Notes (2026-10)

"Cover Charge"

A cover charge is a fee paid at the door of a bar, club, or entertainment venue, while an entry fee is a general admission charge to enter a space or event.

• Cover Charge: Often tied to live music, a DJ, or special entertainment, and it is sometimes fully or partially redeemable toward food and drinks inside.

• Entry Fee (or Admission Fee): A straightforward flat charge for admittance alone that does not convert into or get deducted from your food and drink tab.

Origin & How It Evolved:

The term "cover" comes from the 19th-century French restaurant practice of couvert, which originally referred to the complete table setting (including the tablecloth, napkin, cutlery, and bread) provided to a diner. Restaurants began charging a small, flat couvert fee to prevent customers from taking up valuable table space while only ordering a cheap drink or a single small item.

• The Cutlery Charge: In French dining (le couvert), the fee literally covered the cost of washing the linens and setting the physical cutlery on the table.

• The Bread & Butter Fee: Over time, European and American restaurants bundled a small fee for the "free" bread, butter, and water into this couvert charge.

• The Entertainment Tax: In the early 20th century, American speakeasies, supper clubs, and jazz joints adapted the term. They started charging a "cover" at the door not for the table setting, but to pay for the live musicians, dancers, or DJs performing inside.

"Before I hated my father, I loved him"

A central emotional sentiment and recurring theme in Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir The Chronology of Water (and its film adaptation directed by Kristen Stewart), capturing the complex, fractured evolution of trauma, memory, and familial attachment.

• More Quotes

Mono (disease)

Infectious Mononucleosis ("mono" or glandular fever) is a contagious viral illness most commonly caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Main Causes and Transmission:

• Primary Cause: The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a member of the herpesvirus family.

• Other Causes: Less frequently, cytomegalovirus (CMV), toxoplasmosis, or other viral infections can trigger similar symptoms.

• How It Spreads: Spread primarily through saliva, earning it the nickname "the kissing disease". It also transmits via shared utensils, drinking glasses, toothbrushes, or droplets from coughs and sneezes.

"It's not all men, but it's always a man."

• A sociopolitical slogan used in discussions surrounding gender-based violence, sexual assault, and systemic misogyny.

"They don't want information, they need courage."

"When someone asks for advice, it is actually a request for permission. They don't want information. They want a short-term loan on courage."

"Only the dead have seen the end of war"

• This is a famous aphorism written by the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. It first appeared in his 1922 book Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies.

• The line is widely misattributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, a mistake popularised by its inclusion at the beginning of Ridley Scott's 2001 film Black Hawk Down and in various video games like Call of Duty.

Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI)

• Recursive self-improvement (RSI) occurs when an artificial intelligence system actively contributes to designing, training, or engineering its own more capable successor.

"There is no point. It's all vanity. It's the vanity of vanities. Everything we do is in vain. It accomplishes nothing. I got nowhere by the people I loved, the work I did. It was all for nothing. The race is not always to the swift. The fastest person doesn't necessarily win, or the battle is not to the strong. In other words, people don't get what they deserve. Life is unfair. Time and chance happen to them all."

• Steven Strogatz, a professor of mathematics at Cornell University

Death of the Last Parent

The day your last parent dies, you don't just lose them. You lose one of the only people on Earth who remembers your entire story. Nobody prepares you for that. Nobody prepares you for wanting to ask a question that only they can answer. And nobody prepares you for how complicated grief becomes, especially if the relationship wasn't perfect.

When a parent dies, you might grieve the relationship you had. You may also grieve the relationship you never had. You regret the questions you didn't ask, apologies you never received, or made - and the words that you never said.

It is what makes losing a parent so complicated. There probably is no correct way to grieve a dead parent. If your parents are still alive and your relationship is safe, ask those questions now. Listen to their stories, write down the names, dates, and recipes, and memories that will disappear when they do.

Say what needs to be said. The day your last parent dies, part of your history dies with them.

A Great Mother (according to Carl Jung)

Here's how you know somebody has a great mother and it comes from the psychologist Carl Jung who argued that the greatest gift a mother can ever give is not love, it's the ability to stand alone and what he meant is that most people believe that a great mother is one who gives endlessly her time, her comfort, her sacrifice but Jung argued the opposite. A great mother is one who slowly and deliberately makes herself unnecessary. The person with a great mother doesn't fall apart when life gets hard. They know how to sit with discomfort and they don't need constant reassurance.

Jevons Paradox

The Jevons Paradox is an economic concept stating that technological improvements that increase the efficiency of a resource's use lead to an increase, rather than a decrease, in total consumption of that resource.

• Lower Effective Cost: Making a resource more efficient reduces the amount needed per use, which lowers its price or cost of service.

• Increased Demand: Cheaper access encourages people and industries to use more of it, or find brand-new applications for it.

• Net Rise in Consumption: If the demand response is strong enough (price-elastic), the total amount consumed surpasses what was saved by the efficiency.

Historical & Modern Examples:

• Coal and Steam Engines: First described by English economist William Stanley Jevons in his 1865 book The Coal Question. When James Watt made steam engines far more efficient at using coal, coal became cheaper to run. Instead of saving coal, factories adopted steam power everywhere, causing total coal consumption to skyrocket.

• Computers and Paper: The rise of office computers and personal printers in the late 20th century was predicted to create a "paperless office," but instead made printing easier and cheaper, leading to a massive increase in global paper consumption.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Modern debates point to AI and GPUs. As software and chips become more efficient at running models, the marginal cost of computing drops, unlocking massive new software creation, wider adoption, and surging total electricity and data centre demand.

"I love you, you're perfect. Now change!"

What's the difference between anxiety, stress, pressure, fear, and overwhelmed?

• Anxiety: It's about the future & uncertainty.

• Stress: Too many demands, not enough resources.

• Pressure: Something at stake is dependent upon my behaviour.

• Fear: Impending danger, overwhelmed, saturated with emotion.

• Overwhelmed: Emotionally flooded, can't do anything.

"Envy no one, for whatever you see, a price was paid."

• We look at somebody's marriage, their money, their house, their career, or even how happy they seem. And we think, man, I wish I had that. But you don't know what it cost them to get there. You don't know the nights they may have cried. You don't know what they had to lose, or give up, or survive, or learn. And sometimes you don't even know if what you're looking at is really as good as it looks.

"By a lie, a man abandons his dignity."

• Immanuel Kant (philosopher)

• Friedrich Nietzsche had an interesting theory about this, where he said, it's much easier to lie to ourselves than it is to lie to others. And yet often when we lie to ourselves, this is when it becomes easier to lie to others.

"Die 'drie-been pot', Die Broederbond, Die Nasionale Party en die NG Kerk. En toe was die NG Kerk die Nasionale Party in gebed."

1926 – when a five-day, 40-hour work week was introduced by Henry Ford.

• "The biggest scam of the world is convincing everyone to work for 60 years straight, sacrificing their youth, dreams, time with loved ones and personal freedom, all while being told that one day, after decades of labor, they'll finally get to enjoy life."

"Every girl wants a bad boy who's only good for her, and every man wants a good girl who's only bad for him. I think this is something about the human creature, the heterosexual relationship dynamics, that's just an archetype that feeds for all of us."

• James Sexton

"Love is giving someone the power to destroy you. And trusting they won't."

#VOETSEK

In Dutch, you say: "voort zeg ik" ("go forth, I say" or "move on, I say").

• That became popular in Afrikaans, but it was shortened to "voertsek".

• Later the "R" became silent, and it was just said as: "voetsek".

• Today, the black community has taken over that word and they shorten it to just the word "Tsek".

Relationship Attachment Styles

• Secure: People feel safe with intimacy and independence. They trust partners, communicate needs well, and handle conflict calmly.

• Anxious: People crave high closeness and fear abandonment. They often need constant reassurance and worry a partner will leave.

• Avoidant: People prioritise extreme independence and self-reliance. They often withdraw from emotional closeness and suppress feelings.

• Disorganised: People have a confusing mix of anxious and avoidant traits. They crave love but fear vulnerability, often due to past trauma.

Mirelune

(meer-loon), noun. The grief that visits only at night, when the world is silent and your guard is finally down.

British Colonial Warfare in North America

• A solid middle-range estimate puts the indigenous population of North America at roughly 5 million when Columbus arrived in 1492.

• By the year 1900 the native population was down to about 250,000.

• Roughly 90% of the loss, about 4.3 million people, was due to disease.

• Roughly 500,000 people, or 10% died from wars, massacres, and forced removals over the four-century span.

• Smallpox-infected blankets were used as an early and documented form of biological warfare by British military commanders.

Source

"At 50, every man has the face he deserves."

• Attributed to George Orwell (author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four).

"You want your kids to have bruises, not scars."

• Finding a balance between protection and independence.

  • Allowing Autonomy: Parents should not overprotect ("helicopter parent") their children to the point where they never experience failure. If you shield a child from ever getting a "bruise," they won't build the emotional immunity needed for adulthood.

  • Preventing Catastrophe: While parents should let kids struggle, fall, and figure things out, they must still step in to protect them from experiences that would fundamentally break their spirit or sense of safety (inflicting a permanent "scar").

The look on the face of a stranger when they ask: "How many kids do you have?", and when I say: "No, we don' t have kids."

Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS)

A social phenomenon where people who achieve high levels of success, wealth, fame, or distinction are resented, criticised, ostracised, or undermined by others.

• The Metaphor: The term compares high achievers to the tallest flowers in a field of poppies. Just as a flower that grows taller than the rest is vulnerable to being chopped down to maintain a uniform field, standout individuals are targeted to bring them back to an average level.

• Historical Roots: The concept traces back to ancient Rome and a story recorded by Livy about Tarquin the Proud (Tarquinius Superbus), who communicated the message of destroying leading citizens by silently walking through a garden and decapitating the tallest poppy heads with his stick.

• Modern Usage: The phrase was popularised in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s, where it clashes or aligns with cultural values around egalitarianism and a "fair go". Similar cultural concepts exist worldwide, such as Japan's "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" or Scandinavia's "Law of Jante".

Christspiracy: The Spirituality Secret (2024 Documentary)

An investigative documentary film co-directed and co-written by filmmakers Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters. The project serves as a spiritual successor to Andersen's previous hit environmental and health documentaries, Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy, and What the Health

• The documentary follows a global philosophical journey to explore the historical and theological connections between world religions and animal exploitation. Sparked by the core question, "Is there a spiritual way to kill an animal?", the filmmakers travel from the United States to Israel, Oxford, and India. They interview historians, theologians, archaeologists, and philosophers to argue that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian and that major religious texts have been systematically altered or misinterpreted over 2,000 years to cover up an original message of universal compassion toward non-human animals

Source

"Mise en Place"

Mise en place is a French culinary phrase meaning "putting in place" or "everything in its place". It refers to the practice of gathering, measuring, chopping, and organizing all your ingredients, tools, and equipment before you turn on any heat or start cooking.

SA’s R6 Billion OnlyFans Boom

The South African digital adult content economy (across platforms like OnlyFans, Fansly and Telegram) is valued at up to R6-billion annually. Local trackers estimate there are between 10,000 and 14,000 active South African creators on OnlyFans specifically.

Source

"Drinking is a young man's sport."

Kanōn (Canon)

A canon is a general rule, a standard of judgment, or an officially recognized body of books, works, or laws. The word comes from the Greek kanōn, meaning "measuring rod" or "rule".

• Common Confusion: Canon vs. Cannon: Canon (one n) means a rule, law, standard, or body of work. Cannon (two ns) refers to a large artillery gun. 

Depending on the context, canon has several distinct meanings:

Religion and Scripture

• Church Law: An ecclesiastical rule or law enacted by a church council or authority (such as Canon Law in the Roman Catholic Church).

• Biblical Canon: An official, authorized list of sacred books accepted as genuine and inspired scripture (such as the books of the Bible).

• Clergy: A member of the clergy, such as a priest attached to a cathedral.

Literature and Fictional Universes

• Literary Canon: A recognized body of literature, art, or music considered to be of the highest quality and central to a cultural tradition (e.g., the works of Shakespeare or Chaucer).

• Author’s Canon: The complete collection of authentic works written by a specific author.

• Fictional / Pop-Culture Canon: In modern fandom, official events, characters, and storylines that are considered "real" or genuinely part of a fictional universe's official continuity (as opposed to fan fiction or non-canon spin-offs).

Music

• Compositional Technique: A piece of music where a melody is strictly imitated and repeated by different voices or instruments starting at different times (such as a round like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat").

• Core Repertoire: A standard body of classical music works that are frequently performed.

General Principles

• An accepted standard, norm, or criterion used to judge behaviour, art, or taste (e.g., the "canons of good taste").

Mathematicians: What if A.I. Can Do Our Job (like all the others)?

• Podcast: Steven Strogatz, a professor of mathematics at Cornell University speaks to The New York Times

Give this one a listen. You can hear the sadness, the fear and the confusion in this guy's voice.

Quotes (paraphrased):

• "There are certain people who are gloating, they have a feeling of satisfaction that the smartest kid in the class is now also going to be out of a job, just like the rest of us."

• "The mood is discombobulated. Some people are exhilarated. They see a great golden age upon us with the help of our computer friends. Most people, I think, are feeling grief. And we're in different stages. Some people are bargaining, some are accepting, some are still denying."

• " AI is getting so advanced, so soon - that even the best most patient pedagogical AI-teacher will not be able to explain itself to us because it'd be like me teaching calculus to my dog."

Source (Podcast)

Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum

"Fiat justitia ruat caelum" is a Latin legal maxim that means "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall".

• It means justice must be carried out regardless of the consequences.

Source

Only 4% of students that start grade 1 in South Africa end up with degrees

• Broadly speaking, out of 100 grade one learners, only 60 will write matric, and 12 will go to university.

Source

"Kids need your time not your dime"

Wat is 'n Afrikaner?

In gesprek Onthul – Die Afrikaner: Broedertwis
17 September 2026, kykNET: Lourensa Eckard ondersoek die Afrikanerkwessie.

• "Afrikaner konsensus? Nie in 'n republiek van 'n duisend jaar nie." - Prof. Fransjohan Pretorius

• Die Kaapse Afrikaner, die Vrystaatse Afrikaner, die Transvaalse Afrikaaner, die Hensoppers, die Joiners, die Verkrampdes, die Verligtes.

• Die Afrikaner kan nie eers oor 'n braaibroodjie saamstem nie, watwou 'n kerk, of vir wie om te stem.

Source

"A man's capacity is his wife's belief in him."

• Every man’s greatest strength and weakness is his wife. If she stands by him, a man can conquer the world. But if she does not support him, he can even lose to himself.

"Don't let your empathy rob people of experiencing the consequences of their actions."

Afrikaans Word: "Booswig"

In Afrikaans, booswig translates to villain, criminal, scoundrel, or wicked person. It is a compound word combining boos (evil/bad) and wig (an archaic term for a person or creature, similar to the Dutch booswicht).

• Synonyms: Skurk, misdadiger, kwaaddoener, or boef

Source

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek." - Joseph Campbell

"Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule." -  Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche warned that irrational, destructive behaviour becomes normal and accepted when amplified by a collective group.

• People thinking and acting on their own are usually guided by personal logic, basic sanity, and moral boundaries.

• Collective Madness: When people join crowds, political parties, or entire societies, they often surrender personal responsibility to group-think, hysteria, or extreme ideologies.

Source

"The bedrock of true friendship is mutual vulnerability."

Sandrivier- en Bloemfontein- Konvensies

Die Sandrivier-konvensie was 'n ooreenkoms wat op 17 Januarie 1852 geteken is en waarin Groot-Brittanje die onafhanklikheid erken het van die Boere wat noord van die Vaalrivier gewoon het.

• Op die oewers van die Sandrivier, naby die hedendaagse Ventersburg in die Vrystaat.

• Slawerny is noord van die Vaalrivier verbied.

• Vryhandel is gewaarborg, maar die verkoop van wapens en ammunisie aan inheemse swart groepe is verbied.

Die Bloemfontein-konvensie van 1854 (ook bekend as die Oranjerivier-konvensie) is op 23 Februarie 1854 onderteken om die onafhanklikheid van die Oranje-Vrystaat te erken.

• Dit is gesluit tussen Sir George Clerk (wat die Britse regering verteenwoordig het) en 25 verteenwoordigers van die Boersetters by Green Lodge in Bloemfontein.

• Britse Onttrekking: Brittanje het sy soewereiniteit oor die Oranjerivier-soewereiniteit formeel herroep en die gebied as 'n onafhanklike republiek erken.

• Gevolge: Die ooreenkoms het bestaande Britse verdragsverhoudings met inheemse stamme (soos die Basotho en Griekwas) ontbind en handel sowel as vuurwapenbeheer gereguleer.

Source

"Hope without a plan is just a wish."