An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Trump Wants His Cabinet To Serve His Ego, Not The Nation
By Neil J. Young, Columnist
All of these moves undercut Trump’s businessman boasts that he would bring only the “best people” to Washington, of course. But they also make plain that the real business of this administration is to serve Trump’s ego rather than the nation. In cutting out dissenters or even strong counterweights in his administration for the steady stream of sycophants and, let’s not forget, fawning family members he has gathered around him, Trump has ensured his White House will never be mistaken for Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” Instead, Trump is assembling a cabal of cronies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-trump-cabinet_us_5ab51bbbe4b0decad0497fca?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Suffering or Inconvenienced?
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Mad about Stephon Clark protesters shutting down the Kings and I-5? Check your privilege
BY ERIKA D. SMITH
Dear well-meaning progressives of Sacramento:
So I hear you’re a little upset about the way, on Thursday, some people — OK, people with Black Lives Matter — were peacefully protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark.
I know, I know. You’re as troubled as any other "woke" progressive about his death on Sunday night. The 22-year-old father of two shouldn’t have died the way he did, standing in his grandmother’s backyard in Meadowview after being chased down by two cops and a helicopter.
You think it’s unacceptable that the officers didn’t identify themselves before shouting “gun” and sending 20 bullets flying through the dark toward his body. And you’re suspicious about why, after the shooting, cops at the scene turned off the microphones on their body cameras and had a conversation amongst themselves for a couple of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~
First of all, let's get one thing straight: Being inconvenienced for one day or even two is not “suffering,” a word I’ve heard far too many times since Thursday. “Suffering” is what Clark’s family is doing right now. "Suffering" is what young black men do all over this country, living with the fear of their lives being taken by gun violence.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article206567754.html#storylink=cpy
Mad about Stephon Clark protesters shutting down the Kings and I-5? Check your privilege
BY ERIKA D. SMITH
Dear well-meaning progressives of Sacramento:
So I hear you’re a little upset about the way, on Thursday, some people — OK, people with Black Lives Matter — were peacefully protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark.
I know, I know. You’re as troubled as any other "woke" progressive about his death on Sunday night. The 22-year-old father of two shouldn’t have died the way he did, standing in his grandmother’s backyard in Meadowview after being chased down by two cops and a helicopter.
You think it’s unacceptable that the officers didn’t identify themselves before shouting “gun” and sending 20 bullets flying through the dark toward his body. And you’re suspicious about why, after the shooting, cops at the scene turned off the microphones on their body cameras and had a conversation amongst themselves for a couple of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~
First of all, let's get one thing straight: Being inconvenienced for one day or even two is not “suffering,” a word I’ve heard far too many times since Thursday. “Suffering” is what Clark’s family is doing right now. "Suffering" is what young black men do all over this country, living with the fear of their lives being taken by gun violence.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article206567754.html#storylink=cpy
Friday, March 23, 2018
New Weather Man
An excerpt form the New York Post -
Comedian Byron Allen buys the Weather Channel for $300M
By Alexandra Steigrad
The Weather Channel TV network was sold Thursday — to comedian-turned-media-mogul Byron Allen.
Allen’s Entertainment Studios Inc. bought the 36-year-old TV staple from the Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at about $300 million.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/22/comedian-byron-allen-buys-the-weather-channel-for-300m/?utm_source=email_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Comedian Byron Allen buys the Weather Channel for $300M
By Alexandra Steigrad
 | |||
| Byron Allen - WireImage |
The Weather Channel TV network was sold Thursday — to comedian-turned-media-mogul Byron Allen.
Allen’s Entertainment Studios Inc. bought the 36-year-old TV staple from the Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at about $300 million.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/22/comedian-byron-allen-buys-the-weather-channel-for-300m/?utm_source=email_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Mystery Solved
From CNN -
The identity of the lone woman scientist in this 1971 photo was a mystery. Then Twitter cracked the case
By David Williams
Illustrator Candace Jean Andersen was doing some research for a children's book on orcas when she stumbled into a mystery.
In an old article, she discovered a photo of scientists at the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales in Virginia. And she noticed so
The article named all the men, but the African-American woman was listed as "not identified."
"Not identified, why? Who is she? What did she contribute to the conference? What's HER story?" Andersen wondered.
She put down her picture book project and started looking.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health/woman-scientist-1971-twitter-mystery-trnd/index.html
The identity of the lone woman scientist in this 1971 photo was a mystery. Then Twitter cracked the case
By David Williams
 |
| This lone woman at a 1971 gathering of scientists sparked a flurry of amateur sleuthing on Twitter. |
Illustrator Candace Jean Andersen was doing some research for a children's book on orcas when she stumbled into a mystery.
In an old article, she discovered a photo of scientists at the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales in Virginia. And she noticed so
The article named all the men, but the African-American woman was listed as "not identified."
"Not identified, why? Who is she? What did she contribute to the conference? What's HER story?" Andersen wondered.
She put down her picture book project and started looking.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health/woman-scientist-1971-twitter-mystery-trnd/index.html
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Teacher Salaries
From NPR -
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers#nws=mcnewsletter
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers#nws=mcnewsletter
Monday, March 19, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Daily Affirmations From the White House
From the NY Times -
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/daily-affirmations-from-the-white-house.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/daily-affirmations-from-the-white-house.html
More Sac Love
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
You’re going where? Sacramento
By Megan McDonough
California’s capital city has long lived in the shadows of its flashier neighbors. Sandwiched between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, “Sac,” as the locals call it, is often underestimated and overlooked as a small and sleepy cow town — a rest stop on the way to greener and glitzier pastures. But thanks to the downtown revitalization and the rousing success of “Lady Bird” — Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated homage to her home town — Sacramento has been suddenly, and rightfully, thrust into the spotlight.
Following in the footsteps of the Forty-Niners , I came to Sacramento with the aim of striking it rich. My mission: to mine the city’s treasures while home for the holidays in December. Technically, I was born in Sacramento, but I grew up about 20 minutes away in Davis. And while my teenage self would make regular pilgrimages to the city’s thrift stores and shopping centers, I didn’t fully appreciate what the City of Trees had to offer.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/youre-going-where-sacramento/2018/03/14/3aaf23ce-20bf-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.3d7554376760
You’re going where? Sacramento
By Megan McDonough
California’s capital city has long lived in the shadows of its flashier neighbors. Sandwiched between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, “Sac,” as the locals call it, is often underestimated and overlooked as a small and sleepy cow town — a rest stop on the way to greener and glitzier pastures. But thanks to the downtown revitalization and the rousing success of “Lady Bird” — Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated homage to her home town — Sacramento has been suddenly, and rightfully, thrust into the spotlight.
Following in the footsteps of the Forty-Niners , I came to Sacramento with the aim of striking it rich. My mission: to mine the city’s treasures while home for the holidays in December. Technically, I was born in Sacramento, but I grew up about 20 minutes away in Davis. And while my teenage self would make regular pilgrimages to the city’s thrift stores and shopping centers, I didn’t fully appreciate what the City of Trees had to offer.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/youre-going-where-sacramento/2018/03/14/3aaf23ce-20bf-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.3d7554376760
Quote
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. - Ex-CIA Boss John Brennan
SacTown Innovators
An excerpt from SacTown Magazine -
Local eye-care company launches new line of fitness-tracking spectacles
BY HILLARY LOUISE JOHNSON
Step into The Shop, the midtown innovation lab for local eye care giant VSP Global, and you’re in nerd heaven, a place where kids who were called “four-eyes” in high school exact sweet revenge by changing the world through technology. Take Level, for instance: a new line of fitness-tracking glasses developed by The Shop and tested by 300 individuals through USC’s Center for Body Computing.
The project was conceived four years ago, but was so ahead of its time that the team had to wait for chip technology to get smaller and more economical. “It could be no more expensive than any other pair of glasses," says the lab’s co-director Jay Sales. "On top of that, it had to be fashionable—as elegant as it is effective.” Level’s sleek $270 frames currently come in three styles, named after innovators Nikola Tesla, Marvin Minsky and Hedy Lamarr.
http://www.sactownmag.com/Style-Watch/2018/Level-up-with-VSPs-new-fitness-tracking-eyewear/
Local eye-care company launches new line of fitness-tracking spectacles
BY HILLARY LOUISE JOHNSON
Step into The Shop, the midtown innovation lab for local eye care giant VSP Global, and you’re in nerd heaven, a place where kids who were called “four-eyes” in high school exact sweet revenge by changing the world through technology. Take Level, for instance: a new line of fitness-tracking glasses developed by The Shop and tested by 300 individuals through USC’s Center for Body Computing.
The project was conceived four years ago, but was so ahead of its time that the team had to wait for chip technology to get smaller and more economical. “It could be no more expensive than any other pair of glasses," says the lab’s co-director Jay Sales. "On top of that, it had to be fashionable—as elegant as it is effective.” Level’s sleek $270 frames currently come in three styles, named after innovators Nikola Tesla, Marvin Minsky and Hedy Lamarr.
http://www.sactownmag.com/Style-Watch/2018/Level-up-with-VSPs-new-fitness-tracking-eyewear/
Saturday, March 17, 2018
On the List of Things To Do
An excerpt from ProPublica -
The FBI — ‘Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity’ — Still Working on Diversity
The nation’s top federal law enforcement agency is overwhelmingly white, and its top officials acknowledge that’s “a huge operational risk.”
by Topher Sanders
For the FBI, the longstanding failure to diversify its ranks is nothing short of “a huge operational risk,” according to one senior official, something that compromises the agency’s ability to understand communities at risk, penetrate criminal enterprises, and identify emerging national security threats.
Indeed, 10 months before being fired as director of the FBI by President Trump, James Comey called the situation a “crisis.”
“Slowly but steadily over the last decade or more, the percentage of special agents in the FBI who are white has been growing,” Comey said in a speech at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black school in Daytona Beach, Florida. “I’ve got nothing against white people — especially tall, awkward, male white people — but that is a crisis for reasons that you get, and that I’ve worked very hard to make sure the entire FBI understands.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-fbi-fidelity-bravery-integrity-still-working-on-diversity?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
The FBI — ‘Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity’ — Still Working on Diversity
The nation’s top federal law enforcement agency is overwhelmingly white, and its top officials acknowledge that’s “a huge operational risk.”
by Topher Sanders
For the FBI, the longstanding failure to diversify its ranks is nothing short of “a huge operational risk,” according to one senior official, something that compromises the agency’s ability to understand communities at risk, penetrate criminal enterprises, and identify emerging national security threats.
Indeed, 10 months before being fired as director of the FBI by President Trump, James Comey called the situation a “crisis.”
“Slowly but steadily over the last decade or more, the percentage of special agents in the FBI who are white has been growing,” Comey said in a speech at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black school in Daytona Beach, Florida. “I’ve got nothing against white people — especially tall, awkward, male white people — but that is a crisis for reasons that you get, and that I’ve worked very hard to make sure the entire FBI understands.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-fbi-fidelity-bravery-integrity-still-working-on-diversity?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
Good From Evil
From the Washington Post -
I posted a huge note for the thief who stole my bike. Then my doorbell rang.
By Amanda Needham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/03/16/i-posted-a-huge-note-for-the-thief-who-stole-my-bike-then-my-doorbell-rang/?utm_term=.1b18bbde70f7
I posted a huge note for the thief who stole my bike. Then my doorbell rang.
By Amanda Needham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/03/16/i-posted-a-huge-note-for-the-thief-who-stole-my-bike-then-my-doorbell-rang/?utm_term=.1b18bbde70f7
#NeverAgain
#WhatIf we could go to school without fearing for our lives? Join us on March 24th and visit https://t.co/SrCltJsrBH #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/iXmCNFOrVj— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 16, 2018
Friday, March 16, 2018
STEM is a Necessity
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Mae Jemison: Diversity In STEM Isn’t A Nicety, It’s A Necessity
The first African-American woman in space discusses her agricultural science initiative.
By Taylor Pittman
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, knows firsthand the importance of exposing kids to STEM topics early. She also knows the significance of having kids see themselves in movies, on TV, and in certain careers.
“It means making sure that people get those images that show they have those things available to them,” Jemison told HuffPost.
Jemison is collaborating on “Science Matters,” an initiative to encourage kids of all ages and backgrounds to pursue agricultural science from pharmaceutical and life science company Bayer and youth development organization National 4-H Council. Jemison, a physician and chemical engineer, knows the field of agricultural science can sound intimidating, but she and Jennifer Sirangelo, CEO and president of the National 4-H Council, have set out to change that.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mae-jemison-diversity-in-stem_us_5aa820ade4b001c8bf147eae
Mae Jemison: Diversity In STEM Isn’t A Nicety, It’s A Necessity
The first African-American woman in space discusses her agricultural science initiative.
By Taylor Pittman
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, knows firsthand the importance of exposing kids to STEM topics early. She also knows the significance of having kids see themselves in movies, on TV, and in certain careers.
“It means making sure that people get those images that show they have those things available to them,” Jemison told HuffPost.
Jemison is collaborating on “Science Matters,” an initiative to encourage kids of all ages and backgrounds to pursue agricultural science from pharmaceutical and life science company Bayer and youth development organization National 4-H Council. Jemison, a physician and chemical engineer, knows the field of agricultural science can sound intimidating, but she and Jennifer Sirangelo, CEO and president of the National 4-H Council, have set out to change that.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mae-jemison-diversity-in-stem_us_5aa820ade4b001c8bf147eae
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Target Lovers
From the Huffington Post -
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hilarious-tweets-for-parents-who-love-target_us_5a904ee8e4b03b55731be2e8
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hilarious-tweets-for-parents-who-love-target_us_5a904ee8e4b03b55731be2e8
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
NatGeo Admits Racist Coverage
An excerpt from the Associated Press -
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent.
“We had to own our story to move beyond it,” editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine’s April issue, which is devoted to race.
National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall by University of Virginia photography historian John Edwin Mason showed that until the 1970s, it virtually ignored people of color in the United States who were not domestics or laborers, and it reinforced repeatedly the idea that people of color from foreign lands were “exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages_every type of clichĆ©.”
For example, in a 1916 article about Australia, the caption on a photo of two Aboriginal people read: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
https://apnews.com/52098332431c4ef1be3046487451684e
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent.
“We had to own our story to move beyond it,” editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine’s April issue, which is devoted to race.
National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall by University of Virginia photography historian John Edwin Mason showed that until the 1970s, it virtually ignored people of color in the United States who were not domestics or laborers, and it reinforced repeatedly the idea that people of color from foreign lands were “exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages_every type of clichĆ©.”
For example, in a 1916 article about Australia, the caption on a photo of two Aboriginal people read: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
https://apnews.com/52098332431c4ef1be3046487451684e
Back & White Twins
From the National Geographic -
These Twins, One Black and One White, Will Make You Rethink Race
Marcia and Millie Biggs say they’ve never been subjected to racism—just curiosity and surprise that twins could have such different skin colors.
By Patricia Edmonds
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/
These Twins, One Black and One White, Will Make You Rethink Race
Marcia and Millie Biggs say they’ve never been subjected to racism—just curiosity and surprise that twins could have such different skin colors.
By Patricia Edmonds
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/
 | ||
| Marcia (left) and Millie Biggs, both 11, say people are shocked to learn that they’re fraternal twins. Marcia looks more like their mother, who’s English born, and Millie looks more like their father, who’s of Jamaican descent. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBIN HAMMOND |
Monday, March 12, 2018
Wakanda Forever
From Slate -
Black Athletes Have Started Celebrating Their Victories With the “Wakanda Forever” Salute from Black Panther
By MATTHEW DESSEM
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/black-athletes-have-started-celebrating-their-victories-with-the-wakanda-forever-salute.html
Black Athletes Have Started Celebrating Their Victories With the “Wakanda Forever” Salute from Black Panther
By MATTHEW DESSEM
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/black-athletes-have-started-celebrating-their-victories-with-the-wakanda-forever-salute.html
Playcousin to the Rescue
An excerpt from the Root -
How My Playcousin Stopped a Mass Shooting and Disproved the Myth about Good Guys With Guns
By Michael Harriot
To understand this story, you must first know the hierarchy of the Black family tree. There are black people across this country who have blood relatives they don’t know about, including sisters, brothers and sometimes parents. Ranking higher than any DNA-based relationship is the earned honorific of “playcousin.” A playcousin is a defacto sibling. It is more family member than actual family.
When I was growing up, my mother’s best friend had four children. She was as much my aunt as any of my mother’s sisters. Her husband was one of the scant few in-house fathers in my neighborhood, and he was a hulking figure of a man who still calls me “professor.” Like my family, they had three girls and only one of their children was a boy. His name was Heyward Jackson, Jr. but in most black neighborhoods, birth names are as malleable as DNA and often give way to nicknames.
We call him “Junie Poonie.”
https://www.theroot.com/how-my-playcousin-stopped-a-mass-shooting-and-disproved-1823669955
How My Playcousin Stopped a Mass Shooting and Disproved the Myth about Good Guys With Guns
By Michael Harriot
To understand this story, you must first know the hierarchy of the Black family tree. There are black people across this country who have blood relatives they don’t know about, including sisters, brothers and sometimes parents. Ranking higher than any DNA-based relationship is the earned honorific of “playcousin.” A playcousin is a defacto sibling. It is more family member than actual family.
When I was growing up, my mother’s best friend had four children. She was as much my aunt as any of my mother’s sisters. Her husband was one of the scant few in-house fathers in my neighborhood, and he was a hulking figure of a man who still calls me “professor.” Like my family, they had three girls and only one of their children was a boy. His name was Heyward Jackson, Jr. but in most black neighborhoods, birth names are as malleable as DNA and often give way to nicknames.
We call him “Junie Poonie.”
https://www.theroot.com/how-my-playcousin-stopped-a-mass-shooting-and-disproved-1823669955
An Open Letter
From the Root -
An Open Letter to Kenya Barris Begging Him to Leak the Banned Episode of Black-ish
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/an-open-letter-to-kenya-barris-to-begging-him-to-leak-t-1823681303
An Open Letter to Kenya Barris Begging Him to Leak the Banned Episode of Black-ish
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/an-open-letter-to-kenya-barris-to-begging-him-to-leak-t-1823681303
The Perfect Crime
From Now I Know -
http://nowiknow.com/how-a-nearly-perfect-crime-became-perfect-again/
http://nowiknow.com/how-a-nearly-perfect-crime-became-perfect-again/
True Diversity
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Black Kids Don’t Want to Read About Harriet Tubman All the Time
By DENENE MILLNER
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even wiped the sonogram goop off my belly before I rushed off to pick out dresses and books for my unborn child. I was on a mission: My daughter was going to need all the pink dresses and all the books with brown babies.
Finding adorable dresses was easy. Finding children’s literature with pictures of children of color was not.
Books with white children and, like, ducks, were de rigueur, which I guess was fine for parents who were having white babies or ducks. But this was not going to work for my brown baby, who would spend a lifetime looking for her image in a pop cultural landscape that all but ignored children who looked like her. I wanted — needed — her to see her beautiful brown self reflected in the music and stories I hoped to feed to her as consistently as food. In my house, she would be visible.
Eventually, a friend helped me track down Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day,” and the lovely “ ‘More More More,’ Said the Baby.” And my stepson gave his copy of Nikki Giovanni’s “The Sun Is So Quiet” to his baby sister. I eventually discovered the treasure trove that is Just Us Books, and works by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Eloise Greenfield. Still, the pickings were slim.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/children-literature-books-blacks.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
http://justusbooksonlinestore.com/index.php
Black Kids Don’t Want to Read About Harriet Tubman All the Time
By DENENE MILLNER
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even wiped the sonogram goop off my belly before I rushed off to pick out dresses and books for my unborn child. I was on a mission: My daughter was going to need all the pink dresses and all the books with brown babies.
Finding adorable dresses was easy. Finding children’s literature with pictures of children of color was not.
Books with white children and, like, ducks, were de rigueur, which I guess was fine for parents who were having white babies or ducks. But this was not going to work for my brown baby, who would spend a lifetime looking for her image in a pop cultural landscape that all but ignored children who looked like her. I wanted — needed — her to see her beautiful brown self reflected in the music and stories I hoped to feed to her as consistently as food. In my house, she would be visible.
Eventually, a friend helped me track down Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day,” and the lovely “ ‘More More More,’ Said the Baby.” And my stepson gave his copy of Nikki Giovanni’s “The Sun Is So Quiet” to his baby sister. I eventually discovered the treasure trove that is Just Us Books, and works by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Eloise Greenfield. Still, the pickings were slim.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/children-literature-books-blacks.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
http://justusbooksonlinestore.com/index.php
She Knew
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Melania Knew
By Charles M. Blow
Dear America: Come on, you can’t be serious.
The ongoing saga over a president, a porn star and a payoff is so lewd and tawdry that it can’t simply be added to the ever-expanding list of horrible misbehaviors of a womanizing misogynist.
It’s not even the infidelity that most bothers me. I view that as an issue between spouses and with the other person involved. I contend that we on the outside never really know what understandings may exist in a marriage, unless the two parties within reveal it.
In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting.
When Donald first meets Melania, they are at a New York Fashion Week party to which Donald has been invited by the wealthy Italian businessman who brought Melania to America on a modeling contract and work visa. According to GQ, sometimes, to promote his models, the businessman “would send a few girls to an event and invite photographers, producers, and rich playboys.”
Trump is on a date with another woman that night. He is also in the process of divorcing Marla Maples, his second wife, with whom he had had an affair while still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opinion/melania-trump-stormy.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Melania Knew
By Charles M. Blow
Dear America: Come on, you can’t be serious.
The ongoing saga over a president, a porn star and a payoff is so lewd and tawdry that it can’t simply be added to the ever-expanding list of horrible misbehaviors of a womanizing misogynist.
It’s not even the infidelity that most bothers me. I view that as an issue between spouses and with the other person involved. I contend that we on the outside never really know what understandings may exist in a marriage, unless the two parties within reveal it.
In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting.
When Donald first meets Melania, they are at a New York Fashion Week party to which Donald has been invited by the wealthy Italian businessman who brought Melania to America on a modeling contract and work visa. According to GQ, sometimes, to promote his models, the businessman “would send a few girls to an event and invite photographers, producers, and rich playboys.”
Trump is on a date with another woman that night. He is also in the process of divorcing Marla Maples, his second wife, with whom he had had an affair while still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opinion/melania-trump-stormy.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Spot On?
From Business Insider -
8 things science says predict divorce
By Shana Lebowitz
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-know-if-your-marriage-will-end-in-divorce-according-to-science-2017-10
8 things science says predict divorce
By Shana Lebowitz
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-know-if-your-marriage-will-end-in-divorce-according-to-science-2017-10
Sunday, March 11, 2018
What's Old is New Again
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Meet the latest tourist attractions: Abandoned factories
By Rebecca Powers
Trip-planning multiple choice:
a) Mountains b) Sand c) Surf
d) Factories.
If you picked the last vacation option, you’ve got company.
“We’re finding a hunger,” says Michael Boettcher, an urban planner and industrial-history buff. “Everyone has been to Disney World, and it’s like, what else you got?”
In Japan, it’s popular to take nighttime boat cruises past glittering industrial superstructures. In Germany’s Ruhr industrial powerhouse region, bicyclists meander a landscape that has turned recreational. And in Canada, 1920s wooden grain elevators, dubbed the Five Prairie Giants, draw sightseers to the Manitoba plains.
The appeal? “It gives you a sense of where we’ve been and how that has made us who we are,” Boettcher says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/industrial-deevolution/2018/03/08/50d57022-1cdc-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.1b3c45c41132&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Meet the latest tourist attractions: Abandoned factories
By Rebecca Powers
Trip-planning multiple choice:
a) Mountains b) Sand c) Surf
d) Factories.
If you picked the last vacation option, you’ve got company.
“We’re finding a hunger,” says Michael Boettcher, an urban planner and industrial-history buff. “Everyone has been to Disney World, and it’s like, what else you got?”
In Japan, it’s popular to take nighttime boat cruises past glittering industrial superstructures. In Germany’s Ruhr industrial powerhouse region, bicyclists meander a landscape that has turned recreational. And in Canada, 1920s wooden grain elevators, dubbed the Five Prairie Giants, draw sightseers to the Manitoba plains.
The appeal? “It gives you a sense of where we’ve been and how that has made us who we are,” Boettcher says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/industrial-deevolution/2018/03/08/50d57022-1cdc-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.1b3c45c41132&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Brain Damage
An excerpt form the Boston Globe -
Nearly half of Patriots on first 3 Super Bowl-winning teams report brain injuries
By Bob Hohler
Some 42 of about 100 Patriots who were members of New England’s first three Super Bowl title teams have alleged in a landmark class-action concussion suit against the NFL and the helmet maker Riddell that they have experienced symptoms of brain injuries caused by the repetitive head impacts they absorbed in games and practices.
In all, more than 340 former Patriots or their estates have sued the NFL and its former helmet manufacturer. The Globe, using the team’s official all-time roster, has for the first time compiled and analyzed a list of the Patriots who allege they suffered brain injuries on the job since the franchise was founded in 1960.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2018/03/10/nearly-half-patriots-first-super-bowl-winners-report-symptoms-brain-injuries/aXvjJscYPy5Gsjwqc8jdYL/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
Nearly half of Patriots on first 3 Super Bowl-winning teams report brain injuries
By Bob Hohler
Some 42 of about 100 Patriots who were members of New England’s first three Super Bowl title teams have alleged in a landmark class-action concussion suit against the NFL and the helmet maker Riddell that they have experienced symptoms of brain injuries caused by the repetitive head impacts they absorbed in games and practices.
In all, more than 340 former Patriots or their estates have sued the NFL and its former helmet manufacturer. The Globe, using the team’s official all-time roster, has for the first time compiled and analyzed a list of the Patriots who allege they suffered brain injuries on the job since the franchise was founded in 1960.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2018/03/10/nearly-half-patriots-first-super-bowl-winners-report-symptoms-brain-injuries/aXvjJscYPy5Gsjwqc8jdYL/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
Last Chance School
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Uncharted Territory: Inside New York City’s School Of Last Chances
At a charter high school in a high-poverty area of Brooklyn, New York, many kids don’t graduate in four years. Seeing their achievements requires looking beyond the data.
By Rebecca Klein
Howard’s students attend New Visions AIM Charter High School I, a charter high school near the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The school was created in 2012 under a different name with different management, but with the same audacious mission: to educate the students whom other schools had failed. These are the toughest of students, the kids who have either been in jail, become homeless or live in foster care.
Some kids have experienced all three.
Students who attend AIM I are 15 to 21 years old, the oldest age that a student can attend a public school in New York, by law. Every matriculated child has been held back for at least one grade, and oftentimes has faced insurmountable obstacles in their personal lives.
Last year, with a school of about 200 students, only about 30 graduated, and many had taken more than four years. This number, while representing a huge increase from previous years, falls far short of goals set by state education leaders. While these numbers may paint a picture of failure, the reality is so much more complicated.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-visions_us_5aa2e6dae4b07047bec66970
Uncharted Territory: Inside New York City’s School Of Last Chances
At a charter high school in a high-poverty area of Brooklyn, New York, many kids don’t graduate in four years. Seeing their achievements requires looking beyond the data.
By Rebecca Klein
Howard’s students attend New Visions AIM Charter High School I, a charter high school near the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The school was created in 2012 under a different name with different management, but with the same audacious mission: to educate the students whom other schools had failed. These are the toughest of students, the kids who have either been in jail, become homeless or live in foster care.
Some kids have experienced all three.
Students who attend AIM I are 15 to 21 years old, the oldest age that a student can attend a public school in New York, by law. Every matriculated child has been held back for at least one grade, and oftentimes has faced insurmountable obstacles in their personal lives.
Last year, with a school of about 200 students, only about 30 graduated, and many had taken more than four years. This number, while representing a huge increase from previous years, falls far short of goals set by state education leaders. While these numbers may paint a picture of failure, the reality is so much more complicated.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-visions_us_5aa2e6dae4b07047bec66970
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