Moderation

Salutations, Earthlings!

I hope this week’s essay finds you well.  I suspect that we have just wrapped up the peak Fall in Ohio, in terms of warm temperatures and vibrant foliage.  “Warm Fall” is over, making way for “Brisk Fall.”  It's time to shift to soup-making, stews and warm beverages.  It's hard to believe that our last day for the outdoor version of the Granville Farmer’s Market wrapped up this weekend - with the grass still green, no meaningful frost having yet touched area plants.  Starting next week, an indoor version of the market starts at the Universal Church of Granville Annex Building, 9:30am - 12noon on Saturdays.  It looks like our first hard frost arrives this coming Tuesday, the very last day of October.

Friday marked the one year anniversary of Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform Twitter (now renamed “X”).  From my vantage point, it seemed like Musk made his purchase offer on a lark.  Then Twitter’s board called his bluff, forcing the sale even after he had second thoughts.  Given that he was leading the world’s most disruptive and successful electric car company AND the world’s most disruptive space transport business, taking on this additional responsibility seemed to be something of a lower-priority distraction.  But he took it on, and I had high hopes that it would result in significant improvements to Twitter and its role as a real-time digital public square of sorts.  

Thus far, those high hopes have not been realized.  The quality of my personal feed has dropped rather dramatically, with many of my favorite “follows” abandoning the platform.  Since it is now a private enterprise, the key metrics of the platform are no longer made public.  Outside observers make a strong case that they have moved in the wrong direction.  Hopefully efforts in the year ahead reverse the company’s trajectory.

In this week’s edition of On Being, computer scientist and professor Latanya Sweeney talks about the challenges of moderating online content at a global scale.  We haven’t yet figured out how to screen out misinformation, disinformation, and garbage content spawned by “bots” and the like.  This is a key challenge that must be overcome before humanity can get on the same page and have a more productive dialog in the "digital commons," I believe.  As we head into another U.S. presidential election cycle, I encourage you to be mindful of the questionable nature of much online content and its sourcing.  

On a different front, moderation appears to be gaining ground.  I saw a report this past week that non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirit sales have jumped 32% this year.  This appears to be reflective of consumers’ desire to be more moderate in their consumption of alcohol.  Sales of this category over the last fifty-two weeks total $524.3 million - a drop in the ocean when compared to total beer/wine/spirit sales across the same timespan of $67.6 billion (growing just 1% this year).

94% of those purchasing non-alcoholic beverages are also purchasing alcohol.  So it appears that the new “pro move” when it comes to socializing is to mix in some non-alcoholic drinks along with alcohol in order to better enjoy time spent at gatherings (and reduce/eliminate the hangovers that come with overindulgence).

This is something to keep in mind as the holidays approach.  My own sampling of non-alcoholic alternatives has been very fruitful - when socializing, I still get to sip away and chat, safe in the knowledge that my sleep won’t be disrupted and I’ll be higher-functioning tomorrow than I otherwise might be.

Sunday Supper
I cook this Texas-Style Chili once or twice a year.  I like the meaty texture provided by cubed ground chuck rather than ground beef. Dried chiles and unsweetened chocolate to give it a totally different character than what we are accustomed to here in the Midwest.  This Fall Harvest Salad is a great complement to the chili.

Sunday Music
This week I am pleased to introduce you to Gregory Alan Isakov, a Colorado farmer-musician (possibly musician-farmer…either way, an interesting hyphenate).  This performance and interview is a wonderful way to spend some time this Sunday morning.  Enjoy!

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Neal