As in the NYT article The Man who Knew Too Little, I continue to work on my news/politics blockade. After all, what’s the point of stewing in all the depressing national and international news when you can do nothing about it? Better, I think, to think of other things and to do what little you can, where you can.

Along with poetry, model boat building provides plenty of food for thought: what materials, tools, techniques, procedures, and sequences are needed, and what’s the plan for when mistakes are made? In other words, what are you going to do next and how are you going to do it, and how do you recover when you do it wrong?

Just thinking about all this leaves little room for any negative crap.