From the Washington Post -
The remarkable brain of a carpet cleaner who speaks 24 Languages
By Jessica Contrera
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Even the Critters Are Doing Classwork
From Upworthy -
A professor asked students to send photos of their dogs doing classwork. It quickly got out of hand.
By Jisha Joseph
'I probably now have a collection of maybe 60 dogs. Some are at the computer. Some are reading,' the professor revealed.
https://scoop.upworthy.com/professor-asked-students-dogs-doing-homework-internet-exploded
Guaranteed to bring a smile. - Faye
Beautiful!
It is not a work of art made of black stone or granite. She is Sudanese model Nyakim Gatwech. The most beautiful among the black beauties. She is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the darkest skin ever seen on earth. She is also known as the QUEEN OF DARK. pic.twitter.com/gbyoNizcEJ
— Mynameis...Miro (@zg4ever) February 17, 2022
Breaking Barriers in the Sky
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
24-YEAR OLD TO MAKE HISTORY AS YOUNGEST BLACK FEMALE PILOT FOR COMMERCIAL AIRLINES
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
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| (Image: Blacknews.com) |
Miracle Izuchukwu, who is from New York City, will soon break barriers when she officially becomes part of the 1% of Black female pilots for major commercial airlines around the world.
Now 24-years old, she is currently in training to become a Commercial Airline Pilot and continues to inspire other people with her story.
Miracle, whose parents are Nigerian, says that she grew up in a very discouraging environment. She said her ambitions were often looked down on because of her gender, but she did not let it stop her from dreaming big.
How Late Is Too Late To Call Someone?
From Southern Living -
How Late Is Too Late To Call Someone? Southerners Know the Answer
Manners matter, even over the phone.
By Kaitlyn Yarborough
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| istock photo |
No matter the quickness and ease that texting and emails lend to our busy lives, nothing will ever beat an old-fashioned phone call. The stories and details simply cannot be mimicked in text form, no matter how cute and cheeky the smiley faces and heart emoticons seem. Yet, just like with anything else in the South, there are manners to mind, even when it comes to your weekly gossip session with a girlfriend or daily touch-base with your sister. When is it too late to call someone? Here's the Southerner-friendly breakdown, but it's not necessarily clear-cut.
Like with anything, social rules of any nature—but particularly etiquette-related ones—aren't set in impenetrable stone. In order to work, they need to bounce and bend to adapt to different situations, moments, people, and cultures. That goes for phone calls, too. The cutoff time you would call a cousin with young children isn't necessarily the same deadline you'd give to your best friend who loves to pour a glass of vino and plan the next girls' trip just as much as you do. You wouldn't call a professional acquaintance as late as you would one of your close family members. Basically, manners aren't manners if you don't wield them correctly.
However, there are general guidelines about phone etiquette that are always important to heed—unless in the case of an emergency, of course. Firstly, if the sun's down, so should be the cellphone. Busy weeknights and fun-filled weekends deserve their own precious consideration, so Southerners know to keep the calls to the daylight as much as possible, which albeit gives you more flexibility during the sunlight-filled summer months than the winter. Summer is for evening porch hangs and light-hearted gossiping phone calls, anyway.
Secondly, respect your elders. (This one applies to many scenarios in the South.) Likely, your mother and great-aunt didn't grow up with pings and rings coming in past dinnertime. It's best to handle any social business with your older family members and acquaintances prior to 4 p.m. This guideline isn't steadfast by any means, but a good rule of thumb is to respect people's time and evening routines, especially if they go to bed early.
Lastly, the later it is, the shorter to keep it. As the day winds down, it can be hard now for most of us in the modern technological world to wind down with it. Keep catchup "phone dates" with friends and family under an hour (and around 30 minutes if possible), especially if calling after business hours. This makes it easy for both parties to keep to their schedules and get things done.
In short, if the clock is ticking past 6 p.m., Southerners might not pick up. It's nothing personal—rather, it's just that dinner is on the stovetop and the next episode of Yellowstone is calling our name.
https://www.southernliving.com/culture/etiquette/when-is-it-too-late-to-call-someone
Want a "Cup of Joe?"
An excerpt from All Recipes -
Why We Call Coffee a "Cup of Joe"
Several theories attempt to explain the phrase.
By Stacey Lastoe
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| istock photo |
One theory on cup of joe's origin goes like this: In 1914, a ban on alcohol on U.S. Navy ships imposed by the Secretary of the Navy Josephus "Joe" Daniels meant that the strongest drink available aboard the ship was black coffee. It wasn't long before the angry sailors began referring to the hot drink as Joe or cup of joe, a nod to the Navy secretary.
Gabrielle Bernstein, co-founder of Joe Coffee Company, of which there are now 20 in New York City, subscribes to this theory: "What I always heard about the origin story of cup of joe was that it was during World War II, and there was a sergeant who didn't allow the troops to drink booze, so he gave them a lot of coffee instead." The booze-banning sergeant's name was Joe, and so, says Bernstein, "they started calling coffee 'a cup of Joe.'"
Another theory plays into this story: Many believe that the nickname cup of joe is a way of saying coffee is common — it's a common man's drink. Joe, being a common name, represents the basic beverage (though these days, coffee is often anything but basic). Coffee wasn't a cappuccino or a latte or a flat white or cold brew. It was coffee grounds and water. Hot, caffeinated, and open to milk or sugar additives, coffee was regular. Low-brow, low-key, cheap, and purpose-serving.
The third and no less compelling explanation for how cup of joe came about goes back to the 1930s when coffee's most popular nickname was jamoke, from mocha java. Some linguists say joe is a shortened version of jamoke. British etymologist and writer Michael Quinion's research supports this understanding of cup of joe's origin.
Black Life We Rarely See
From the Huffington Post -
These Black Photographers Showcase Images of Black Life That Too Often Go Unseen
By Erin E. Evens and Christy Havranek
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| Burden Bearer |
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-photographers-everyday-life_n_6214f954e4b0d1388f0b52cb
California's Cup Runneth Over With Billionaires
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Why So Many Billionaires Live in California
Blame Silicon Valley.
By Soumya Karlamangla
 | |
| From left, the Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, and the Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.Credit...From left: Eric Thayer for The New York Times, Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times, Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images |
Of the 100 wealthiest people in America, 26 live in California.
That’s more than any other state, and not simply a byproduct of California’s large population. If the country’s 100 top billionaires were evenly distributed, we would expect just 12 of them to reside here.
Yes, this is largely because of Silicon Valley. But it’s also a reflection of the fact that California has the fifth-largest economy in the world, said Richard Walker, an emeritus professor at U.C. Berkeley who studies economic geography.
“California has been the main engine for American growth for the last 50 years,” Walker told me. “This is not sufficiently acknowledged — how immense the California economy is.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/us/billionaires-california.html
A Lifelong Lesson Learned at 11 Years Old
An excerpt from the Washington Post Magazine -
A story about some words I can’t say
By Damon Young
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| (Monique Wray for The Washington Post) |
The first thing I learned about my new White classmates at St. Bartholomew Catholic School was less a “new thing learned” and more a rejection of an old thing thought.
Months earlier (this was in the early ’90s), my parents decided to pull me out of Pittsburgh public schools and enroll me there to start sixth grade. If you’d asked Dad why they made that decision, he’d probably talk about “pre-AP courses” or “the benefits of didactic parochial instruction” — exactly what Black parents who ship their kids to predominantly White suburban schools are supposed to say. But if you knew my dad, and you asked that same question, he might tell you the truth: I was a talented basketball player, and their ball program was the best in western Pennsylvania. Getting me there was one step toward his (later successful) master plan of getting me a full ride to college.
Anyway, I assumed the White boys there would be soft. And it’s not like I was hard. But I was hood. And I thought that meant I was inherently tougher than anyone not from a place like where I was from. Especially suburban Catholic White boys. But my new classmates and teammates were the sons of plumbers and deli owners, school nurses and construction workers. They ripped and roasted and fought just as quickly — and just as well — as anyone from my neighborhood did. Months later, when we outfought the rest of the diocese to cap an undefeated hoop season, I never felt so good to be so wrong.
The second thing I learned about my new White classmates happened my third day there. It was recess, which meant each of the 50 sixth-graders finished whichever combination of carbs and veggies were served at lunch that day and then rushed to the rectory-adjacent parking lot for our 16 minutes of freedom before the fifth period bell rang. Most of the boys took part in a football-like substance where the football was a Koosh ball and we played “stop-grab” instead of two-hand touch.
You can't stop here. Click the link to get to the point he's making. - Faye
This is NUTS!
From the Washington Post -
An assistant principal read the children’s book ‘I Need a New Butt!’ to second-graders. He was fired.
By Jaclyn Peiser
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| Toby Price with his wife, Leah. (Toby Price) |
When a guest who was scheduled to read to second-graders over Zoom this month didn’t show up, Toby Price, the assistant principal at a Mississippi elementary school, improvised.
Price’s boss at Gary Road Elementary School suggested Price read to the students, so he reached for one of his favorite children’s books: “I Need a New Butt!” written by Dawn McMillan and illustrated by Ross Kinnaird.
“It’s a funny, silly book,” Price, 46, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I’m a firm believer that … if kids see that books can be funny and silly, they’ll hang around long enough to see all the other cool things that books can be.”
The students “thought it was hilarious,” Price recalled. But the superintendent for the Hinds County School District near Jackson, Miss., did not, and about an hour after the event, Price was placed on administrative leave. Two days later, on March 4, he was fired.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/11/toby-price-principal-fired-childrens-book/
Ukraine & Racism
An excerpt from PUCK -
Ukraine, Racism, and the Wars We Ignore
War shatters lives, but also reveals what binds us together. I’m clinging to a hope that this war will bring out the best in us, both in Ukraine and beyond.
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| Photo by Murat Saka via Getty |
I’ve been feeling more tired than usual these past two weeks. It took me a few days to identify the reason. Maybe it was the rapid unmasking of my fellow Americans? Or was it the fact that I took two cross-country flights in five days? No, it turns out the real reason for my fatigue was that I hadn’t scheduled a war in my calendar. Yet war has been occupying my mind, my heart, and my screens. Watching Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has drained, enraged, and inspired me all at once.
I don’t generally operate on a daily basis with Ukraine or Russia on my mind. That changed within two days of the invasion after a friend from Eastern Europe, currently living close to me in Southern California, asked his American wife whether his family could move in with them, if it came to that. Without warning, I found myself near tears. This couple had previously been plotting the reverse migration: spending more time in Europe, that civilized place where universal healthcare is the norm and school and childcare costs don’t bankrupt families. But suddenly America looked safer and more stable, even with our wealth inequality and no-longer-notable school shootings. Being in Putin’s line of fire was a clearer and more present danger.
Then, after the unanticipated and deep sadness, came an even less familiar feeling: violent rage. I had a sudden urge to go to Ukraine and fight Russians.
https://puck.news/ukraine-racism-and-the-wars-we-ignore/
You'll need to sign up to unlock 1 free article. This is so worth the trouble. - Faye
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