Curations from the Human Jungle
[I'm not big on Royal Family watching, but I've always bought the myth about Victoria's great love of Albert. According to author Goodwin, however, things may have not been as they were seen. Or maybe a contemporary phrase such as "coercive control" did not exist at that time. SB SM] https://daisygoodwin.substack.com/p/did-prince-albert-gaslight-queen Was Queen Victoria the... Continue Reading →
[Flamenco reaches deep into not the soul, but the gut. Somehow, while embracing the most cultured expressions of civilization in its costuming and presentation, it reaches back to a primitive part of our nature that pre-dates language and agriculture. This particular performance eschews stage lighting and elaborate costuming to the more gritty backdrop of the... Continue Reading →
Before we get to today's post, let's share the video that Silverbelle Mary Bernadette sent after reading yesterday's piece on mechanical bulls. She notes: "I lasted a full minute. I would have been able to hang on longer if they didn’t put that slippery Mexican blanket on his back - very sneaky. Next time I... Continue Reading →
[This is a completely useless skillset in The Jungle, but we post for all the Tejanos out there. SB SM] https://texashighways.com/culture/grab-the-mechanical-bull-by-the-horns How to Texas This might be the closest you'll ever get to the rodeo arena—you'd better hold on tight By Cat Cardenas February 11, 2026 The first thing you should know about riding a mechanical... Continue Reading →
[This article is too long for the attention-span of the average ape, but as we know, Silverbacks are not your average apes. When I was a book publisher at Chelsea Green we specialized in "book for sustainable living." Internally we had a category of titles that we called "things-that-we-forgot," referring to subjects like organic gardening... Continue Reading →
Timeline: 1966: I graduate from high school, where we are admonished to "accept with the left and shake with the right" when receiving our diploma or an award. 1986: Invited back to my high school as a featured presenter on Career Day I invoke the phrase as a tongue-in-cheek example of something I will always... Continue Reading →
[For next week I will ask AI to provide 26 Useful Concepts for 2026. Then we can decide if Gurwinder should quit his day job. SB SM] Gurwinder https://www.gurwinder.blog Dec 28, 2025 We’ve entered the Age of Slop, and are adrift in an ocean of thoughtless content that’s diluted all truth and meaning. And yet,... Continue Reading →
[I hope yesterday's post is fresh in your mind, because today's won't make as much sense otherwise. Storytelling seems to be on the front burner these days. By the way, I've deliberately left in the AI-generated typos on today's feature image. Struck me as appropriate. SB SM] Today's selection-- from A Hero's Delusion by Wendell Wellman. Techniques in... Continue Reading →
[I recently used the term "The Hero's Journey" in a conversation. I was asked to explain further, which I did, but not in a way that I considered coherent or comprehensive, so I gave Gemini (Google's AI model) a shot: SB SM] I asked: Give me a 750 word essay that explains The Hero's Journey... Continue Reading →
Couldn't resist: