The scars of solitary: Albert Woodfox on freedom after 44 years in a concrete cell
The sweet it’s OK to eat at Lent: But does anyone actually like karamelli tal-harrub?
A Modern Take on the Phenakistoscope
Why a California scientist hosted superspreader event amid a deadly COVID-19 surge
Texas prepping gong wrong, a thread
Remapping Cultural Hauntology: An American Perspective
‘This Crap Means More to Him Than My Life’: When QAnon Invades American Homes
Alaska woman using outhouse attacked by bear, from below
Writer’s blockdown: after a year inside, novelists are struggling to write
Cat Takes a Huge Leap Into Owner’s Arms
I fell into one of those “conversation pits.” I was visiting someone’s house for the first time, and didn’t know to watch out for it. Fortunately, I didn’t break anything.
In Texas, I am currently recovering from 5 days with no power in a house with a temperature just above freezing. My water is finally back on. Before it went off, I had filled up my stainless steel countertop water filter, so I did have some drinking water.
All of the miseries reported on the news are true! Many people have it worse than I did.
Glad you are okay. I heard from some friends in Texas about how miserable it was.
I don’t really understand this Polar Vortex stuff,
I get that like a pizza dough when momentum is decreased, it flops down.
So can it dip down to California, thus we get burst pipes, frozen grid and everything else that happened in Texas.
I know we probably won’t lose power, maybe a couple of hours here and there to alleviate loads,
but can this Polar Vortex effect happen in California???
I think it’s more likely in California that we’ll be dealing with extreme heat and drought. We’ll see more of those scary freak summer heat waves and winters (like this one) that are low in rainfall.
LOL at the story of the bear under the outhouse even though it revived a childhood fear. We used to summer in ME in rustic lake camps and outback hunting camps. Outhouses and simple secluded spots in the woods were a frequent occurrence back in the 50s. I went but always with the image that something was thinking of my bare pink butt as an opportunity. In my imagination it was raccoons. Glad to say I never encountered one at that vulnerable time. I feel for that woman!
Not funny and even more empathetic are those folks losing their family members to the lunacy of political conspiracies. It has to be simply horrible for all of them — the ones losing their partners, sibs and parents and, just as much, for the partners, sibs and parents who are losing touch with reality and living in a world so perverted and stacked against them.
Finally that visual search engine is the kind of online vortex I prefer to get caught in.
Good job on an excellent selection of articles/resources!
Some hard to read stuff this week. And some silly fun. And some brilliant ideas. How fitting! How like reality! Good round-up. I wish I had a conversation pit now.
The Texas prepper gone wrong thread lit my week, along with some dismal stories of Brexit consequences for several Brexit voters (which are actually true).
I’m not a hateful person but Schadenfreude in becoming my middle name. Spiteful…? Perhaps. I’m sure it’s a 40-something, something.