“In the land of the ostriches, the blind are king. When politicians bury their head in the sand, ignorance rules the country.
― Erik Pevernagie
Darlings, another Friday is upon us! As usual I’ve put together a melting pot of news and pop culture for your weekend reading and am dropping it before anything else upends the news cycle. This has been an unexpectedly busy week for me and I am looking forward to the weekend. I have a weeklong series coming to you starting tomorrow which I hope you enjoy. It’s a bit of a new thing for me, so while I’m sure it will be flawed, I hope it will still be fun.
Share your favorite pop culture finds and weekend links with me in the comments!
Mr. Manafort’s trial kicked off this week, filled with ostrich leather jackets and sleazily moving money all over the world and all principles stealing from one another in the process. There are no heroes here.
As of Monday, this is the story and the timeline. Let’s see what happens this week as to whether it shifts…or falls out of the collective public consciousness. Whatever happens, it’s yet another narrative shift on this point and what’s already in the public domain is damning. Or would be if it weren’t 2018 and all of us in the upside down.
Shut up to me about draining the swamp. Just stop. Not another word.
Ah good old Nunes, always saying the stuff that’s supposed to be secret out loud. I predict zero consequences.
Interesting. I’m not sure how seriously to take the claims in the lawsuit, and here is some more reporting for additional information, but it is interesting. Let’s send them some thoughts and prayers. (ETA: yeah, this is why I doubt this claim)
Would you eat lab-grown meat? If you don’t eat meat for ethical reasons of any kind, would lab grown meat feel different to you? I’m genuinely curious.
I’m an Air Force brat and a geek and even I think a Space Force is stupid. So do the Russians apparently (and we may suddenly be beefing with them over sanctions again?).
Asking the smart questions: why does the media keep giving this man a platform?
Speak of men and their platforms, Alex Jones lost a chunk of his this week. This was a rolling story, but the most intellectually interesting piece I read on it came on the first day of the fallout. As one tech writer for the New York Times put it, “Facebook follows Apple in banning Infowars, giving up the game after weeks of sanctimonious lectures about free speech. This was always about being too scared to go first.”
I was utterly entertained and charmed by this story.
This op ed by a farmer was particularly interesting to me because of the line, “The world markets, which the president is now tearing down in the name of fairness, were built and paid for by farmers to ensure agriculture had outlets for our production so we didn’t have to come to the American taxpayer for support.” The word “fairness” stuck out to me because the same day I read this piece by a NPR political reporter on the notions that Mr. Trump seems to have around the idea of “fairness,” and how it (and its counterpart, grievance) have informed his decisions in office.
Another op ed that feels relevant. If you want people to stop flirting with socialism, you need to make capitalism more attractive as an option. We can argue theory until the cows come home, but people don’t turn on systems unless they feel that system has let them down in some way.
A lovely and thought provoking read.
Climate change is here, people. It’s not a single cataclysmic event, it is a permanent change in probability and statistical likelihood of certain weather patterns.
An important element of today’s American political landscape is the almost systematic loss of experience in our Congress. This is not a Trump era problem alone and it probably has its nascence in the 1990s and the rise of hyper-partisanship, but this Politico piece delves into what this loss of institutional knowledge and procedure is turning out to mean for the country, practically. I think there is a good case to be made about our congresspeople increasingly not knowing how to govern.
The September issues are starting to drop and the covers are gorgeous. Beyonce, Rhianna, Lupita, Christy Turlington Burns, pregnant women, power couples…my god, I’m buying all of them!
Ryan Shrugged, the title of (what should be) his autobiography
Charlottesville was one year ago. Virginia is already prepping for the anniversary.
Shock, surprise, Omarosa turns out to be a pop culture and reality TV show villain. Whomever could have predicted it…
“They want us to turn on our neighbors and it will never happen.”
It was a rough week here in the UK, as I’m sure international readers may imagine. The company I’m contracting with is tangentially but significantly affected by security changes throughout the world so work was a bit full on this week and London was operating at a heightened state of vigilance. Nothing but praise for first responders and the Manchester community who showed up to support their city, refused to tolerate malicious commentary based on prejudice, and general came together in ways that might have made me tear up a bit. Oh, and humor. The Brits responded with humor.
The American president leaked I mean mentioned in casual conversation the location of nuclear subs, put forward a budget that is (in my opinion) aggressively hostile to poor and disenfranchised citizens whilst potentially seriously ******* with NATO’s ability to function, and quite literally cost a dear friend of my her job–in case you thought it had to pass through Congress before having any effect. He also received the Pope’s treatise on climate change. Boy I hope they included the Cliff Notes.
Meanwhile, I’m happy in the knowledge that human beings are fantastic.
“They want us to turn on our neighbours and it will never happen” – blood donor Ian in Manchester, via @BBCNewsnightpic.twitter.com/vdPLbebcTy
— Catrin Nye (@CatrinNye) May 23, 2017
Here are you links for the weekend, kittens, and hope you find some joy in it. Stories and sharing in the comments, please!
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Here, have some balm for the soul.
Fellow yanks, let me translate this British for you: they are pissed at us right now.
Not subjected to high levels of editorial scrutiny, huh? You don’t say. (I don’t have time to delve into why this whole conspiracy theory story and the people promoting it are garbage, but there I stand. In case you were wondering.)
Enough with the depression, let’s have some fun for a bit! This bot is doing the lord’s work.
Guy, GUYS! The internet did something good!
Loved this piece in Bazaar. It’s fine, good, and healthy to want a loving partner and committed partnerships–and voicing your support for feminism and feminist causes is NOT a barrier to that. I have a kind of great partner who proves that point. False dichotomies are lazy and unhelpful–and dare I say, tools of the patriarchy. Meanwhile a partner who abuses you, limits your choices, is unwilling to find family-specific and personal compromises on all aspects of home and family life, or is otherwise a jerk to you for having opinions IS a barrier to a healthy, happy, and productive life.
Here’s an instagram feed to make your day more pretty.
This story is altogether too common, but I’m thrilled her account is getting recognized and is being taken seriously.
You decide, ducklings: how important are these pineapple earrings to my happiness?
It’s going to be a summer of TV for me, between Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, American Gods, and a list of other pop culture To Dos. But I’m also committed to finishing up my audiobook goal and getting my Goodreads year end report looking impressive.
Album of the week: True Care, by James Vincent McMorrow
“This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
Long week, major milestones hit on all my projects, good friends in town from abroad, good news. Happy Friday!
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Drafting this up as I read and watch the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling that marriage is marriage, whichever the partners. The last paragraph of the ruling in particular is making the rounds with good reason. As has been quoted, the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.
Beautiful images of a horrific practice.
Into the Gloss’ “Top Shelfie” posts are always great but this one is almost painfully fabulous.
In other beauty news, the tyranny of disaster films must end.
Pitcairn has a fascinating (and troubled) history. It has now passed a law (which I’m in favor of, by the way) for its 48 residents that applies to none of them.
I have demanded this before, and I demand it again: how do people misplace this stuff?!
“On Friday night, I was reading my new book, but my brain got tired, so I decided to watch some television instead.”
― Stephen Chbosky
Another long, hard, but good week. Another set of weekly links for your delectation!
Not sure if the grunts (chanting? Who knows?) is useful, but otherwise, relevant to my interests.
There are so many novel possibilities in this story.
How bad are things really, and have you ever wanted to bow out?
My favorite beauty site wades into the Dolezal story and the results are pretty great.
Tumblr find of the week. (h/t Katarina)
I’m currently neck deep in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, so this is also highly relevant to my interests. What’s that? You aren’t watching it? GET EDUCATED.
We’ve hit some major milestones with student debt recently, but I still found this impactful.
“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
― Alan W. Watts
Another busy week and I literally worked myself sick (again) and lost my voice as of this morning. But on the whole I’m pleased with how my projects are moving along, freelance is becoming much more manageable, and the weather is gorgeous. There’s nothing to complain about! Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend.
“Hashbrown, no filter.” And if you’re not watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, get educated!
Wonderful prehistoric artwork.
Food for thought. Since I stopped following most of the parts of the internet related to mormonism (affectionately referred to as the Bloggernacle), it’s been interesting to see how things that pop up in my Facebook feed, for instance, have changed. Our world is built on algorithms and information is no different. When I was immersed in one community and its conflicts, it’s news and conversations and events was practically all I saw. When I stepped away, it was eye opening to see how comparatively small that amount of information had been. And it was even more interesting to see how the algorithms of information created echo chambers. In spite of the torrential flow of data out there, unprecedented in human history, I think media has allowed us to isolate ourselves pretty easily with those with whom we already tend to agree.
I ask my eternal question when things like this happen, how did you lose this stuff?!
Development is an complicated industry.
Synesthesia is such an interesting thing, and this artwork stemming from it is downright gorgeous.
“If you’ve done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
A day late but hopefully not a dollar/pound short. My week consisted of a series of increasingly difficult tasks that at one point veered far out of realm of probability before I managed to drag them back. And I was not alone, the whole of the office team was well and truly snowed under and tempers were high, eyes suspiciously bright, and everyone was ready to burst. In short, a weekend was needed. Desperately. Here are your links and tell me what you’re getting up to!
On my never ending quest to build a work wardrobe that is functional, easy to wear, well edited, and doesn’t break the bank…I’ve thought about this question more than once.
Give the woman a standing slow clap.
I’m a fan of the declutter and “less is more” movement, but this piece had me rolling with laughter. Let’s face it, we all know someone who takes it stuff like this too far. Heck, Gwenyth Paltrow has built a brand on it!
I shan’t trouble you with the story of how this came into my presence, but I thought all and sundry needed to know it existed.
A long history of courtesan culture in Japan featuring beautiful kimonos, the male gaze, the rise of the shogunate, and more.
If you build it…someone somewhere will want to keep on building it.
Sometimes I don’t think we comprehend how incomprehensible it was, not that long ago, that practically everyone in the developed world (and a surprising number of the undeveloped world) would have personal phones. That we carry around with us. In our pockets.
Bring these back, I want to brunch in one of them.
“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
It’s Friday, and a long bank holiday weekend so I’m on vacation. Adios, kids!
Because I am still fascinated by the whole arc of this story.
And while we’re on the subject of British royalty, a number of succession laws have been updated including the sexist ones.
My inner Grumpy Cat says good. My inner Grumpy Cat, as it happens, hates soda.
Tom and Lorenzo have a podcast now! Get thee to an iTunes subscription!
Speaking of, since she’s the first guest on the aforementioned podcast and since there’s a lot of hoopla about the winding down of Mad Men, here’s an interview with costume designer Janie Bryant.
Weird and wonderful photos of animals in utero.
It’s been a while since we’ve had vintage photos with colour on the blog, let’s amend that!
I have very little patience for people who bang on about how much more horrible things are these days than [insert time period here]. Sure, we’ve definitely got some issues as a species, but as a collective, we’re doing demonstrably better than we ever have.
Any post that begins by quoting Euripides has my heart.
In this week’s lady news… (h/t Jeff who keeps an eye on all things sports in the SDS household)
“A good half of the art of living is resilience.”
― Alain de Botton
Woof, this week. The training wheels are off, kittens. Development, project management, and construction planning is such an interesting industry because there are so many moving parts going on at any given moment. Our project managers conduct architects, artists, constructions workers, heritage societies, politicians, contractors, suppliers, and truly heroic amounts of paperwork. Though slightly less harrowing, working on marketing means that I don’t get to focus on just one project. I’m on all of them, all the time. It’s a lot of fun and the good kind of hard work, but there inevitably comes a moment each week where I feel like I’ve put together a really solid timeline or project and got all the moving pieces into a beautiful line…only to have one tiny thing that no one can control because it’s a provider or external system fall out of the row and take my meticulously laid plans down with it. I knew I’d “arrived” last week when a major timeline was pretty significantly impacted by months and my reaction was not to panic but to sigh, make a cup of tea, and just crack on with some solution options. Britishisation is almost complete.
Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend in the comments!
Perhaps telling you that Katarina and i have legitimately speculated on turning a good portion of 15th century British history into a totally fictitious web series, set loosely in a modern day high school or some place correctly hormone charged and overly-dramatic…will explain why I found this hilarious. No?
And while we’re on Buzzfeed, apparently I’m “West London Posh.” Ha. I’m a quarter WASP, a quarter Slovak, and half who knows, thank you very much!
Very much behind all of these.
Downton Abbey has little redeeming value anymore besides being a well-costumed soap opera. So here’s an interview with the costumer! I make no apologies for my continued plan on turning into the Dowager Countess in my old age.
There’s historical treasure everywhere. One of my favorite memories of the PD was being told to bin a ton of paperwork only to discover it was an unintentional archive of information about my alma mater from the perspective of its resident law enforcement office going straight back to the 50s.
Disney has it’s value, but I maintain it’s largely terrible at modeling life choices.
Interesting idea. I think I still have far too many bad American habits that likely set me back this side of the pond.
I have said it before, and I shall say it again. How do you lose something like this?!
This headline stands alone. Also, penguins.
A bit of a downer, but there’s this from the world of Mormon news. Whether you agree or disagree with the actions, this has been an interesting year for excommunications in the community and it’s worth having a conversation about why. You know, if you’re into that sort of conversation. If not, just ignore it.
“There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.”
― Coco Chanel
Better late than never, kittens. A slammed week ended with my first ever proper British holiday work party, the stuff of stereotypes and pop culture memes. It ended up being a lot of fun and quite festive. The company I’m working with is chock full of interesting and driven people with amazing stories–such as a managing director who nearly joined the Household Cavalry regiment at one point, and had to participate in a hazing event where he and other recruits were hunted…on horseback! Or a project manager who, as it turns out, is also an Olympian silver medalist for Australia. I have to be careful not to feel quite dinky in comparison!
This weekend it’s freelance reports, Christmas shopping, and general meandering with Jeff, trying to take in as much of the city during the holidays as we can. Let me know what you’re getting up to, and share anything else worth reading in the comments.
Interesting. Apparently I’m pretty resilient, though I could improve in some ways that I find useful to think about.
This is not a drill! Opinions, please?
Er, thanks for clearing that up, legal system?
I see your Christmas jumpers and I raise you these!
Incredibly relevant to my current interests and obligations.
Learn about something new every day, darlings.
More things to read. My US library card recently expired leaving me in a terrible conundrum! I usually have about five books going at once and quite suddenly I shot down to zero on my kindle, and I still don’t have a London library card–due to the ongoing and deeply annoying problem of trying to get a bank account, and thus bills, information, and credit in my own name to open a library account. I cannot imagine how women lived without a legal identity, and in the not too distant past. I simply can’t.
Someday I shall open a business called…Bantam and Frost.
Minor warning for pearl clutchers, but this is a really fascinating article about what historically could be put on tiny photos.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
-Oprah Winfrey
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, ducklings! Jeff and I finally made it to The Mayflower for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was about as charming a British pub as you could find anywhere. In less happy news, Black Friday has crossed the Atlantic in all its greedy glory. I like a deal as much as the next kid but I can’t say I like this development.
Of all the things for us to export culturally, it had to be this thing…
For my next gala event, I think I shall require tiaras. With bonus points for unusual ones.
Know your consumption, and it’s effects, I suppose.
One writer tells of their experience sending celebrities fan mail, and who wrote back. I wrote to President Clinton as a little girl and got a note back on White House stationary that was QUITE impressive at show and tell.
Interesting piece from Business Insider about the two traits found in successful relationships and why.
Our taxi drivers put those of any other metropolis to shame. I will fight anyone who says different.
Trigger warning, this story is about sexual brutality towards children. But it’s an important read to know what women and girls are up against in some corners of the world. And the last two sentences will get you right in the gut.
Simplistic, but more or less spot on, I think. (Can’t stop chortling over the, “Guys….”)
Step into a cookbook editor’s kitchen.
Small Dog Syndrome 