Hi ,

I took a couple of weekends break from the newsletter, I went to visit family and friends in the South of France, which was absolutely brilliant. It's a privilege to be able to get out of Paris and the throngs of heavily equipped riot gear policemen making sure average citizens are back home before enforced the 6pm curfew. It seems like the rules are going to change again next week, where we may stuck at home on the weekends in addition to the weekdays 6pm curfew.After conversations with my brother last week I began a new practice to read 20 minutes of a more complex or dense book first thing in the morning, so this week I replaced my previous habit of watching Youtube videos over breakfast to reading another book, in this case Surveiller et Punir (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison), by Michel Foucault.The book's aim is to study the shift moving from the kinds of torture and punishments preferred by legal systems (in France particularly, though he mentions a few other examples) up to the late 18th - early 19th century, to the emergence of the modern penitentiary system that arguably shifts forms of punishments to the soul. In our Teaching Tangents recording today, James asked me if I shared updates about the books I'm reading in the newsletter, which I'm not sure I do consistently, so I'll do that a little more often. I'm also reading:

• The Fool: His Social and Literary History, by Enid Welsford. A rich and fascinating piece of research from 1935; about the character of the fool across civilisations and history (the court jester, buffoon, fool, scape-goat, etc). I'm studying the figure and character. I believe there are interesting parallels with play, and I might have a related book idea.

• Criminal: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 2 by Ed Brubacker & Sean Phillips (graphic novel). I've had this sitting on my shelf since I moved to Paris, I'd read the first volume that I received as a gift from a friend years ago in Singapore, and bought the second volume before leaving Chicago. Winner of multiple awards, the series are standalone noir / thriller stories of, well criminals, as the title correctly indicates. 

Last but not least, the conversation I had with James on Teaching Tangents 3 weeks ago was brilliant. I recommend checking it out, we had a lot of fun with it. The question we discussed and answered was: "I feel like I've been 'asleep' for the most part of my life but I'm working on getting better at it but I'm afraid too much time has flown. How to think about this positively to feel 'lighter' and to move on?"I mentioned the Super Bowl in the last newsletter two weeks ago, I thought I'd add links about the ads in the newsletter but frankly I watched all the ads and I think they were dreadful. Not a single one was good enough to want to highlight for anyone. Don't waste your time, unless you somehow need to watch them because it's work related, like I did, but in that case you'll know where to find them.Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead!Cheers,Willem

 Weekly Combo Typically a mix of playful and strategy flavours. 

Waitrose Food & Drink Report 2021 (quick to browse, longer to read the full report)

I loved the whole book and recommend all the essays, but I thought the Lion and the Unicorn, by far the longest in the small book (and available to read for free online), is just awesome and worth sharing - though they all are. It was written 80 years ago month for month, in February 1941. George Orwell recounts and comments on all the events that led to the Second World War.His perspective is fascinating, and I found scary how easy it is to imagine replacing some military vocabulary with healthcare words (masks, vaccines, etc) and seem to be reading an account of what happened in crisis readiness (or arguably lack thereof) in 2020. The way he writes about England, the English, and the hopeful tone is beautiful. I recommend checking it out.Because I got into a bit of WWII mood, and the same events are described, I watched Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk a few days ago, followed by Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman as Churchill yesterday. Both great films, they're on Netflix, and the three together provide interesting viewpoints on the beginning of the Second World War in May 1940. I figure I may as well keep going with the theme and watch the 2020 De Gaulle biopic soon.