I’m worried about the fact that the time between these posts is growing precipitously. I mean, it’s an obvious artifact of the fact that I have a job right now, but, it’s almost a bit troubling. Hopefully, as I settle into the routine of my job I’ll get better at working outside of it.
How Dictionary.com's Twitter account got so cleverly woke
How Dictionary.com's Twitter account got so cleverly woke PermalinkJoe Berkowitz
The proportion of the short, short time I have on Earth I’ve spent telling people about how great Dictionary.com is at Twitter, is likely abnormal.[1] They’re great, I assume that it’s multiple people running that account, and pretty snarky.
The Case of the Missing Perpetrator
The Case of the Missing Perpetrator PermalinkRebecca Solnit
I first read, first heard of, Rebecca Solnit in the photography class I took my last semester of college. In that instance, we read excerpts from an acclaimed book of hers in which she examines the life (and photographs) of Eadweard Muybridge,[2] a man who photographs of the American West before American interlopers got their hands on it[3] and took some pictures of horses.[4] Anyways, that digression[5] was basically a brag letting you know that I had heard of the writer to whom I am linking you now.
It’s a great read, well, to be fair, it’s not great, it’s rough and hard to read at times, but it is certainly important.[6]
Billionaires, Buyouts, and a Newspaper Empire in the Balance: the Continuing Saga of Tronc
Billionaires, Buyouts, and a Newspaper Empire in the Balance: the Continuing Saga of Tronc PermalinkKate Knibbs
Tronc is a company name liable to make me hate any company, but this company earns my ire in a less superficial way.[7]
It normally takes a re-watch of The Newsroom to get me all up in arms about the state of news media; in the Trump era it feels like I’m constantly ready to fight over the state of the news.
Why the Janus Decision Means Roe and Same-Sex Marriage are at Risk
Why the Janus Decision Means Roe and Same-Sex Marriage are at Risk PermalinkSheryl Ring
Just in case Brett Kavanaugh didn’t make you want to throw up at the thought of the Supreme Court, here’s Janus v. AFSCME[8] to really cement the urge. Unions are a pretty darn important chapter in the story of the U.S.; they’re pretty much the entire reason that workers aren’t, like, slaves to their employers.
Granted, they have some skeletons in their closets, like excluding minorities and Jimmy Hoffa, but the good they’ve done for all workers is considerable. But they’ve been losing political, and actual, power for years; this makes it worse.
Men who explain things
Men who explain things PermalinkRebecca Solnit
Yeah, two Rebecca Solnit articles in this one, sue me. This essay was actually expanded into a book, which was, I think, a series of essays.
I have less to say about this piece because I used my anecdote in the last one…
To say the least. ↩︎
A name which is frightfully difficult to know if spelled correctly, as all computers will insist that you’re wrong, but I got it right (though I had to check). ↩︎
Which, incidentally, along with similar representations of the West as pristine and untouched, really helped convince Americans to migrate westward and kill all the Native Americans which they found already living there. ↩︎
Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. Viking, 2003. ↩︎
I feel weird using that word since trying to use it in a title of a book. ↩︎
There’s a whole different discussion there about how to use positive sounding adjectives with respect to things that are downers. ↩︎
At least partially, some of it comes from the name. ↩︎
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf ↩︎