Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

White supremacy is terrorism.

This fight is for everything.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

In my day, never was longer.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Respite Open Thread: There Are Good People Out There

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74Comments

  3. 3.

    Ohio Mom

    This is my favorite week of the year, the week the trees’ leaves appear. Those tiny, light green leaves, like all newborns, are adorable.

    On one side of my extended family, my 99 (!) year old uncle died yesterday. He was the last of his generation on my father’s side.

    On my mother’s side, my cousin’s son and his wife had their first baby, a girl, twelve days ago. She is the first of her generation. Though looking around the family tree at her parent’s generation, it is unclear if and when she will have any company. Most of them are struggling to establish themselves.

  6. 6.

    satby

    In all seriousness, a very courageous woman I know told me not long ago that in her experience most people want to be “good people”, meaning not unkind. Which was humbling, because this is her organization, and I can imagine she’s been met with quite a bit of unkindness herself.

  9. 9.

    MomSense

    @Ohio Mom:

    Isn’t it amazing how we experience these milestones in one extended family. The end of one life well lived and the start of a new life full of promise and wonder.

  12. 12.

    Ohio Mom

    @satby: Thanks, that’s how I feel, the force that animates the universe never stops moving forward, even as it also circles back. It’s been a week of whiplash, consoling one set of cousins, celebrating with the other.

    Your comment about eating potato chips and crying inspired me to watch the videos — I usually skip them. Now I’m crying too. I guess we just have to hope all our small kind gestures will eventually right this off-kilter world of ours.

  13. 13.

    raven

    We’re having our annual Teaching and Learning Conference (my last) and I had a nice talk with a Japanese professor who teaches at one of our institutions. I remembered that I had a Japanese Army shirt my dad brought back from the Pacific and I have always wondered what the best thing I could do with it. I googled “what do I do with WW2 Japanese artifacts and a page from the Japanese embassy came up and talked about how disrespectful it would be to sell such a thing and how it would be good to try to reunite it with the family. I took it to the conference and asked her if she would like to have it and she said yes and that she goes to the embassy and would take it. The shirt has a label in it and it turns out that the name of the soldier is on it! I brought it to her on a hanger, after we took a picture with us holding it, she slowly folded it and bowed over it. It was quite touching and I’m really glad I pursued it with her.

  17. 17.

    West of the Rockies

    Anyone remember the story of the little Jewish boy’s toy monkey that is now at the Jewish Museum in Berlin? The story is archived and deeply touching. Look up “NPR toy monkey” if you want another deeply touching story.

    Thank you for this thread, TaMara.

  19. 19.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    I live for this time of year. My favorites, azaleas, are just beginning to pop. There is no better colorist than Nature!

    ETA: I was so excited by your leafing buds, I forgot to read through the end of your post. Condolences on your uncle and the last of a generation. It’s been a couple years since the demise of the last of my parents’ generation, and I still miss them.

  21. 21.

    raven

    @Baud: Yes, my colleague was wonderful. She fully understands the severe problems within the Japanese military (especially the Army) but still has reverence for those lost.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    Rains forecast for this Tuesday arrived today. Now supposed to last through the weekend. So much for the mowing had penciled in.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @raven: Your story reminds me of Marie Kondo. I know people like to make fun of her but much of her book resonated with me.

    She’s all about treating inanimate objects with care and respect — that is why for example, she has special ways of folding and storing various types of clothing.

    Even socks deserve to be honored, after all, they have the important job of protecting your feet. So I am not surprised that the Japanese embassy instructs people to be thoughtful about disposing of historical artifacts.

    I sort of wish we could follow the Army shirt and see what its next adventure is.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    I have an appointment to get a second needle aspiration biopsy for our kitty Annie in a couple of weeks so we can figure out if what she has is treatable or not.

    In the meantime, she is thoroughly enjoying the fact that she is getting wet food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and was sulking the other day when I tried to give her moistened dry food for dinner rather than canned wet food. Apparently, it is NOT the same! ?

  35. 35.

    dexwood

    @Mnemosyne:
    Hope they can get a handle on Annie’s problem. Our 12 year old PBGV had 8 teeth extracted this week. Dental issues have been a long term problem no matter what we’ve done on his behalf. Anyway, he’s loving the cans of soft food he’s now getting.

  37. 37.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The first 25 seconds was legendary. I’ve always liked that idea that cats are arrogant and consider themselves superior to us. I’ve always thought it was cute. Thanks for sharing!

  38. 38.

    Ohio Mom

    @West of the Rockies: That *is* a sweet story. One of my best friends’ mother was put on a kindertransport to England. No happy reunion stories in that family, however.

    One of the most often told Holocaust stories in my family is that my mother’s mother came to America at around age 16 because her older sister had married a dentist.

    That was considered a very good catch but a family has to cough up an extra big dowry for a match like that. There wasn’t going to be much money left to marry my grandmother off to anyone desirable so she went to live with cousins in New York.

    Eventually the Holocaust came to Hungary and the sister and her dentist husband perished while my grandmother was safe in the Bronx.

  39. 39.

    Mary G

    @raven: You are another Juicer who tries to look crusty and tough but is just a marshmellow heart of gold inside.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    @Mnemosyne: Some people in long term treatments for Stage 4 cancers like to say they are living (not dying) with cancer. Sounds like the same could be said of Annie.

  42. 42.

    realbtl

    @raven: I love it when things like that happen. My late Comanche wife left about 20 partial canvases when she passed 4 years ago. One day I saw an article about local artists working with young Blackfeet over the hill in Browning. They were thrilled and some of these have been painted over and shown. Perfect.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    Perhaps this would be a good time to remind MA-RI Juicers that the memorial celebration for our dear late efgoldman will take place this Saturday in the Boston area. If you hadn’t previously contacted me and might like to attend and celebrate his life (or want a reminder), do email me at SiubhanDuinne (at) gmail (dot) com. Put EFG in the subject line and I’ll send you time and place.

  46. 46.

    patrick II

    Dwayne Wade did a lot of charity work and was kind and helpful to many people off of the court. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t tough minded on the court and gave as good as he got. Kobe Bryant was a great basketball player, but absolutely ruthless. Kobe had a move where he threw his arms out after a shot and hit people in the face if they were too near. He broke Ginobili’s nose doing that. Fines didn’t stop him, and finally a suspension did. In Jeremy Lin’s breakout few weeks with the Knicks, Kobe ran right through Lin’s left leg and blew out Jeremy’s knee which ended Linsanity.
    I forget exactly what rough play he did to Wade, but the next time Kobe went up for a layup Wade tried to block his shot and “accidentlly” missed his arm swung through and broke Kobe’s nose.
    Being a nice guy off the court did not prevent him from playing hardball on it. It is something I wish for a lot of nice guy Democrats I see, but I am seeing more of it lately and and glad of it.

  47. 47.

    trollhattan

    @raven:
    That’s really amazing, well done to you and all involved!

    A friend’s in-laws were WWII-era Europeans–father from Italy and mother from Germany. Helga grew up in Berlin at a time one would not wish to have–as an young girl she even attended the Olympics when “That black man made Herr Hitler very, very mad.”

    A Jewish neighbor, before fleeing with family entrusted her father with his stamp collection and Helga ultimately ended up with it, bringing it to America. When she passed a couple years ago the family was pondering what to do. One sibling wanted to sell it but a brother demurred and took it to an expert, who upon looking at a few pages said he could not establish a value without a lot of work, but it would be very substantial. The brother took it to the German Consulate in SF. They researched and found that descendants of the original owner are still alive and so the collection is back with them.

    Little things can be big things.

  49. 49.

    TomatoQueen

    I love these stories, in so many unexpected ways reminding us to take one extra step, to make amazing things happen.

  50. 50.

    Shana

    @raven: If you learn anything about what happens to the shirt please let us know. Whether it’s returned to a family member or honored by the Japanese in some way, we’d like to hear about it.

  51. 51.

    raven

    Dang, I didn’t expect this kind of response about the shirt.
    It was an interesting couple of days. I had arranged to name the keynote of the conference after my pal and boss who we lost last year. With her folks approval we did so and I had the honor of introducing it and saying just a few words. She had also told me she wanted to have party before she died so people could tell her how wonderful she was! I ended my remarks with that and it brought down the house of about 300 folks. She would have dug it!

  53. 53.

    raven

    @Shana: Yea, the professor and I intend to stay in touch about it so if anything comes of it I’ll certainly let everyone know. I put it on my FB and the reaction there has been really positive.

  54. 54.

    Ohio Mom

    @patrick II: Not being a sports watcher or follower, the stories you tell about Kobe (whoever he is) and Wade (just introduced to him in this post) are eye-openers. I had no idea basketball could be so brutal. I thought it was all bouncing balls and jumping up high. I’ll be.

  56. 56.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @raven: You’re so terrific at doing the right thing. As rikyrah says, you’re good people.

    I should try to do that kind of stuff.

  58. 58.

    Mary G

    @trollhattan: There are so many good people in the world. Too bad the media and society prefer to read about conflict and crime. I like to follow this twitter account:

    A Muslim woman who traveled across the world from Abu Dhabi to the United States so her 4-year-old could undergo a liver transplant meets the woman who saved her son's life. This is HUMANITY ❤️I'm crying ?Retweet ❤️ pic.twitter.com/7ms0iuHNr8— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) April 10, 2019

  59. 59.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    …It was quite touching and I’m really glad I pursued it with her.

    Thanks for sharing that touching story with us.

    I found my uncle’s wings in my mom’s jewelry after dad died. He was a gunner on B-24s in the South Pacific. My other uncle was a Chief on a cruiser, in the South Pacific. Neither of them ever mentioned their war to me, but I know mom’s brother woke up screaming in the night the rest of his life…

    War IS Hell !

    You did a good thing, and I thank you.

  60. 60.

    raven

    @J R in WV: The prof and I talked a good bit about the war last night and I explained how my uncle, who never left Navy Pier, hated “the Japs” but my old man respected the hell out of them. When he coached football in LA in the early 60’s he always said that he’d watch the Japanese kids and, when they started to fall out, he knew he was pushing to hard because they were so tough.

  61. 61.

    Barbara

    @trollhattan: However valuable it might be in monetary terms it is probably priceless to the descendents of the man who collected it. It is such small compensation for such terrible suffering but it would make me cringe to see something like that being sold.

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    @J R in WV:
    As neighborhood kids we traded notes on (and observed directly) which dads had hair-trigger tempers. All had served and some, mine included, could snap with seemingly little provocation. It’s a hellova thing to send young and very young men off to war, and hell was visited on the families of some, after. I’m frankly surprised it was not more prevalent.

  63. 63.

    Barbara

    @Mary G: Gosh, and no one had to die for the little boy to get his transplant. I have a tough time with the other kind of transplant stories.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Barbara:
    You’re so right and it’s a small miracle that it even got that level of attention amidst the massive task of dealing with dispensing of a home and the lifetime of contents it contains. Such a sad and draining task. And there’s always that one kid….

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @TaMara (HFG): Wow, she really is a cat whisperer. I really appreciate these respite threads.

    @Baud: I am so happy that you are back. Your comments always brighten my day.

    @raven: Piling on with happiness about your shirt story.

  67. 67.

    RAVEN

    @trollhattan: Pick this up sometime
    “Remembering Heaven’s Face: A Story of Rescue in Wartime Vietnam Paperback – May 6, 2002
    by John Balaban”

    I volunteered to go to Vietnam, but as a conscientious objector to war. . . . While most of these events took place in the midst of the war, this is not exactly a story about the war, but a story of rescue. Most of the children I helped save―scalped, burned, blasted, or shot when I found them―are now adults, parents or even grandparents themselves. . . . And while many of my funny, wise, reckless, young American friends of those days are dead, what they did and what they learned is not. It is as if all of us were being watched, all of us journeying under a brilliant blue sky that is the face of heaven.

    As he says, he was a CO and volunteer. When he came home he found himself slamming some guy on the hood of his car in a fit of road rage. He realized how the shit impacted him even though he wasn’t a combatant.

  68. 68.

    Dan B

    @satby: Very brave and big hearted woman!
    On a similar nite Dwayne Wade, his wife and kids went with his 11 year old son, Zion, to Miami Pride. The pictures are heartwarming.

  71. 71.

    Dan B

    @Mary G: It’s interesting that so many americans are surprised that there are “good Muslims”.

    There are a lot if Muslims in our neighborhood. They’re pretty typical people. Some are friendly and others are not. They tend socially conservative. I chalk that up to the Saudis bankrolling Wahabist madrassas worldwide.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Genine: But it is impossible to cry while you are swallowing a beverage. I learned this decades ago when my boyfriend broke up with me at a party at my house. The only way I could keep from crying for the duration of the party was to continually drink a beverage.

    Either to my benefit, or not, all the beverages at the party were alcoholic, so while it got me through the party the aftermath was probably not ideal.

  73. 73.

    Inspectrix

    I want more positive news, and Dwayne Wade is awesome for giving back and being a supportive parent.
    However, my happy tears at this video feel like a cheap manipulation by a purveyor of truly undrinkable beverages. This is the world we live in where beer companies appear to have the moral high ground.
    At least there are cool radio telescope array images to look at today.

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