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If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format is different than the rest of the week. On Fridays, I take a pause to write the "Weekender," my "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! -- Dan

What I've Never Read

Hi!

This week, I wrote about Dracula -- you can find that link in the Week in Review, below -- and... wow, it was hard to write. The reason?

I've never read the Bram Stoke book. Or, for that matter, seen any of the movies based on the book. Or really had any other experience with the canonical Dracula from Stoker's imagination. The story I shared doesn't require having any previous knowledge of Stoker's masterpiece, but the whole point of that newsletter (uh, spoiler alert -- if you haven't read Monday's email yet, I'm about to ruin part of it for you) is that the Icelandic translation deviates significantly from Stoker's original. My plan was to show how the translation diverged from what it is ostensibly based on. But that proved really difficult! I figured I knew enough about Dracula -- vampire, the whole biting and bloodsucking, and uh... he doesn't have a reflection in the mirror, maybe? And that whole thing about garlic? It turns out, I didn't know all that much about Dracula after all.

If you re-read Monday's email with that in mind, you can probably tell I fudged the intro a bit, speaking about the character only in vague terms. At no point do I run through the differences in the books, because -- well, how was I supposed to do that?

I think I handled it fine, for what it's worth. But I have to admit, it took a good hour to write the first paragraph. At one point, I was so frustrated that I almost decided to keep the idea for later, read the book (or, to be honest, watch the movie), and then revisit it. But I didn't have anything else immediate to write about. I guess you make do with what you have.

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Translator That Sucked The Life Out of Dracula. See above. I really like the title of this one, by the way, even if it's unfair to the translator.

Tuesday: Ulysses Subtracting (Land) Grant?: A story about a town that moved. (You'll see.) A lot of you wrote in to tell me I wrote "1973" when I meant "1873." I appreciate the feedback, despite the volume of emails :)

Wednesday: Horse, Off-Course: Australia hosted an Olympic Games in 1956, but not all of it -- some of the Games happened half a world away. Here's why.

Thursday: You Can’t Eat Here (And Don’t Really Want to Anyway): It took me forever to come up with a title for one. I really didn't want to give away the punchline. I'm not going to here, either!

Some Other Newsletters to Check Out!

Here's a list of other email newsletters you should consider subscribing to. In the interest of full disclosure, these are paid placements -- the newsletters are paying me a small amount of money for each person who signs up.

Clean Plates: When you sign up for the Clean Plates newsletter, you'll receive delicious recipes, shopping guides, and expert advice right in your inbox for free. Their newsletter is trusted by over 500,000 readers to help them live a healthier lifestyle. That’s because they carefully research the science behind health trends, offer unbiased opinions on all the newest wellness products, and develop seriously good-for-you recipes that never sacrifice flavor.

The Breakthrough: It's "five minutes that could change your life." The Breakthrough is a simple and straightforward: you'll receive one idea, one question, and one exercise each week that could spark your next breakthrough. No fluff, no filler, no BS. Just five minutes each week that could change everything.

BookBub: Discover your next read -- and save money in the process! BookBub alerts millions of happy readers to free & discounted bestselling ebooks -- and some bestselling ebooks are available at up to 95% off!

1440: 1440 is the daily newsletter helping 2M+ Americans stay informed—it’s news without motives, edited to be unbiased as humanly possible. The team at 1440 scours over 100+ sources so you don't have to. Culture, science, sports, politics, business, and everything in between - in a five-minute read each morning, 100% free.

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And some other things you should check out:

Some long reads for the weekend:

1) "The little search engine that couldn’t" (The Verge, 15 minutes, July 2023). The subhead: "A couple of ex-Googlers set out to create the search engine of the future. They built something faster, simpler, and ad-free. So how come you’ve never heard of Neeva?" I'll not ruin the answer for you.

2) "Ingenious librarians" (Aeon, 11 minutes, June 2023). While we're on the subject of Google and web searching, this is the story of how librarians in the 1970s -- before the consumer Internet was more than a dream -- developed the proto-infrastructure (is that a term? It is now!) for how we scour deep pools of information to find the one thing we're looking for.

3) "What a yarn! Journalists are turning to crochet to tell data stories" (Neiman Lab, 8 minutes, August 2023). I don't think this is particularly insightful or deep, but it was fun to read! And it has nothing to do with web searching.

Have a great weekend!

Dan

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Now I Know - Now I Know: What I've Never Read

What I've Never Read

The Now I Know Week In Review

Some Other Newsletters to Check Out!

And some other things you should check out:

Older messages

Now I Know: You Can't Eat Here (And Don't Really Want to Anyway)

Now I Know: Horse, Off-Course

Now I Know: Ulysses Subtracting (Land) Grant?

Now I Know: The Translator That Sucked The Life Out of Dracula

Now I Know: Panda Dipolmacy

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