A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? What’s happening in your life? We’ve been here in France for two weeks and are still settling in. This week was full of more required + practical stuff. The kids had physicals so they can participate on the swim team (practice starts next week). Ben Blair joined the local gym. Today, we meet the kids’ music teachers and we’re looking at a couple more houses. And we still have a couple of big tasks to complete: We need to finish setting up our French bank account. And we need to make a decision on a car.

We’re not sure on our weekend plans. We may take a daytrip to Brittany, or we might try and knock off a few more to-do items on our list.

Ready for some weekend reading? Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:

-Polio was nearly extinct. Then the anti-vaxx movement reached Pakistan.

-A 6-year-old girl wrote to a toy company asking why they didn’t make female plastic soldiers. The president of the company responded. And now, Green Army Women figurines will be available by Christmas 2020.

-Last year, an air traffic controller saw Jeffrey Epstein getting off his private plane with girls who appeared to be 11 to 12 years old. (So that means they are 12 and 13 now? Who are they? Where are they?)

-I loved Elizabeth Warren’s response about trade policy in last nights’ debate. She’s really good at explaining things in a way that everyone can understand.

-The Secret Files of the Master of Modern Republican Gerrymandering

-A Swiss artist named Klaus Kittmann planted a forest in a football stadium in Austria.

-“Being a sex worker is dangerous. But it’s not as though sex workers are surrounded by dangerous chemicals or heavy machinery or wild animals. It’s dangerous because they are working with men.” The article is about how headlines are written (and it’s really good). That sentence stood out to me. It’s not the theme of the article, but I’ve never thought about it like that.

-Someone asked, “Who are famous women you learned to like — after recognizing societal misogyny.”

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale came out this week.

-On this day in 2016, I was explaining what a Mormon Mission was.

-On this day in 2018, I was explaining that men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancies.

Some Twitter threads and tweets I bookmarked to share (Twitter was really good this week and there’s a bunch):

-A sweet thread about having a Grandmother move in to your home.

-She is tired of people who say they don’t like feminism, while enjoying all the benefits feminists have made possible.

-A fascinating thread about artificial intelligence and crochet patterns.

-A tweet about the cost of childbirth.

https://twitter.com/DaveMosher/status/1170415431749910528

-To take care of a bug problem, his wife brought in more bugs — 1000 baby praying mantises. I found this story fascinating.

-A thread for men who want to write about women. (OMG I laughed so hard.)

How to sneeze around the world.

https://twitter.com/presentcorrect/status/817383316689223680

I hope you have a terrific weekend. Does it feel like fall where you live? I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

10 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. Speaking from my POV, best part of you living in France: Early morning posts in the US. Ha! Also, I’m #teamcory all the way! If you don’t follow him on IG, you should. He shares beautiful stories and has great ideas for policy changes.

  2. There are so many meaningful links but I only have a moment so I’ll comment on this one:

    When I was a girl I loved seeing the apron on a dish soap bottle or the doll with the crochet dress that hid the spare toilet paper roll. Sadly, this was not in my house then nor now. I might have to look for them on Etsy.

  3. So glad you posted the link about Sarah Gilmore and #fixedit. I’m looking forward to reading the book! I’ve been working with my college freshman students this week on reading the news with a critical eye for how it’s framed, such as the infuriating news stories that called Epstein’s victims “underage women”!

    A few years ago, I read a profile about a woman who was doing something similar to #fixedit, but it was about race and how stories are framed so differently depending on who the story is about. This person, an artist I think(?), would recreate the full page of the NYT with how it should have been done, and then she would actually paste it up, billboard-style on walls in NY. I’ve googled and googled but can’t seem to find this story or person anymore. Does it ring any bells? I could be getting some details wrong but I would love to find it again!

    1. @Jess3 – Yes! Yes! Thank you!!

      I have this funny feeling that I first heard about Alexandra Bell here on DesignMom. I wonder…

  4. Great links today! I do love the early delivery now that you are writing from France. You always have such a thoughtful response to social issues I was hoping you could help me understand why Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are the only parents mentioned in the college admissions cheating. Were their husbands and fathers to their children not part of it? Are only mothers responsible for their children’s education? Is it just misogyny? or have a missed some detail in the reporting?
    Thanks for helping to open my mind and look at life in many different ways.

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