Comfort books

Comfort food: food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal Meriam-Webster.com

Most of us have some "comfort" foods that we just need psychologically now and again. Mine are meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, chicken-noodle soup, and caramel rolls. But these dishes are specific to each person and often reflect the stuff one loved eating as a kid.

Every now and then, I also find I need "comfort" books* - books that I've read before and can relax in the re-reading of, knowing the plot and the characters.

Among my comfort books are Clavell's Shogun. The Godfather, The Hobbit, Michener's historical fiction, John D. McDonald's mysteries, and Renault's The King Must Die. I would add to this list McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series, Harry Bosch mysteries, and Dan Simon's science fiction. All are familiar old friends I revisit when I need to retreat from the new, the unknown, the challenging. Or just want to relax. Now in retirement, I find these even more enjoyable.

Just as each of us has unique comfort foods, I suspect we each have our own comfort reading materials. Religious texts, Shakespeare, comic books, children's literature or Mad magazine, it doesn't make much difference. We love them for the security they provide.

Those of us who have dealt with technology, educational change, and just a rapid pace of life in general need never apologize for seeking comfort experiences, be they food, literature, movies, video games, or vacation spots.

John Naisbitt in his old book Megatrends from the early 90s, suggested that the more technology one experienced, the greater one's need for human interactions. I wonder if the same theory holds for change: the greater the change we experience, the greater our need for the comfortable, the familiar, the old and loved?

What are your comfort books?

*In searching this term to see if was unique, I found that GoodReads actually has a category called "Comfort Books." So I am not alone.

What makes them think I need this?

On a far too frequent basis, I have been seeing the advertisement shown above as I read the newspaper online. In fact, I see it in both newspapers I read online - the Mankato Free Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Why?

What leads Google/Associated Press/National Advertising Council/Editorial Board of the Free Press or whatever determines what ads I see, think I have wax build up in my ears? And why, for goodness sake. do I need to see the nauseating photo of the stuff when I just want to read a simple news story? I get all the queasiness I can handle just reading about our politics.

I've not Googled "hearing loss" or "ear wax removal" or even "Q-tips," nor have I ordered any similar products from Amazon. I don't think think I pick at my ears while at my computer if I am being watched through its camera covertly. Might my children have been searching online for help for me on hearing or memory loss?

Facebook now and again displays interesting ad choices as well - women's clothing, baby toys, sporting goods for sports in which I have no interest. What makes FB think I am a cross-dressing new father who enjoys lacrosse?

Marketers, if you want to use my personal data to get me to buy, at least get it right.

BFTP: Test data - for kids or politicians?

When I go in for my annual physical every three or four years, the clinic collects a lot of data from me. Blood tests, EKGs, blood pressure, and polyp counts (butt let's not go there.) At the end of my exam, the clinic has a lot of potentially useful data.

So what if the hospital then took all those numbers, aggregated them with the numbers of other patients, and used the averages to evaluate:

• the quality of the clinic
• the quality of specific treatments
• the quality of the physician
• the quality of health care in the United States compared to other countries

but totally ignored what that elevated blood pressure might mean about my personal health?

Educators, is this how we are using the testing data we collect on students? Are we using it for everything but actually helping individual kids?

Until every student has an "educational health chart" used by a knowledgeable and caring teacher to individualize learning experiences, data is working for politicians, not kids, parents, or teachers.

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Original post 8/2/14