and provide a great review of the main themes and characters in the book. When you're finished, you're ready to launch into your book group discussion. For less than $20, it's a fun way to get everyone in the mood. In our group, one person orders the bingo set, someone else brings wine, and others bring the snacks.

Freedom

If you haven't seen this video that won a 2022 Grammy for Best Music Video, let's fix that right now. Jon Batiste's Freedom makes you want to sing, dance, and woohoo all day. Filmed in his home town of New Orleans, the video is sure to become a classic. Laissez le bon temps rouler!

Heather Cox Richardson, historian

"What's past is prologue," Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, and how right he was. By reading and learning about our history, we begin to understand why today is happening. Heather Cox Richardson, a professor of American history at Boston College, writes her daily Letters from an American to set the events of the day in context and connect the dots between past and present. It's my first read every morning, before I tackle the newspapers. Subscriptions are free, and if you want more, she also has a weekly podcast, Now and Then, on Tuesdays.