Meet the 2022 MacArthur Fellows: 25 exceptionally creative people who push the boundaries of their fields and challenge us to imagine new possibilities. #MacFellow.
Who inspires you?https://t.co/0xc2wrvvkK pic.twitter.com/oMBDpjQFk2
— MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) October 12, 2022
This year's 25 MacArthur Fellows will each receive $800,000, a "no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential." The fellows can advance their expertise, change careers or buy a house.https://t.co/2xcJMjbV8A
— Majid Maqbool (@MaqboolMajid) October 14, 2022
"The call. MacArthur fellows remember the call as a blur, a fog, a shock, a what?"
The 2022 #MacFellows talk about what the call meant to them, via @washingtonpost https://t.co/xJpy9JJnwy
— MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) October 14, 2022
… October is awards season for the exceptionally smart. First, the Nobel Prizes and now the MacArthur fellowships, revealed Wednesday: highly remunerative honors that you can’t apply for, forever brand you as a genius and arrive, fabulously, with almost no strings attached.
When his phone rang, Reuben Jonathan Miller believed that the call would only bring more problems that he would have to solve, MacArthur fellows being in the business of solving immense problems the rest of us cannot.
“My work follows people who have been locked away in prison,” says Miller, 46, a University of Chicago sociologist and criminologist. “I thought the call was from a lawyer representing someone who had been in prison.”…
This year’s diverse class includes musicians, artists, writers, activists, plenty of hyphenates and many, many academics. It is composed of 15 women and 10 men, who hail from 15 states. The group includes nine Black fellows, seven Asian American, two Indigenous and one Chicana. The youngest recipient is 35 and the two eldest, age 69. So, possibly, there’s still time for the rest of us.
Among this year’s better-known recipients is Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation who wrote the stealth bestseller “Braiding Sweetgrass,” which blends Indigenous wisdom with scientific learning, asking readers to reconsider how they view and treat the natural world. Kimmerer ignored multiple calls from MacArthur administrators, to the point that they employed the ruse, which they’ve used to inform other winners, that “they wanted my confidential evaluation of a candidate,” she says. So she pulled to the side of a road on her way to a faculty retreat.
This year’s group includes Kiese Laymon, the Black Southern author of “Heavy: an American Memoir,” which has been acclaimed by critics, named one of the best personal histories of the last half century and banned by several school boards. Martha Gonzalez, another newly minted fellow, is a professor, “Chicana artivista,” feminist music theorist and member of the Grammy-winning ensemble Quetzal…
Melanie Matchett Wood, 41, a Harvard number theorist who also studies algebraic geometry, is an infectious mathematician. Her conversation frequently erupts into fireworks of laughter.
“I am filled with joy doing math — that’s why I love it,” Wood says. “It’s incredibly fun and fulfilling to me to work on. Nothing could beat my love of working on trying to figure out ways to solve new math problems.” As a teenager, she was the first female American to make the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team, receiving silver medals in 1998 and 1999. She was also a cheerleader and editor of her school paper…
Wood is one of two mathematician fellows this year. June Huh, 39, at Princeton, once dreamed of being a poet. Growing up in Korea, his math potential was not first widely acknowledged by graduate schools. “In my first attempt, I didn’t get any offer,” he writes in an email. When he tried again two years later, he received only one, from the University of Illinois. Huh is having some year. In July, his work in geometric combinatorics won him the Fields Medal, given every four years to mathematicians younger than 40 and known as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics.”
Many of this year’s fellows pursue new interdisciplinary areas of exploration and, with them, fresh job descriptors. Jenna Jambeck, 48, who’s an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia, considers herself an “open data citizen scientist,” sharing information with the public. Her interest in waste dates to early childhood. “As a kid, I was completely fascinated with what we then called a ‘dump,’ ” Jambeck says. She encourages lay people to become involved, recording waste they see in the Marine Debris Tracker mobile app she developed, to provide useful data about plastic waste pollution for scientific research. “I don’t share recommendations. I share data information so that communities around the world can be decision-makers,” Jambeck says…
The 2022 class of MacArthur Fellows @macfound was announced today and I’m on the list! What a powerful validation of the change the movement is about to make. Let’s go!!!https://t.co/Cm9SGCD9ox
— Priti Krishtel (@pritikrishtel) October 12, 2022
Congrats to RADICAL REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE coeditor @LorettaJRoss and to all the incredible 2022 MacArthur Fellows!!! https://t.co/atuRWSOe5E
— Feminist Press (@FeministPress) October 12, 2022
NotMax
Being a smidge out of tune makes it all the more charming.
Baud
They need to recognize excellence in blog commenting.
Raven
Go Illini !!
NotMax
@Baud
Snipe hunting yields a bigger catch.
//
Phylllis
Thrilled to see J. Drew Lanham, Clemson professor and author of The Home Place honored. He is amazing. Here’s his Birding while Black lecture.
Albatrossity
Wheee! I personally know two of those geniuses (Drew Lanham and Robin Wall Kimmerer); both of them richly deserve this award!
Geminid
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar is doing good work in San Antonio. He recently certified the 50 migrants transported from his city as victims of a potential crime, possibly “illegal restraint.” The certification gives the migrants protected status, and as Sheriff Salazar said, ensures their availability as witnesses in his ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, the story of Perla Huerta, identified as one of the organizers ogf DeSantis’s stunt, has been quiet since her initial ID. I assume reporters are trying to establish how she engaged in this conspiracy so soon after her separation from the Army in August, and whether her actions predated that separation. I expect the Army is looking into this too.
lowtechcyclist
I had to Google ‘geometric combinatorics.’ I got my PhD in graph theory nearly 30 years ago, and you can’t do graph theory without doing a lot of combinatorics as well. But I’d never heard of geometric combinatorics, and I suspect the field didn’t even exist when I got my doctorate. (I’ve been a government statistician for the past quarter-century, so I haven’t exactly kept up with my old field.)
prostratedragon
@NotMax: So happens I’ve been listening lately to “Bolero Foxtrot.”
On subject, a featurette on Tomeka Reid, who is well-represented on YouTube.
OzarkHillbilly
Silly MacArthur people, don’t they know a woman’s place is in the kitchen?
Raven
@lowtechcyclist: I met my wife at a party 25 years ago and asked her what she was doing in Athens? She said she was working on her masters in Adult Ed. I hadn’t heard of it as a field. Seven years later I had a doc in it!
Mousebumples
Good morning, everyone! Seems like a cold day in Wisconsin – we might take the kids to an orchard this afternoon if the rain holds off until tomorrow… 🍎🍏
satby
Good morning all! Won’t be able to hang around, market day; but wanted to share a conversion story to brighten your morning. One of my cousins at a family wedding last night said to me
Now, for context, this cousin is 70, former FBI, went really right wing over abortion, etc. And for years has considered me extremely left wing so wouldn’t mention politics around me. Nor I around him. There’s hope people.
Baud
@Mousebumples:
@satby:
Good morning.
Thanks for the anecdote, satby. We always here about people going to the dark side. It’s nice to see it going the other way a little too.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: There is always hope, it’s just a little hard to see sometimes.
mrmoshpotato
@Mousebumples: Go Badgers! (even though they’re out of town)
Geminid
@satby: Your cousin is probably influenced by the total picture. But trump’s statements about the search at Mar-a-Loco must be especially offensive to FBI agents and alumni.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Good to hear!
satby
@Baud: For years I’ve hammered (on stupid platforms like Facebook that the olds are still use) that if you considered yourselves decent people you could not go along with what the Republican party was becoming. Most people in their personal lives want to be “good people”; so we need to reinforce what that means against the cacophony of propaganda that tells them a different definition.
Baud
@satby: You’re wonderful. I think we sometimes are reluctant to force people to make a choice because we are afraid they’ll make the wrong one.
It can be tricky to do with cutting edge issues, but the GOP is so far away from basic and historical standards of decency that we shouldn’t be afraid to press the issue.
satby
@Geminid: plus watching LEO officers in J6 attacked by tfg’s mob using the American and the blue line flags as weapons. Deeply offensive to him. He was outraged that they tried to deny Officer Sidnick’s death was in the line of duty initially. And the torture of the others. I suspect he’s not the only former cop who got a wake up call from that.
satby
@Baud: well, I like a verbal brawl and my superpower is not giving a rat’s ass what anyone’s opinion of me is. Told a guy spewing pure Russian propaganda about Ukraine he was a liar and a traitor last Saturday, and he was a customer at the booth next to me, not mine 😝. NFLTG
Edit, ok, gotta go. Everyone have a great day.
NotMax
@satby
Can we take it as a given that hen’s teeth are more plentiful at the market than are masks?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Great day for college football and baseball.
Penn St. versus Michigan with the autumn wind at the Big House. ‘Bama vs Tennessee. The Phillie Phanatic vs the Tomahawk Chop, capped off by San Diego goosing the overrated Dodgers.
We’re planning a triple play in 2 years: fly to Louisville to catch Cardinal basketball, drive north to Dayton for the Air Force museum, then further north to Columbus for the Ohio St – Michigan game.
Starfish
I was really excited that Kiese Laymon won. He is a Mississippi writer. I have not read his book Heavy, yet, but I recently read his interview with Gwendolyn Woods, the mother of Mario Woods, the police shooting victim who inspired Colin Kaepernick to kneel before the football games.
MazeDancer
What a great day to write PostCards to help “Hold the House!”.
Keeping her as Speaker is a fine way to thank the Speaker for saving the nation.
Also, if you choose to write for Susan Wild or Matt Cartwright in PA or Wiley Nickel in NC, you get good Senate boost free.
PostCards have been proven to boost turnout. And when Dems show up, we win.
Get addresses at PostCardPatriots.com. Or click on my nym.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: Wow. I wonder what brought that on.
It’s cold this morning in Chicagoland. Bundle up for the market
narya
Go Phillies! I can’t help but hear Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas in my head. I grew up in the Phillies TV market, and my first baseball game was at Connie Mack Stadium (I am an Old). My dad used to get tickets from one of his suppliers for one game a year. The last year I lived in Philadelphia, I took myself to a game for my birthday, and, when I heard myself say, “Yo, beer” to hail the vendor I knew that my Philly-ness was deep in my bones.
Satby, you’ve inspired me.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MazeDancer: Bless you for keeping at us.
UncleEbeneezer
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Front page story and headline at the Miami Herald:
Before DeSantis appointed Keefe as “public safety czar,” Keefe was the attorney for Vertol Systems, the charter jet outfit that was paid outrageous sums of money for the flights. Will this corrupt bullshit make a difference in the upcoming election? The folks who analyze politics for a living say it won’t.
Immanentize
@Raven: Your old haunts got one too, Dawg.
Ken
Possibly a trick to get him to blurt out some confession-as-denial like “No, I used a limo” or “They were my documents, I can move them where I want.”
Betty Cracker
I didn’t watch the Warnock-Walker debate last night, but articles about it note (offhandedly!) that Walker flashed a fake badge. I don’t understand why that’s not in every headline. What the actual fuck?!?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It’s not as if Warnock flashed a fake badge.
Immanentize
Update — yesterday was the start of week 2 for me testing COVID positive. I’m not too sick, just like a nasty cold with need for naps. But my Dr. says, “Yep, looks like Paxlovid rebound!, Stay hydrated, thnxby.” I think I might be as well off being treated by a naked person painted with mud throwing bones.
Ah well, I will live. My Mom’s funeral service will be at the end of the month. Looks like I did some good moves and that she won’t actually have any estate to probate. The big one was joint accounts. She doesn’t have much $$, but she could have paid for another year, maybe, of assisted living. Although not really in issue, I am going to honor her will and give the DAR* a bit of scratch and then split up everything else between her now-living 4 g-kids. Maybe about 1/100th of a Macarthur grant?, but any amount is nice to get from your grandmother as a gift.
* She knew (as do we all) about the ugly racist history of the DAR, but it was a lifesaving org for her (after my father died) of history and cookie loving old ladies. But she may have been the sole Catholic among them.
lashonharangue
@narya: I attended Connie Mack Stadium to see one of the games during the infamous collapse.
Immanentize
@Baud: Baud, I tremble to imagine what you would have flashed.
Immanentize
@Albatrossity: Yes indeed. It’s not too often in the history of the award that the birds were represented.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Modern Republic Party version?
LiminalOwl
@satby: Oh, that’s truly cheering. Thank you.
eclare
@Immanentize: Oh I’m so sorry to hear about your mother.
Baud
@Immanentize:
It wouldn’t have been fake, I guarantee.
narya
@lashonharangue: Oof. That was just a bit before I would have paid any real attention (and, now that I think about it, was probably the year after my first game?). I have lived in/near two cities–I live in Chicago now–with historic baseball collapses.
I am noticing that there are WAY TOO MANY commercials–I have to record the games so I can fast-forward through them. It bums me out, because I love the rhythm of a baseball game. I like to attend in person, and keep score, but haven’t done so in years. Cubs owners are terrible people, and Sox stadium is terrible, so . . .
Central Planning
I’m attending a college visit with my youngest.
Stopped by a local coffee shop. They had a Candy Corn Latte on the menu. 🤢🤢🤢 There are some things I will not try.
Betty Cracker
@Baud:
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Perfect.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Good morning everyone!
Nice and chill in BHM today. Looking forward to Bama’s trip to Knoxville, gonna be a good one, I think.
Walker turned out even worse than I thought he would. I have family in GA and they’re all pretty disgusted.
O. Felix Culpa
@narya:
White Sox stadium slander! The ever-changing corporate name is terrible; the stadium is not. :)
delphinium
@satby: That is great to hear that your cousin may be coming around. And good for you for blasting that idiot at the Farmer’s Market. Too often the right assumes those on the left will always be too cordial to call them out for the ghouls, hypocrites, and traitors they are.
And it seems like some of our politicians understand this and are going to hit back hard. Gov Whitmer clearly stated that her opponent Tudor Dixon will “choose the second amendment over second graders every time…” in their most recent debate. We need more of this in every debate and every ad.
Immanentize
@Baud: ha!! are you a Dylan fan, or what?
Moral: Careful where you show your collateral!
narya
@O. Felix Culpa: To be honest, I went when it first opened (and I actually saw a game at Comiskey, back in the day), and thought I would tip out of the upper deck seats. I also saw a Springsteen concert there. Part of the problem is that Wrigley spoils you, in terms of being close to the field, etc. Where do you like to sit? Maybe I’ll reconsider next year.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Hope you continue to feel better. I was denied paxlovid so no rebound for me but I still feel really tired.
Happy to hear that the gkids will get a gift from grandma. I hope they do something fun and think of her.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Can it really be worse than Enron Stadium going to Minute Maid?
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: It’s all over twitter, OTOH.
Immanentize
@MomSense: I thank you for that suggestion! I think I will write them each a card with the check saying,
“Do something fun with this.”
The youngest gson is the Immp, and he can always think of something fun to do.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: I had missed that your mother had died. My condolences. Will Immp return for the funeral?
And continue to recover from the ‘rona. I wonder if that type will make its way to central VA before too long.
Happy to hear the grandkids will receive a small inheritance from your mother. It always helps.
Immanentize
@eclare: Thank you.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Glad to hear you are on the mend.
And great suggestion re the card. No paying bills with that check, if at all possible. There will always be bills. Travel just about always rewards.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: I don’t think the Immp will be able to get there, he is trying to both get on top of his classes before finals and he is working in an internship 20hrs/wk which ends up largely accomplished on weekends. I am sorry about this situation.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: I’m sorry about your mother. You must be worn out
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is my theory about why I fell to COVID in the first place. My body just went on strike and demanded paid vacation.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Wow, how to say the GOP has gone full nazi without saying they’ve gone full nazi. :-) Just one more reason I admire you.
delphinium
@Immanentize:
Hope you continue to feel better and are all done with Covid soon.
It will be a nice remembrance for the kids to have that small inheritance from your mother and spend it on something that brings them joy.
When my sister passed away last year from cancer, sent out small boxes of some of her things that I thought family and friends would like to have to remember her by.
Immanentize
@delphinium: That is such a sweet thing. I’m sure that was more meaningful than even a fun check
JMG
@lashonharangue: Me, too, and I’m pretty sure I could give a play by play of it now, 58 years later. This is why no Phillies fan of our age can ever relax, even with a 9-1 lead in the ninth.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: My best friend lost her mom a few weeks ago, and she did, that, too.
Her mom had a lot of nice earrings, and Tina chose a set of pieces for every family, and for all the grandkids. Everyone was so pleased to have something beautiful from their grandmother.
MomSense
@delphinium:
I was really lucky that my great aunt gave me special things while she was still alive. After she died my dad gave me a little case that she kept in her purse. It was bright red and I remember seeing it over the years. It was actually a little wallet sized photo case and when I opened it I found that she had kept pictures of me baby through adult and then my boys as babies. I couldn’t believe it – it was like the best I love you from the beyond.
FastEdD
MacArthur Fellows-when an award like that is given, the first tendency is for the recipient to take it personally. When you think about it however, the award is a validation of what you are doing. You are doing something right! Keep doing it!!
Geminid
I checked out the Saturday morning Politico Playbook and saw an interesting item on the Wisconsin races: former President Barak Obama will campaign for the Democratic ticket in Milwaukee on October 29. I was glad to see this. Also, Senator Warren will visit the stae twice in coming weeks.
The first portion of the Playbook entry discussed the Georgia Senate debate.
delphinium
@MomSense:
That is such a wonderful and amazing gift-so glad you have that to remember her!
We have a bit of a tradition now in our family that when someone passes, we each pick out a piece of jewelry and wear it on special occasions like birthdays, holidays (if not more often) to cherish all of the good times we had together.
Betty Cracker
I’m writing postcards to voters while watching the College Gameday hoopla. Current batch of postcards is for Texas — Beto, Susan Hays (Ag) and Luke Warford (Railroad). Previously, I did postcards for Warnock and Abrams in GA and for Jeff Ettinger in MN. Hope it makes a difference!
delphinium
@Immanentize:
Yeah, my sister had dated one of her friend’s brother for a couple years and when going thru her stuff, came across cards, letters, pictures, and drawings he had sent her, so sent those and a couple other items to her friend (he had passed away several years before my sister).
Another friend of hers from high school had sent her some goofy letters in college-my sister had saved those-and so I sent them to that friend along with some other things.
Immanentize
@MomSense: That is so great. But, what would one do in the future? A thumb drive from a phone? The world changes fast.
Feathers
When MacArthur season comes around I always think of a grad student I knew who got bent out of shape about them. You see, part of the criteria is that the money will make a difference for you. So if you are a trust fund baby, the MacArthur people probably won’t be considering you. He thought that was deeply unfair. Of course, his work was not of the originality or caliber they are looking for, either. But it was his rich family denying him the recognition he deserved.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: The things I no longer need but my sons would appreciate (like the family heirloom Grumman canoe or the custom knives my mother had made for her sons and sils and husband, (I had 2 of those) I have already given away. I will do the same as I age out of other things.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
@delphinium:
That was very sweet of you 😢
OzarkHillbilly
@Feathers: Pobrecito….
sab
@Feathers: Sometimes life is so sad.
O. Felix Culpa
@narya: It’s been a while, but I like the lower level seats in the upper deck, first base line. Great sightlines and not terribly expensive.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
Hmm. Guaranteed Rate Field is pretty bad, IMO. But Enron. A name that should go down in infamy.
Kay
The responses to the satirical TikTok posts by kids are hysterical – dopey Joe Rogan listeners do not understand that the 15 year olds on TikTok are making fun of them.
catclub
Unfortunately I have read the book The Invisible Bankers by Andrew Tobias. MacArthur made his money in life insurance the usual way, by not paying off or endlessly delaying legitimate claims. It tinges my view of the awards now.
sab
Cleveland Guardians actually won against the Yankees in tenth inning yesterday. Cleveland has made it to the playoffs occassionally, but then they get clobbered. Last time they won a World Series was 1948 when my mother (a rabid fan) was a very young woman not yet married. She passed ten years ago at age 84 still hoping to see a repeat.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Obama will be in Atlanta campaigning on the 28th of this month. Early voting starts Monday, but his appearance will help turn out the vote.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: Nobel made his fortune in explosives. The Prizes are still a big deal. Carnegie was horrible. His libraries still provide books. And so on.
sab
Ohio actually has a guy on our state school board (of course his kids are home schooled) who believes the kitty litter in schools is to accomodate furries story. I can’t even.. But he just brought up a proposition that would require teachers to out trans thinking kids. Short term even the Republicans on the Board disagreed and tabled it.
Why the fuck do we have a home schooler on our state board of education?
kalakal
Britain now has (so far) the year of the 4
EmperorsChancellors*https://twitter.com/troovus/status/1580929494294007808?s=20&t=twW4TTTELFXU9d8_yEHlcw
*Fun fact the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer long predates that of Prime Minister and salary is higher – all those annual increments must have added up I guess
JWR
@satby:
Interesting info about your cousin. May that person forever see the light! Also, it fits right in with a guest on last night’s Amanpour & Company.
Here’s a link to the 8 minute mark where she talks about an interesting focus group, the results of which give me hope that the Dems could really hold the House.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: The only totally good person in the history of super rich people giving is Mackenzie Scott. I agree. Get over it and take the money.
ETA I especially like that she doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel. Just give to people who are already doing good things in organizations they built on a shoestring budget.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa:
My wife and her brother were “Astros Buddies” growing up. A couple times a year, this club was invited down to the field to run the bases during the 7th inning stretch. And we got to go to the next to last game played in the Astrodome (I even have the snow globe to commemorate it). When you got a hotdog in those days, they were called “Dome Dogs.” A name as good as “Yankee Franks.”
Then Enron Field opened without any hotdog names, but we started a movement to call them “Gas Dogs.” Then Minute Maid Field; and all we could come up with was “Juicy Dogs.”
PS My one crazy conspiracy theory that I sorr of believe is that Kenneth Lay is still.alive.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Alison Rose
@Albatrossity: I loved Kimmerer’s book, really appreciated how she blended science with Indigenous knowledge, and her writing is just beautiful.
sab
My pitmix dog needs her toenails trimmed and she really really hates that. Any advice on best muzzles? Trimming her toenail ( I stopped at one) is the only time I seriously thought she might bite me with her pitbull jaws. I tried trimming one nail at a time in her sleep and she caught on fast.
Soprano2
@Immanentize: I wish I had options with my mother’s estate, but her trust lays out the “charities” she left the bulk of her money to. Unfortunately, 70% goes to Alliance Defending Freedom and Larry Klayman’s outfit that was started to continually sue the Clintons. 🤮🤮🤮 Might as well light it on fire. She did leave 12.5% to CARE animal rescue, which is a local outfit; if I had my way they would get 100% and never have to fundraise again. Giving the grandkids some money is a great use of it
ETA, I’m at my wit’s end with hubby’s daughter. She’s said all along she wants to go to Hawaii for her brother. I thought it was explicit that I was going to make the arrangements, so I did. I’ve been trying to contact her about them since Monday, but have gotten no response to numerous calls and texts. Today is the last day I can cancel without penalty, so I’m going to try another ph# I found for her; if that doesn’t work, I’m going to text her that if I don’t hear anything by 3:00 today I’m canceling her reservations. I don’t know what else to do; I even contacted her hubby, who wasn’t much help. Keep in mind that we hadn’t had any contact with her since 1991 until her brother’s death. I had hoped this would help heal it, but those hopes are fading.
Kelly
Yesterday I helped pour a new foundation for for an old friend whose home burned down in the Sept 2020 Beachie fire. Great turn out of old friends I’ve known since high school. Many hands make light the work and lots of time to visit.
Along with the reminiscing we were all struck by how much deeper we feel others disasters whether the wreckage by fire, hurricane, earthquake or Russians.
sab
@Soprano2: Yikes!
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Can’t help with the muzzle advice but either way give her doggy downers. It will ease her anxieties. Or just do what I do, take them to a pro. Percy hates it when anybody messes with his feet but I I’ve seen the professional dog groomer do his feet and it’s
“Zippity do dah, clipping away…
“My of my, what a wonderful way.”
I think it’s her confidence in what she is doing that makes it easier for him to tolerate it.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. I will try that.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Imma,
Sorry to hear about your mother. You have my condolences.
I hope that Little Imma is still thriving in Texas.
Mike in NC
No members of the Trump crime family got a MacArthur? RIGGED AND STOLEN!!!
Geminid
@Mike in NC: Maybe Purina’s horse feed division could create a Purina Stable Genius award, give it to the orange churl.
rikyrah
Andrew Carter (@_andrewcarter) tweeted at 1:25 PM on Fri, Oct 14, 2022:
This is Tracey Howard, sitting on the porch where he found his wife yesterday after she’d been shot and killed. The shooter also killed their dog. Howard had gone to Lowe’s for lightbulbs and came back home to the unimaginable scene. “This is my life now,” he said. https://t.co/GgVFeNshKk
(https://twitter.com/_andrewcarter/status/1580988230320943104?t=3FFLilibp6ZYdhGG4Tf-NQ&s=03)
Sure Lurkalot
@Immanentize: Condolences for your loss. So hard to lose parents.
My grandmother left her small estate to my dad who divided it amongst his kids, her 4 grandchildren, a bequest about the same size as your mother’s. In those days, the amount was enough to goose a down payment on my first house and some much needed dental work.
In these live for today times, I think the “do something fun” suggestions are spot on.
GibberJack
@NotMax: Shouldn’t that be snark hunting? I hear they award a genuine frumious brillig for first place.
James E Powell
@catclub:
The awards are MacArthur’s atonement. Silver lining.
JPL
@rikyrah: Since the shooter was white, I assume he was mentally ill I have one question, WTF was he doing with a long gun. If it was his father’s, it’s time to lock him up. (I’m mad)
USA USA
James E Powell
@sab:
The Guardians won in the 9th.
One of my favorite Cleveland baseball teams/seasons of all time. They’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations but their own.
James E Powell
@sab:
And she’s not insisting that things be named after her.
Kay
@sab:
I just finished reading “Sandy Hook- An American Tragedy and Battle for Truth” (which is very good) – it’s not really “about” the school shooting. It’s about lies and how they spread- the meaness and malice behind them. There are consequences for all this grifter-y lying that Joe Rogan and Tulsi Gabbard do. People end up paying for their cashing in on lies. It’s not a small thing.
I have read most of the books about school shootings because I’m interested in juveniles who commit crimes and school shootings are a “one off” in juvenile crime- there is nothing else like them- but this book was different. It’s about how our responses to school shootings have changed, where now they become insane lie generators and people make tens of millions of dollars off them.
If Joe Rogan and Tulsi Gabbard want to abolish public schools just fucking say so. I guess they can’t though, right, because then they’d be parroting Jeb Bush, and that doesn’t sell podcasts or substacks or vanity political runs.
Kelly
@James E Powell: Like Andrew Carnegie’s libraries
Another Scott
@sab: Dunno about particular muzzles. I’ve thought about it for our fuzzy Hoover who tries to eat everything white, old bananana peels, acorns, cherries, fox poop, etc., etc., on walks, but have never gotten that far.
Our Ellie is extremely food motivated. Does your pittie like peanut butter? Maybe distract her by having a her lick a never-ending spoon of peanut butter while you work on her toes. Or give her a big reward afterwards. Anything similar that you do to make it “fun” will probably help.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@sab:
hat you learn from the Sandy Hook book is NONE of this is “well intentioned”. That state school board member knows damn well there aren’t litter boxes in schools and so do Joe Rogan and Tulsi Gabbard. They hope to HARM someone- an institution (like public schools), a particular school, a political opponent.
The Sandy Hook truthers were mean as fucking snakes. Vicious people. People who wake up each day and set out to hurt people (and, perhaps related, people who have no productive work or life of any kind). There’s a particularly vicious “self employed mover” from Florida in the book who tortures the parents of the dead children. He’s not a fucking mover! Self employed movers have to WORK. They have to pick up boxes and put them on trucks and take them places. This guy spends 24/7 torturing parents in Connecticut.
James E Powell
@James E Powell:
Okay, senior moment. Guardians tied in the 9th, won in the 10th. Sorry about that, @sab:
GibberJack
@Ken: I first laughed, then thought damn, I bet it’ll work.
Another Scott
@Immanentize: I’m sorry that you’re going through all that. Feel better soon.
People who deal with estates for families are unsung heroes.
Condolences to you and all who loved your mom. Hang in there, and remember the good times.
Best wishes,
Scott.
NotMax
@Kelly
Or Miser Madison.
Chaucer. Rabelais. Bal-zac!
:)
Kelly
@Kay: The horrible truth behind the twisted litter box story is some schools are stocking classrooms with kitty litter and a bucket for lockdowns.
Cameron
Something good open thread? It’s a beautiful day here, and I’m going to spend the next 45 minutes on my deck chilling with Miles Davis.
https://youtu.be/38zRx9AYDHQ
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’ve mentioned this here before, so apologies for repeating myself if you saw an earlier comment on the topic, but there’s an excellent episode of This American Life about how mass shooting victims’ families are targeted by Jones-inspired crackpots.
There’s a couple whose daughter died in the Aurora, CO shooting who reach out to parents when mass shootings occur to offer support and let them know what to expect. It’s mind-boggling that this is necessary, but it is.
I believe in free speech, but I think there ought to be something more we can do to counter this type of thing. Jones was allowed to torture the Sandy Hook parents for a decade. That’s intolerable.
zhena gogolia
Ohio Mom
@delphinium: I always wear a piece of my mother’s jewelry to family occasions like weddings and bar mitzvahs, so she can be present at something that would have been meaningful to her. And I wear something from my favorite aunt when I need extra courage. She had a definite streak of bad ass that I try to channel.
GibberJack
@Kay: Who pays him?
No job. These people do not self support. They get paid by somebody.
You know that thing about the Right and projection? Where every accusation is a confession? They have always accused the victims of being paid crisis actors. That’s the tell. They themselves got paid to harass and torment the families.
We need an investigator to follow the money. You know it’s going to go back to some asshole billionaire or RU dark money.
Cameron
@GibberJack: I’d be inclined to rule out RU – given the performance of their intelligence agencies in Ukraine, they couldn’t find their asses with both hands, a GPS, and a Special Military Operation.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Cameron: Nice choice!
sab
@Another Scott: I am guessing that you knew about Hoover’s fetish before you named him?
Nelle
@Immanentize: Ah, a fellow believer that that was one weird “death” and disappearance from view. Just so convenient to “die” when the proceeds of the crime could still be retained by the family. And very little info or talk about the death. I think that might be the way Trump “goes” if anyone can get it through the bouffant rock on top of his neck that he isn’t going to escape judgement this time.
Cameron
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: TY. It’s always a good time for Miles.
ETA: Damn. If I bang enough tequila & sangrita while I’m out here, I might post Kind Of Blue. Stop me before I jazz again!
delphinium
@Soprano2: Sorry that you are going thru all of this. Hopefully you will hear back from her one way or the other.
Please be sure to take care of yourself during these difficult times.
JWR
@Kay: Your post reminded me that back in 1974, I was in an 11th grade mobile home-type history class near the shop building and the athletic field. It was a mild day, so both doors were wide open, and suddenly we heard 6 loud pops. Turns out it was a guy coming onto campus to shoot a student who he apparently thought was screwing around with his girlfriend. The teacher quickly closed and locked the doors and kept us away from the windows, but we weren’t locked down very long.
I mention this because I sometimes wonder how many school shootings we had back then, how odd, (ETA rare), it was to be present for a shooting, and if there are any records going back that far. Say, I think I shall look!
sab
@Kay: That makes more sense, that he doesn’t actually believe the nonsense. He is just a run of the mill utterly vile human being
ETA Can you imagine, being a child, and he is your only source of information about the outside world? When I was young in Ohio they didn’t allow home schooling. They wanted to protect kids from Amish parents. But the same people are okay with these bozos educating their own kids.1
delphinium
@Ohio Mom:
Such a sweet way to remember your mom and have her present. Your favorite aunt sounds like she was very cool.
Quiltingfool
@sab: The assistant principal at my school (taught there) home schooled his kids. It pissed me off that we had a public school “leader” that did that. I thought it showed utter contempt towards public education. Had I been on the board that guy wouldn’t have got the job. However, the fundies on the board thought his God credentials made him perfect for the job.
We had several fundie administrators in that district. They tried to hide it, but the contempt they had for our poorer students and parents would show in so many ways. I despised those motherfuckers.
delphinium
@Betty Cracker:
There is no hell hot enough for these ghouls. And agree, there needs to be far more push back on people who do this as well as the folks like Jones who profit off of it and other tragedies.
dnfree
@Immanentize:
But the funniest thing was
When I was leavin’ the bay
I saw three ships a-sailin’
They were all heading my way
I asked the captain what his name was
And how come he didn’t drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said, “Good luck”
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Cameron: That reminds me, need to step out for a bit. Kickoff is in two hours. Be back later.
sab
@Another Scott: OMG. Ponyo is seven years old and has never before had peanut butter. And now she is berserk. YES SHE LIKES IT!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@rikyrah:
That was about a half mile from me.
Parfigliano
@O. Felix Culpa: Want to see ChiSux (Twins fan) stadium.
Went to Dodger Stadium this year to see Twins get obliterated.
StringOnAStick
@Kay: I read yesterday that there actually is litter in some classrooms so kids can pee when they are on lockdown for hours at a time because of a gun threat. There’s stories of teachers having to deal with kids peeing their pants and then the teachers having to find clean clothes for them. One teacher on the thread said She had to use the litter in a trashcan because it had been 4 hours and that the experience was “humiliating” . Just another example of guns fucking up our culture, the RW taking the germ of an idea and turning it into a culture war point, and another reason why too many good people will leave teaching or never consider that career.
Ruckus
@sab:
The rules for being a complete and utter ass are that one has to invade every other possible life and make their world as miserable as their’s in order to be considered for the award –
“One Absolute, Complete, Utter, Obnoxious Asshole.”
GibberJack
@Cameron: I mentioned Russia as a likely player because that’s right up their alley. They have for decades encouraged divisions in our society, re: race relations, vaccines, conspiracy theories, fossil fuels, guns and of course an army of trolls on social media to amplify and re-emit the bullshit.
Yes their military intelligence is bad but their social disruption ops they have run here have had varying degrees of success. They are very good at some things. It’s totally something they could do and it checks several boxes for them.
Another Scott
@sab: Haha.
Sorry, we only have one dog. Ellie. She acts like a vacuum on a walk if we’re not careful. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
kalakal
@Kay: words fail me when it comes to such people. They add nothing to this world but poison. I truly hate them and the bastards that fund and enable them
Another Scott
@Nelle: Everyone goes sometime.
AspenTimes.com.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
kalakal
@Kelly: So very true. Carnegie also funded Robert Koch’s research which I have to admit I’m grateful for
Geminid
@GibberJack: The social media operation the Russians staged in 2016 from the site near St. Petersburg was effective. Mueller’s indictmens of a number of the Russians involved never received the attention they deserved.
It would be easy enough for the Russians to identify the Americans who helped spread their propaganda, and maintain contact and control. I don’t think the agents would neccesarily need financial compensation either. They’re true believing assholes, and would respond to guidance.
Kay
@StringOnAStick:
Yeah, there was an elaborate debunking done by (I think) NBC and that’s what they traced it too- school lockdowns.
I love how clear it is how nne of these people have ever been inside a public school. I was on a school committee and what struck me most about our school was how every minute was scheduled. They were so rigidly governed by 30 years of “education reform” that the idea that there would be hours and hours to ponder whether a child identifies as a ‘furry’ is just ludicrous. We once had a 2 hour meeting on how much time it was taking the high schoolers to go from class to class. Could we cut it down?
Kathleen
@Immanentize: My condolences on your mother’s passing.
SFAW
@O. Felix Culpa:
When did it stop being Wrigley Field? I’m SO out of touch.
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: I was in an office building where there was a mass shooting years ago. We were locked in our office suite for hours while the cops looked for the gunman (who as it turned out had already left and shot himself). There was no bathroom in our suite — they were in a common area outside the doors by the elevators. A lot of people had to pee in their trashcans.
SFAW
@Baud:
But Warnock SAW him flash the badge, so BOTH SIDES!
Baud
@SFAW:
Warnock should have effectuated a citizens arrest.
rikyrah
Because, of course
Jim DeFede (@DeFede) tweeted at 4:34 PM on Fri, Oct 14, 2022:
Governor DeSantis makes it easier to vote in three Republican stronghold counties hit by Hurricane Ian but not in the one county that favors Democrats. https://t.co/b05UHAu2ou
(https://twitter.com/DeFede/status/1581035734714105856?t=4W8sVXSZvpYmZaAb6qbgqw&s=03)
Baud
@rikyrah:
Seems like it would violate the independent state legislature rule that the conservatives are pushing.
sab
@James E Powell: They are playing old fashioned baseball like before steroids. I love it. They are so much fun to watch. And the grizzled old guy on the team is 30 years old.
Anyway
@GibberJack:
Totally. Do you remember the Jade-something scandal about guns to/from Mexico and it was all Obama’s fault (I must confess that like most RW
BSscandals I have trouble maintaining the cognitive dissonance required to follow the stuff.) That was amplified/sustained by Russian bots– also Russian ops had a hand in propagating a lot of early anti-vax (before Covid) conspiracies.Anyway
@Immanentize:
Condolences on your mom’s passing. Best to you and little imma
JWR
@Anyway:
Are you remembering Jade Helm, the military exercise that had the loonies all in a twitch?
GibberJack
@Anyway: No but just googled it. Yep conspiracy bullshit pushed by russian bots.
Not surprised. Wonder what keeps the wind in the sails of this school kitty litter crap. The usual republican quislings are pushing it so it’s likely the rooskies are involved.
GibberJack
@JWR: The Jade Helm conspiracy bs is what I found. It’s got Russian fingerprints on it.
If it’s about mexico and guns, maybe thats the Fast and Furious thing. Don’t know if Russian bots had a hand in that.
Anyway
@JWR:
yep, that’s the one. Russian bots played a role in its dissemination in the RW fever swamps.
Anyway
HumboldtBlue — are you watching???? Phillllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss!!!!!