A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? Did you have a good week? Mine has been really domestic — it was full of stuff like laundry, mending a Christmas stocking, baking an apple crisp, organizing shelves. Stuff like that. How about you?

This weekend I want to tackle the last “moving in” tasks on my list, like hanging artwork in our bedrooms, and figuring out mounting hardware for our bedside lamps. Flora June also has a swim meet this weekend — her first here in France! We’re very curious to see how it compares to our swim meets in Oakland.

In other news: Oscar’s Eagle Scout paperwork was approved! Which means his Scout Leaders are now working to set up an Eagle Board of Review — which will be conducted via Skype or something similar. If Oscar passes the Board of Review, then it’s official: He will be an Eagle Scout.

It’s been a big week for headlines as well. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you.

-I Thought Being a Health Care Reporter Would Make Cancer Easier. I Was Wrong.

-Remember the Razr flip phone? Well it’s back, in a Smart Phone version (though it’s really pricey). How would you feel about a phone that actually fits in your pocket?

-The first generation of child sexual abuse victims whose anguish has been preserved on the internet, seemingly forever, are becoming adults. And it’s all so awful. (NYT)

-New research finds that young girls and boys have “indistinguishable” math abilities — contradicting the idea that men largely dominate STEM fields because their brains are wired that way.

-“I was shocked to learn of the little-known history of incarcerating girls for immorality and similar minor status offenses such as incorrigibility and subjecting them to disturbingly long sentences.” (NYT)

-A super cute DIY no-sew kids apron from a $1 dish towel.

-“More than 30 influencers told me that the Saudi government blackmailed them with material obtained by hacking their phones. They were given two options: Tweet propaganda or have your private content, including pictures, released on Twitter.” (WP)

-The cold weather has arrived and I keep craving one of those Irish fishing sweater pullovers.

-The prisoner abuse detailed in a 2014 Senate report on the CIA’s torture program “probably represents 30% of the reality,” says one former attorney for a Guantánamo prisoner. “The reality is far more brutal and far worse than what is known to the public.”

-Gun law reform is so necessary, and not just because of school shootings. Please reacquaint yourself with these suicide statistics. And please, please do not keep guns in your home.

-The first map of America’s food supply chain is mind-boggling.

-Thousands of Twitter ‘bots’ targeted Kentucky with fake news on election night last week. They spread misinformation about the election being rigged.

-What happens when birds get drunk.

Here are a few tweets I saved for you:

-This 9-year-old drummer who loves Nirvana made my day.

-A thread on how to have hope in dark times.

-The idea of being an ugly-beautiful woman resonates with me.

Good statements for women and girls to practice.

https://twitter.com/necessaryaf/status/1193608467904368642

-Woody Guthrie singing about Trump’s racist father.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

P.S. — I know there are several NYT and WP links and that those publications require subscriptions. If you don’t have a subscription, talk to your local public library — often, they can give you an access code.

8 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. The NYTimes article on sexual abuse & its modern implications is enraging.

    WHY are these tech companies not doing anything? HOW on earth are we not prosecuting them for their lack of action *when they know* that it is going on?

    When a child’s safety is at risk, privacy concerns go out the window. It’s been like this for a long time. If there’s a suspicion of child abuse next door, and you call the police, they don’t ignore the report just because the door is locked. How is this any different, really?

    Sorry if this is ranting. I’ve long been angry at tech behemoths, but this brings it to a new level.

  2. Regarding the food map, my friend’s husband used to work in a chicken packaging plant and he claimed that the chicken was raised and killed somewhere like Nebraska, then sent to China for processing and freezing, and then shipped to Wisconsin to be packaged, and then shipped to another state for distribution. He had know reason to lie, but it boggles my mind to this day if that was true.

  3. That list of responses women should practice is good. I’m going to print it off. A few weeks ago at a party my dad started responding to someone who had asked a question directed towards me about my business. It enraged me, but I’ve only recently started noticing these problematic exchanges and I had no idea how to handle it. I just kept trying to talk over him. I asked my husband after what he would do and he wasn’t much help because people usually listen to him. But a short sentence like, stop interrupting me, would have been great.

  4. Spare a thought for the rural communities in Australia especially NSW, Queensland and WA who are dealing with bush fires now. It is not even Summer yet. Is this climate change in action?

  5. The “ugly-beautiful” sentiment irritates me. Maybe its charming in it’s original language, but why not say unconventional beauty or exotic, etc.? I wouldn’t call myself or anyone else stupid-intelligent, so why would I qualify the idea of anyone’s beauty as ugly-beautiful. If I heard someone classify me that way I would not feel flattered.

    1. Same. This is the most backhanded compliment I think you could ever receive. Seriously, I can’t think of one that is more so than this.

    2. Agreed! I thought the same thing. No one wants to be described that way. We can do better in conveying the sentiment with other words.

  6. I once had a professor arguing with me I couldn’t picture things in my mind in 3D ‘because women can’t’. Just one of many examples of prejudice and misconceptions about female abilities in math. I believed for a long time I wasn’t good at math ( because girls aren’t) until it hit me one day in high school that my friends were constantly calling me to help them solve their math problems and I was able to do it.
    Also in grad school, we had a terrific female professor who, everytime she would get interrupted, would raise up her index finger and say ‘listen!’ It always stopped the other person from talking. Some people thought her rude but in a male dominated field she was able to have her voice heard.
    I am on the shy side of the spectrum but have now learned to use ‘you’ve interrupted me’ without guilt.

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