What We're Reading: December 2024

For the last installment for the year of recommended articles from the staff at the Magazines and Newspapers Center, we have two articles from the blockbuster Christmas Day issue of the Los Angeles Times (which one librarian read in full at a California airport that day), as well as a couple fun articles, one investigating the secret language between plants and insects, and another that's a big old throwback to the hippie counter culture of the late 60s and early 70s. Enjoy and best wishes for the New Year! 

__________________________________

When They Hear Plants Crying, Moths Make a Decision

New York Times, December 6, 2024 

Insects, specifically a moth called the Egyptian cotton leafworm, are proven to use a secret language to understand messages from plants. This study shows that the moths heed the mournful clicking noise plants are known to make when in distress, and avoid laying their eggs on such plants. File this one under "more things humans don't know just because we can't hear some sounds." Reminder: you can get access to the New York Times several ways through SFPL.

__________________________________ 

Trump Starts to Walk Back Promises; After Casting Himself As a Problem Solver, the President-elect Is Throwing in Caveats

Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2024

Try not to do a big round of "told ya so" when reading this article. For those of us curious from a media studies perspective of how Trump has been covered in the news, this article is evidence of papers not doing enough before the election to show the doubtful side of Trump, perhaps, but delighting in exposing his rhetoric and claims now that the deal is done. Journalist Kevin Rector tracks specific promises made by Trump on the campaign trail that the president-elect is now walking back in order to "manage expectations." The piece explores the rhetorical moves utilized by Trump and puts them in historical context of past presidents' practice of elocution, while explaining why voters tend to believe Trump based on the promises he has made good on.

 __________________________________

Is Wells Fargo's move a bad sign for state? San Francisco bank's shift to leased offices may be the latest evidence of sector's drift from California.

Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2024 

 

With the safety of distance, the Times' Darmiento examines the history of the financial industry in San Francisco and what Wells Fargo's selling of its property at 420 Montgomery could signal for our downtown recovery. While the financial sector was an industry propping up white collar workers in the City alongside the boom and bust tech industry over the past 30 years, apparently that grandeur started fading away in the 1990s, and Wells Fargo, being helmed from New York City currently, could put the final stake in the coffin. In terms of the Los Angeles Times, the entire Christmas Day issue was captivating; we encourage you to check it out on ProQuest. 

 

 __________________________________

For What It's Worth

San Francisco Good Times, July 10, 1969

Early Greil Marcus offers a retrospective of Neil Young as the musician was transitioning from "old Neil Young" to a new chapter of joining Crosby, Stills and Nash. Marcus's landmark book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock n Roll Music would come out 6 years later. Marcus wrote regularly for this counterculture newspaper published in San Francisco from 1969-1972. Now anyone in the world can delight in a total flashback to San Francisco 55 years ago by reading Good Times in Independent Voices from Reveal Digital, an open access collection hosted on the JSTOR platform. All the titles from the collection will now appear in Periodical Finder, scanned at high-resolution and full text searchable. If you crave feeling that brittle newsprint under the tips of your fingers, the San Francisco History Center has some issues of the paper in its collection as well.