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kathleen.goodwin

monday memo 123: bonus tracks, planets & nyc

Welcome to the Monday Memo — your pop culture snapshot from Manifesto.


Hey friends, Mondays can be tough. Here are 7 things to make March 27th, 2023, a bit better.

 


1. Artist of the Week: Lilith Noah

Lilith Noah is a young poet, artist, and writer from Vienna, Austria. Much of her work has a found quality, handwritten pieces of her deepest emotional thoughts and feelings. Just like all great art, it's raw and challenging, making us think about our own place in the world.

 

2. What we're listening to: All of the Girls by Taylor Swift

In honor of her record-breaking The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has gifted us with four previously-unreleased tracks. While fans received 3 songs that were re-released (Taylor's Version), we also received a vault track from her album Lover. "All of the Girls" is a song about celebrating the security in your relationship, knowing that everything that has come before has made us who we are meant to be.

 

3. What we're watching: Survivor - Paramount+

While reality TV can get a bad rap, this series has some of the best characters, twists, and strategy plays of all time. Now, we know it's not novel to suggest a show that has been on for 43 seasons and 23 years, but with the entire catalog added to Paramount+, there has been a large group of people who are watching it for the first time. Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Out watch.

 



4. Trend & Advertising Highlight: We (don't) heart the NYC logo We don't want to say we manifested this (wink), but after we wrote about the status quo bias, a real-life example fell right into our laps. In 1977, artist Milton Glaser pitched "I heart NY," and it has since become one of the most widely recognized and imitated images in the world. Well, until last week when the new “WE heart NYC” was announced. According to a press release, the new logo is meant to represent “a community driven by ‘we’ not ‘me’ and is diverse, universal and inclusive, appealing to all age groups and ethnicities.” The new logo was immediately trashed online for its bold typeface and strange placement of the heart. Believe it or not, we think we know why this flopped. When dealing with iconic logos and branding, it should always be an evolution instead of a redesign. There were ways to move this iconic symbol into the future with subtle changes that still honor and call back to its original mark. As well, the mark is a complete misunderstanding of its audience. New Yorkers are known for their rugged individuality, with the one uniting factor being their love for the city. By taking away the "I" they took away the personal ownership over that love. We see what they were trying to do, but we hope they go back and create something that more closely plays homage to the original.


 

5. Cognitive Bias of the Week: Native Allocation Naive allocation, otherwise known as naive diversification, or the diversification bias, refers to our tendency to equally divide our resources among the options available to us, regardless of whether the options themselves can be considered equal. With all the news of bank collapses and stock market volatility, we thought this would be an appropriate topic for this week. In this case, people tend to invest equivalent sums of money in various investment options. Importantly, this decision is made based on instinct, rather than through the use of mathematical models. While it would be nice to think that trusting our instincts can make us rich, this bias can also be used against us. Because our reliance on naive allocation can be influenced by the way certain options are presented to us, we may be heavily influenced by the possibilities offered to us by a stockbroker. It can be tempting to just “go with our gut” when faced with a decision, but it’s often more effective to put in the work to come to a conclusion based on logic and reason. We can become better decision-makers by slowing down and taking a rational approach to the choices that come our way.

 

Pediatricians with Reach Out and Read participate in a literacy event in Cleveland. 6. Good News of the Week:

  • To address the health impacts of illiteracy, a nonprofit helps doctors distribute millions of books to children at check-ups (Ideastream)

  • Ohio fifth graders respond to cruelty with Kindness Club (FMN)

  • Minnesota’s governor just signed a universal school meals bill into law, giving free breakfast and lunch to all students (MPR News)

  • Dog with lopsided face finds loving family who drove more than 2,500 miles to save him (TODAY)


 



7. Bonus: 5 Planets and Moon Set to Align to Form ‘Planet Parade’ Late March—Here’s What You Need to Know As we cross the threshold from winter into spring 2023, five planets—Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Mars—plus the quarter moon are set to align on March 28 (tomorrow!), forming an imperfect arc from low on the western horizon, heavenward toward the southwest. Be sure to check out this out-of-this-world view of the sky!


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