Monday Melange, March 2022: Women’s History, The Arts, The War.

A collection of posts that caught my eye in the past month or so.

The invasion of Ukraine has been very much on my mind this month, as well as on the minds of others. There has been much discussion on the topic in the PiN household, as well as in the blogosphere.

March is also Women’s History month, and I found a number of entertaining and informative posts.

I also threw in some posts related to Art, because I really needed something uplifting to tide me over until Spring arrives.

And, on a blog where I write about money and medicine, how could I not include a few links on these topics?

I liked this post–by Jonathon Hollow by way of The Evidence-Based Investor–enough to send it to Mr. PiN: Money Lessons from the Ukraine Crisis. In brief, the two highlighted lessons: There’s much more to life than money, and the sheer power of money in international affairs.

More recently, The Investor at Monevator had plenty of opinions about Britain’s fuel use, in It’s time to stop paying and pacifying fuel users. It made me feel pretty good about our electric car.

Pocket brought this article from the BBC to my attention, likely in honor of women’s history month: Janet Sobel, the woman written out of history. I found it both inspirational, and sad. A middle aged woman (formerly a refugee from Ukraine) picking up painting when her children were no longer interested, and finding success. Then losing her success to follow her husband and his career. Lastly, losing her place in history to a guy whose name everyone knows. What really brought the poignancy home to me was her photo with Eleanor Roosevelt: Janet Sobel looks just like my great-aunts, who shared somewhat similar histories (without the artistic success).

Mr. PiN has never been a big fan of modern art or the unnamed fish artist. I sent him the BBC article, and he was reminded of Tom Wolfe’s, The Painted Word. We found an excerpt to introduce me to the work in this article , published shortly after the writer’s death in 2018.

Speaking of women being pushed aside for men, do you remember the tweets showing the difference between the setup for man and women in the NCAA tournaments last year? I am not a huge sports fan (really), but I couldn’t click by this article on the year that highlighted the differences between the way men and woman are treated in college basketball. The second article (the sequel), on the changes being made in 2022, was hopeful.

I spent a good part of a Sunday morning amazed at how the Internet can change my perception of art and art criticism for the better. This New York Times Interactive piece (paywall probable) about a poem inspired by artwork blew my (grew up in the ’70s and ’80s) mind. An essay on the poem in the far left column, with the poem, the art pieces that inspired it, on the right, with highlights of each popping up as one scrolls down the article. This would not have been done in print.

Here’s a post (from the Slate agony column Pay Dirt) that got me burning, and not in a happy FIRE-kind of way: My Husband Retired Early Without Saving Up–Or Consulting Me.

This article has been sitting in an open tab for weeks–maybe months. I think there are many lessons to learn from My Worst Financial Mistake Ever: Saving Money. But the main one is to make sure you invest your savings (maybe not all of them; I totally love my emergency fund).

I am pretty excited that Investing Doc is posting more often. He started an Internal Medicine private practice, and I find it so interesting to read about the challenges and rewards of running your own practice. Much in the vein of Jerome K. Jerome: I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. This post, however, is applicable to many more readers: Investments Most Doctors Get Wrong, Including Myself.

To return to medicine, I have been laughing my head off this tweet (video) on How To Speak Internal Medicine. Would it be wrong of me to play this before rounds?

I hope you enjoyed these links. Let me know if you have a favorite.