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fuelcut · 4 years ago

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A thought experiment on Silicon Valley’s third era

[ read the tweetstorm if you’re in a rush]

June 19th marks the end of American slavery, July 4th American Independence and July 14th the storming of the Bastille. It’s also my 40th birthday, and I’m exploring what we can learn from the past to help navigate today’s struggles for racial justice and economic freedom.

1940-1980: “Atoms” and the military-industrial-labor complex

My dad arrived in the Bay Area in 1970-1971 to get his PhD at Berkeley - just as the area was being rebranded as Silicon Valley.

Free from the stifling hierarchy of the East, the Bay was America’s center for social, technical and institutional change. Black Panthers policed the police in Oakland, shiny BART trains crossed the Bay to SF where the Gay Rights movement was flourishing. My family tree waited a millennia for India to recognize intercaste marriage. My parents would see radical social change in America across every axis in a single generation. Bold leadership in the 60s expanded civil rights and embraced immigration. They (and I) benefited greatly from an economic and social foundation that had been laid over many decades.

Caterpillar Tractor - founded in the Bay Area - embodied the spirit of this era. It went from liberating France in WW2 to building a massive middle class, unionized labor force. Cat later moved its headquarters to Peoria, Illinois - because in this era, cities across the country - not just the coasts - had the ability to compete. Since WW2, America pursued an intentional strategy of geographically broad-based economic development - via highways, airline regulation and distributed national labs.

Caterpillar didn’t just give Peoria a chance, it also gave my dad a chance to put down roots in America by sponsoring his green card. There was no H1B limbo. The nexus of military, industry and labor unions brought immigrants, Women and Blacks into the workforce - with paid apprenticeships (not exorbitant higher education) and technically-focused community colleges paving the way for millions. My mom learned COBOL while her toddlers played in the back of class. Even Hunter’s Point in SF was vibrant during much of this period. (Of course, it was far from a halcyon era - the war machine had massive human cost globally and civil rights were far from evenly enforced in America.)

And while atoms reigned supreme during this era, the military and government patiently invested risk capital in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and software/networking to prepare America for its future.

1980-2020: “Bits” and global capital, jackrocks and polarization

In 1980, Reagan was elected President - and I was born. This would also be the peak of private sector labor employment in the US and the beginning of global capital (and the multinational companies they backed) as the leading force in forging the social contract.

They promised us that countries with McDonald’s would never go to war with each other. Indeed the Berlin Wall fell, Asian laborers got jobs and Americans could buy cheap stuff at WalMart. Global capital (bits) put atoms inside shipping containers and sent them around the world - abstracting consumers from the manufacturing base.

The writing was on the wall for unions.

As a middle schooler, I saw Cat management and labor (UAW) locked into a multi-year strike over the future. The front line was not in a boardroom or on the picket line. It was neighborhoods, schools and community groups. I remember when a classmate whose dad was in the union talked about how folks in the factory were peeing on effigies of management - including my dad.

Naturally I knew which side I was on. Cat needed wage concessions and freedom to operate to be globally competitive. I’d read Akio Morita, TPS and Lee Iacocca. I worried about Japan Inc. eating our lunch (yes as a 12 year old!) UAW workers and families were much more grounded. They needed a livelihood and wanted certainty for their future.

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War continued to wage into high school. We came home one day to find “jackrocks” outside of our driveway - a tool used in feudal Japan to thwart the advancing armies - horses, chariots - etc. of those in power. In <60 years, Caterpillar had gone from transforming America’s agrarian society to becoming the enemy of American workers. We had the GOP’s Contract with America (stored in my Trapper Keeper) and Clinton signing NAFTA within a couple years. Both parties supported global capital and global capital supported both parties. Maybe jackrocks worked better than voting?

Corporate America soon figured out that if your workers were in China, Mexico or the South, it’s harder for them to stick jack rocks in your driveway. If your kids go to private school or you live in a quasi-private suburb, they’ll be insulated from the wrath of the have-nots in heavily policed, declining urban centers. No peeing on your effigy or having your kid hear about it!

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After college, I became an analyst at Bain & Company. Once an auto parts company hired us to do a “portfolio review”. I meticulously compared the costs of building mirrors in Eastern Michigan or Malaysia - creating a zero defect Excel model. Guess which location won? The auto parts company - like Cat - had the freedom to choose where to put jobs.

But what freedom did the workers have? Marie Antoinette once said “let them eat cake”. The elites of our era now say “let them move”. Social capital is critical for folks navigating change. The educated elite take the portability of social capital (embedded in college degrees and iMessage threads) as a given.

But place and social capital are deeply intertwined especially if you’re poor or a minority. While the deep introspection elites once had during 2016 has now been paved over by new crises, we should never forget that there’s a cost to society of losing its manufacturing base and jobs. How do you model the costs of broken families, drug addiction and a polarized electorate in Excel?

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I grew disillusioned with management by spreadsheet. But I saw a bright spot on the horizon: tech. I remember opening my first iPod, getting 1000 songs in my pocket and believing that America had a shot at leading a new generation of consumer electronics when everyone a decade earlier had written us off in favor of the Japanese. Perhaps tech could bring jobs and prosperity back to the country? I wanted to be part of it.

So I moved to the Valley in 2004 and joined a VC fund. I saw how the VC funding model that Silicon Valley was built on incentivizes high-risk, high-leverage and massive-scale. It encourages companies to cherry-pick top-end talent (immigrants, marquee college grads) to build the differentiated bits. Pick the highest leverage point in the stack, outsource everything else - by building in China and/or pushing the last-mile to an ecosystem that you can control at arms length.

Tech companies could more than pay back the largely fixed costs of software / semiconductor design from the large and homogenous American market. This dynamic attracted massive amounts of private risk capital and enabled aggressive expansion abroad. This model didn’t work for everything (I got burned with cleantech) - but it worked amazingly well for broad swaths of enterprise software, consumer services and marketplaces. I saw how tech could be an incredible lever for wealth creation. But every visit back home to the Rust Belt made me wonder - wealth creation for whom?

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2020+ - A thought experiment on institutional innovation and putting people first

July 14, 2020 - Q2 Earnings - CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hi everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now. 

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their Zoom calls, their DoorDash deliveries - to join protests and explore our community through new eyes.

Race & Place: On Juneteenth, we biked from Sheraton Place to Hunters Point to Tanforan. We saw the real life impact of redlining, mass incarceration of Blacks and the lack of jobs from decades ago - and how our headquarters sustain - rather than disrupt - the region’s policies of de facto segregation. We also remembered how political demagogues once imprisoned our neighbors of Japanese descent. We see today how their rhetoric affects our Black neighbors and colleagues. What might it do tomorrow to folks without legal status in ag/service industries that California depends or the H1Bs we depend on? What does diversity & inclusion mean in this context?

Jobs: The next Friday we biked from SRI to PARC to Sunnyvale and Moffett Field. Our industry once dreamed of a bicycle for the mind and embraced technical education and apprenticeship as a path in the door for Women and Blacks. Meanwhile we’ve pushed vast swaths of work to contractors or platform-mediated transactions - making it harder to use up-skilling as a talent lever like manufacturing employers did in the last era. What’s the impact on income mobility? At what point will 40 million unemployed Americans affect our share prices and the stability of society?

Climate: On Independence Day, we biked on the Bay Trail past landfills, superfund sites and the 101 - alongside poor and minority neighborhoods with terrible health outcomes. We talked about the Bay Area weather forecast for 2060 “fire with a chance of flooding”. We passed abandoned railways and dreams of regional transport - the result of which is folks commuting hours each way from the central valley to work service jobs in our campuses. We wondered about the long run political consequences of isolating our employee base inside the WiFi confines of a private bus network. Where is the voting base to drive institutional change? How many axles or tires will our commuter buses need to keep them safe from jackrocks on the 101?

Health: Last week, we rode from the old Permanente cement quarry to 101 (built by the same cement workers.) We talked about how Kaiser - a private employer of low-skilled workers - internalized their healthcare needs, pursued disruptive innovation and faced fierce clashes with the medical establishment. We thought about how COVID is exposing the brittleness of our employee’s isolation inside a private insurance bubble. No one can be healthy in a pandemic without competent public health infrastructure. Meanwhile, the growing cost of private healthcare makes it harder for tech - let alone the rest of the country - to employ American workers across the wage spectrum - exacerbating job loss and instability.

And as we spoke with others, we saw how the issues that Silicon Valley faces are not unique to one metropolitan area or one industry. It just happens to be the ultimate archetype of Global Capitalism and de facto segregated American metros.

What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, our entire industry, our entire Valley - is built on a flawed foundation.

We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack.

It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster. A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.

We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region. e.g. If we care about justice, how far does focusing on the fairness of employment ads get us in a world when many people lack the skills and negotiating power to secure a living wage?

So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes. MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way.

We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.

First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt will hit us harder and harder each year. (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale.

Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet. We’re putting all our chips behind one bet - America. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits. The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity. It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission. Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule. We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”. We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less. Not everyone’s going to be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave.

Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves. The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas. Of course we will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital. It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business too. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best way to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost.   What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital. This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.

With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:

Place & Race - We’re done with de facto segregation. Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled, community-driven public safety? We’ll embrace “remote-first” as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating an Interstate Knowledge System that develops diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost savings or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.

Skilling & Manufacturing - We will 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility. Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams. Last, we’re going to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US within 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up.

Health & Food - We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare anymore. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’re going to have to innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm across our benefit stack. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory. Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery.

Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation. This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning. As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” utility. It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and leading a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency. Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base. Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities. Yes the New York Times will have a field day with this. Maybe in time they’ll leave their bubble, enter the real world, see the sorry state of their institutions - the behavioral health and infrastructure crises on their crumbling streets - and get on board. Until then, our job is to be patient longer than they can be inflammatory.

Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon.

America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.

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This call may be imaginary but none of this is sci-fi or requires MMT. What it requires is us to care. To act. Join me on bike rides to explore our past and discuss what tangible actions Silicon Valley’s leading companies can take in the coming quarters and years. Logistics here for rides on June 19, June 26, July 2 and July 10!

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hi-i-think-knowledge-is-power · 5 years ago

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Alice In Wonderland

22/07/2019

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Alice falls down into a rabbit hole, which leads her into a fantasy world full of peculiarly. This literary piece is one of the most important examples of literary nonsense literature, as well as the fantasy genre. This book is full of symbols, criticism of that era and unsolved questions.

Lewis Carrol

Lewis Carrol is his pseudonym, his name is Charles Dodgson. He was born in 27th January 1832 in Cheshire, England. He was born in a family of 11 children, he liked entertaining his siblings. He enjoyed writing and creating games as a child. He studied mathematics and won many awards. He received a scholarship -when he was 20- at Christ Church. He studied mathematics there. He was also a photographer and a writer. He died on January 14, 1898, at the age of 66.

A Brief Summary of “Alice in Wonderland”

Alice is sitting in the garden with her sister, then she sees a rabbit with a pocket watch saying that he’s late. She follows the rabbit and falls into a rabbit hole. She later finds herself in an aisle full of doors. She finds a key on a desk which opens a tiny door. She is too big to fit into the door. She finds a drink with a note saying “Drink me”, she drinks it to get smaller. Alice notices a cake with a note asks her to eat. She uses both and at first becomes a giant, she starts to cry, and shrinks down in size, she finds her into a lake made of her tears when she was a giant. She swims to the shore, encountering a large number of species of animals. Alice walks around and in the forest, she meets with a Caterpillar. The Caterpillar gives her valuable advice and a piece of mushroom that makes her either little or big. She meets with the Duchess, as well as the Cheshire Cat. She attends a tea party. After that party, she meets with the Queen of Hearts and they play croquet. Later, the Knave of Hearts arrives accused by stealing the tarts of the Queen. A war starts suddenly and Alice wakes up, noticing that it was a dream.

Themes

* Adulthood (Growth and change in size): Things that Alice uses to change size is a symbol for adulthood and/or adolescence.

* Language and Logic: This book was full of puns, and puzzles that’s why language and logic were a theme.

* Madness: Each character in the Wonderland claims that being there is madness and only mad can be in the Wonderland.

Main Characters

- Alice

- The White Rabbit

- The Cheshire Cat

- The Queen of Hearts

- Hatter

- The Caterpillar

What It Left Behind

Alice in Wonderland was a very interesting book, it even got attention from the rulers of a country, the wife of King Ferdinand I, Marie of Romania (also known as Marie of Edinburgh). She loved fairy tales and fantasy books, so she was using the symbols in her daily life. Alice in Wonderland was one of her favorites. She designed a table to her palace, Cotroceni, using the character, “Cheshire Cat” which symbolizes joy. The table was a circular table and when the most important guests came, they sat around that table. The importance of that table is the message given “Everyone is equal here.”, and the design of it is impressed by fairy tales.

Image: The Cheshire Cat motif on the table.

Quick Trivia

Carroll saw the things Alice did.

In addition to partial deafness and other health complications, he was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder that caused hallucinations and make objects apper larger or smaller than they are. This disorder was named Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or Todd’s Syndrome (named after the doctor who discovered the disease)

The book series was banned before.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, were both banned in China in 1931. The reason behind that is “Animals can’t use human language.”

Source:

•Alice in Wonderland. Puffin, 2010.

•“Lewis Carroll.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 21 Jan. 2019, www.biography.com/people/lewis-carroll-9239598.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g2919/alice-in-wonderland-trivia/

#knowledge #literature #alice in wonderland #lewis carroll #facts #romania #cotroceni #education #history #cheshire cat #alice looking through glass #pseudonym #literary piece #victorian era

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vegandoughnut · 5 years ago

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PART 5: Are You Kitting Me?

"You're good to go, Anekke" says Stephen, scribbling on his clipboard as if he were actually using it for something. Anekke frowns.

"I can't just finish the hour?" She presses, nearly pouting.

"Fine but make sure you clock out on the dot. I just don't have the patience this evening" Stephen says, voice laden with an exhaustion that doesn't even make sense. Anekke continues to spray some of the food prep surfaces with the natural mint scented surface cleaner and wipes with the cleaning rag.

Humbert hums in a whiny pitch as he adds the finishing touches to another serving of the Fall Special. Black anise waffles, vibrant orange pumpkin ice cream, chocolate chips and raisins, cat face drawn with chocolate or molasses. The ingredients seem to have plastered themselves all over Anekke's brain. She mutters them to herself as she cleans.

"What's that?" Comes Humbert's voice.

She ignores him, almost laughing with relief when Kitt joins them behind the counter. Kitt looks tired, with dark circles forming under her eyes. She flashes a smile to counter it.

"You need a coffee" Anekke says.

"You've never been more right" Kitt replies, picking up the staff french press off the ceramic hot plate, and pouring herself a mug of aromatic medium roast. "I have like five minutes to snag Gary Nygard's autograph but I just can't bring myself to. This is a once in a lifetime thing. Like. He's going back to Finland at some point. The band doesn't even tour anymore. Today literally feels like a weird dream and I don't know how to move. Like I'm walking through invisible cake batter or something"

"This is not a therapy session. You have a customer Kittie" says Humbert. Kitt sucks her teeth before turning to face the rest of the cafe to take a customer's order.

"You know we already have a supervisor and a manager right?" Anekke says through clenched teeth. Even if Humbert had said it to Kumlyun instead of Kitt, she would still jump in on the defense. She was getting tired of Humbert's antics, and was glad she'd be going home soon.

Humbert grunts and gets back to putting together a catering box.

"Wow" says Anekke, shaking her head.

A customer walks up to the bar holding Salem, the chill black cat purred softly in his arms. He orders an oat milk vanilla shake. She let's Kitt take that order, then goes back to cleaning, annoyed that earlier Kumlyun had implied the mess was made by her, when really it was probably Harper who was often sloppy with the food prep and forgetful of cleaning up. But at least she made Kumlyun look bad by implying she came in on her day off on purpose.

Finally some serenity blankets the cafe when all the customers are seated and eating, drinking or petting or feeding the cats they were paired with. Anekke quickly checks her pocket planner and crosses off a few things she remembered to do.

Memorize the recipe for the blueberry muffins by heart. Check. Disinfect the sink. Check. Renew library checkouts online. Check. Schedule a dentist appointment for next week. Check. Organize the discarded customer cards into her little file folder. Check.

"Anekke"

Anekke nearly jumps out of her skin when Kitt places a hand on her shoulder from behind.

"You scared me Kitt" she says, stealthily shrugging out from under her hand.

"I seem to do that for a lot of people" she says with a frown. "Anyway, what time are you leaving? so I know when to mentally prepare for the next few grueling hours behind this counter"

"Honestly just 30 minutes to go" says Anekke, taking a sneaky bite of the energy bar she hid in her half apron.

"Okay. Thanks" says Kitt.

Carl turns to look at the counter and smiles warmly when he coincidentally catches Anekke's eye. She smiles back quickly but goes back to her resting face just as soon.

"Hey Carl, want to cover for me real quick?" Kitt calls from the bar, undoing her waist apron.

Carl walks over immediately, and almost trips over a feathered pet toy but regains his balance without much embarrassment. Anekke watches intently. Still nervous, that one.

"You'll be working with the pretty blond, she should have no problem drawing in lots of orders so you can take a few pointers" says Kitt to Carl. Anekke's head spins upon hearing the strange sentence, and she wonders what Kitt was really saying. She had to force herself not to spiral into the whirlpool forming inside of her. What does she mean? What does that mean? Is it face value? Is there a joke or jab hidden in the arrangement of the words? Why does Kumlyun complain so much? Does Kumlyun whisper lies about Anekke to Kitt? Is Kitt trustworthy? Is Kitt priming Carl against her? She said "pretty blond". Maybe she should go to HR about Kitt. That'll make things make sense.

Carl and Kitt switch places. Carl ties a waist apron on and picks up a few beechwood mixing spoons. Why?

"Break a leg" Anekke tells Kitt who walks carefully towards Gary Nygard. Kitt flashes a confident cheese smile before heading straight for the Special Guest, the charming gothic rock star who had been in the cafe since before noon.

Anekke had thought he'd looked familiar, then realized he was a member of a band that had been really popular back when she was in high school. Yuck, she thinks, picturing those cringey teenage years in her mind with distaste. It was hard to imagine Kitt was one of the spooky kids who were obsessed with vampires and fingerless gloves, but who would've imagined that "pretty blond" Anekke was a nerd with no friends? The one who, even if she tried to make a joke, it came off as awkward or distasteful? Why were these things bothering her so suddenly?

20 minutes pass. Two customers came. Carl had watched eagerly when Anekke operated the waffle maker which she hated completely. The waffles would sometimes have holes in the outer pockets around the edges if the batter didn't spread perfectly. That's why she hated it.

"See you guys on Thursday" Anekke says, gathering her khaki trench coat, personal mug and backpack. It was without really looking at anyone in particular.

A few co-workers say bye in friendly voices. Why so friendly? Do they think she's stupid? Childish?

Then Carl says, "thanks for the tip about the waffle maker. I'm sure people prefer a perfect waffle over the skeleton of one" he says with a warm smile, trying to make her laugh probably. Anekke nods then goes out the door, relieved beyond words.

Kitt pulls her fingers through her dreads, which were the color of fallen leaves--- the characteristic Autumn hue between plum and red. She felt just slightly embarrassed to meet one of her teenage rock idols looking like a millennial-barista-spoken-word-slam-night-attendee-who-keeps-a-million-potted -succulents-around-their-house person, but so it goes. Some of teen-life's craziest caterpillars emerged from their cocoons as less stand-outy butterflies.

But there he was. Gary Nygard looking exactly the same, though less dressy, as she remembered during the heyday of Finnish metal's popularity in her generation. Jetty curtains of hair. The cozy cat skull sweatshirt over the pants with the boots. Gosh his legs were so perfectly thin. Kitt shakes her head.

"Darling" Nygard's voice steals Kitt's attention as he strokes just under the fuzzy siamese cat Sandra's chin. He is smiling slightly. "Is all well?" he says nodding towards her, like he could sense her trepidation, "this is a lovely place, beautiful really. Tell your boss, see, to keep doing whatever he or she is doing to keep it going. The cats are so dear, and you, all of you, have been lovely hosts"

He's so sweet and down to earth and candid and Scandinavian and beautiful and what inspired that song.... and will the band ever get back together and what does he do now that the band is... omg stop brain, stop it.... Kitt thinks.

"How long has the place been running for? It seems like a very hip sort of thing, an import, from Japan maybe... lovely country, Japan. They're very nice there" he continues as Sandra squirms and scratches at his sweater. But Gary Nygard is on to the silly cat, trying to distract her by scratching behind her ears while her head is turned in the opposite directions.

Kitt's mouth opens and closes. She blinks a mile a minute yet there's no wind in her face.

"Just a few years" Kitt responds, finding her composure again and holding onto it for dear life. "Yeah cat cafes, well, themed cafes in general, seem to be way more popular over there. This is kind of a knock---"

"A knock-off, but very nice" he finishes for her with a chuckle. He scratches his head then throws back the last of his green smoothie, Sandra sitting snugly nuzzled into his side on the velvet highback chair. Kitt watches the bob of his Adam's apple as he swallows the drink, the pale white of his throat exposed and blinding.

Suddenly she forgets that she can language, and just clasps and un-clasps her hands.

"It was lovely. Truly" he says, getting up from the chair. All 5'10 of him. Sandra scampers off across the cafe to bother some of the other kitties. "Kittie? Was that your name? Good girl" he mutters, pulling on his faux fur jacket. Kitt stands there dumbly.

She is frozen as he crosses the room towards the front door. She pretends to go fix tables near there then discreetly says, "wait. Sorry just a minute"

He stops and turns to face her, pulling a dark grey beanie over his hair and looking more and more like a mysterious pedestrian, becoming less and less real at the same despite. He was crossing the threshold of Kitt's world, reality, back into the far away world of teen angst nostalgia and dreams come true and old fires doused.

"I was a big fan when I was high school..." she says, quietly, softly, only he could hear.

He grins. A warm and genuine smile that touches his eyes that turn up slightly at the outer corners, like a cat's. He hands her his VIP customer lanyard and tag with his name and personality notes on there in his real life, almost-neat handwriting. The one thing customers usually toss.

"Thank you for today, Kittie" he says, with a brief, too light pat on her shoulder.

Then he's out the door.

Just like that.

A dream.

#furistas cat cafe fan fiction #furistas cat cafe #furistas #cat cafe game #cat cafe fan fic #cat cafe #anekke #kitt #carl

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a-tad-bit-obsessed · 1 year ago

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Do other countries have caterpillar cakes? Are like American viewers going to come in really confused on Friday?

#gbbo #gbbo spoilers #gbbo 2023

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treadmilltreats · 4 years ago

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Why do you think your better than others?

I knew that there is racism still in this country, but I never realized it was this bad. Maybe because I am like Tinkerbell and I have always just seen a person's heart. To me if you are a good person, if you are kind, caring and compassionate, that is what counts.

My mother grew up in Harlem, for God's sake so I never saw racism in my home. I was lucky enough to be brought up in a town that had families of color, we had Jewish families, we had Spanish families, mixed raced families, we even had gay families. This was in the late 60's and a small town, so it was rare that we were not closed minded about these things, as many towns across our nation were.

We didn't judge a person by the color of their skin, we saw their hearts, we saw their kindness, they were our friends. It was an incredible place to grow up in and maybe because of that I thought the rest of the world was like we were.

My very first best friend was black, my "Uncle" who was our family friend was black.Hell, I even go to a prodimidly black church, so this has never been an issue for me. Unfortunately I was wrong not only does the rest of the world still have racism but yesterday I realized that it is in your own back yard. With so many friends and family showing their true colors on social media it is shocking to realize how many racist were hanging out in their closets for so many years.

I remember meeting someone online, he seemed nice so after a few emails we decided to meet at the beach.

He was a mixed race man, and as I wrote about yesterday, I didn't care. He was 6'5, a little too tall for me but through text messaging he seemed sweet so I overlooked it.

As we are walking and talking, he starts off by telling me his mom was Italian and his dad was black. Then he asked about my church I go to and when I told him about my church, he responded that he would never go to my church because there were way too many blacks in one place, and that he didn't want to hang out with ghetto people.

Hello? Did he just didn't say that? I told him he was sadly mistaken if he thought my church was ghetto! That I have met some of the kindest, sweetest, giving, smartest, business people there. He had no idea who went to my church or what they were like and yet here he was prejudging them.

Well, right away we are off on the wrong foot, insult my church? Oh hell no, I am definitely not feeling this man, but I am polite and we keep talking. He goes on to tell me how his dad is an ex NBA basketball player and how he played for a professional team in another country. He tells me how rich he was, how people always stop him and recognize him on the street. Now come on really? Does anyone you know here watch Swedish basketball? Okay, buddy.

I am getting a little more put off by the moment and as I tell him "Oh really, well money doesn't matter, I walked away from a marriage with lots of money, and I know for a fact that money doesn't make you happy" He looks at me like I have lost my mind, oh yeah, this date is going downhill fast.

Until it impoded when he asks me if I was married to a white man, I tell him yes, a Jewish man, now he proceeds to tell me how Jews own the world, they think that they are all that, that they are not chosen people.

"Let me tell you how it goes" he says and I'm thinking, oh go right ahead because if you haven't dug your grave already this will really do it. "Please go on" I say.

"It goes whites, then Jew's, then blacks, then Indian's and on the bottom of the barrel is Spanish people"

He did not just say that???

And with that, the date was over for me but before I left him standing there by himself, I turned and said.

"Oh by the way, I guess I didn't mention that I am half Puerto Rican"

He stood there with his mouth open, then he said as I turned and walked away "Oh, are we leaving?"

I said "No, I am" and with that I walked away.

Wow, I remember thinking good thing I didn't dress up for this date! I am still in shock, I have dated a lot of losers (okay, no smartass comments from the peanut gallery) But this one took the cake!

Now I tell you this story for a point, did he really think there was more white blood in him then black? Was he mad at the rest of the world for this reason? I don't know what his problem was but I know he was a racist, as stupid as that sounds.

What I have never understood is that it doesn't matter what color you are, cut us and we all bleed red. When we die we all go in the ground, we all become dust, period! Doesn't matter what color you are, doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter who you love, we are all the same, so why can't people realize this?

No one is better than anyone else, money doesn't make you better, your color doesn't make you better, your "rank" in society doesn't make you better, what makes you a better person is how you treat others, period.

Yes, I have been learning a lot of lessons this past year but the one I keep learning over and over is what I will put up with and what is definitely not okay!

Being an out and out racist is not okay, treating people like trash is not okay, being okay with the way black people have been treated for years is not okay.

So today my friends my last thought is what I always say at the end of every blog, be the change you want to see, it starts with you.

Love thy neighbor, like you love yourself because in the end, we are all children of God.

"Be the change you want to see"

"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

**Now released my latest book**

The Blessing in Disguise.... revealed

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dcnativegal · 5 years ago

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Autumn in the Oregon Outback

It’s autumn here in the Oregon Outback. I’m writing this in mid-December and it surely feels like winter. The snow is so beautiful and stays white. In DC, by day 3 the snow is grey and black.

We started burning wood in the stove right after the equinox. Much of the wood we’ve bought is stacked in the wood shed but then we were away for a weekend and it rained and the wheelbarrow wheel is flat and Valerie’s hand isn’t quite healed from surgery… can you hear the excuses? So, we gather the wood from the driveway AND the shed at the moment. All in good time.

We had a little trouble locating someone who’d deliver wood all the way to Paisley. We were on a waiting list, but I got anxious since wood is our only source of heat. A client knows somebody who knows somebody who desperately needs the work, and next thing we know, we have a pile of wood. When Valerie organized it, she realized it was not quite a cord, and we’d paid $160, which is a lot for a cord, though more reasonable with the 90-minute round trip from Lakeview factored in. We gave him another chance and he gave us than two and a half more cords. That were not cut quite right. So we have a stack that needs more chopping, and a lot of misshapen bits with tree branches sticking out that make them very hard to stack. We are making do. He was deeply grateful. And we have heat.

When I got up this morning, it was 23 outside and 62 inside. It may get warmer than freezing today, and with my beloved pyromaniac, Valerie, at the stove, it might get as warm as 78. Which means it’s over 80 in the loft if you want to take a nap. I go from wool socks, warm jammies and a sweatshirt to a tank top and shorts in the course of a day. If we ever lose power in winter, we’ll be fine.

Valerie had a medical adventure this past summer in which she woke up and couldn’t get the world to stop spinning. I called her daughter, Hope, an RN at the one hospital in this county, and she met us in the emergency department. The 45-minute ride down to Lakeview with poor Val puking in a bucket was not fun. With a shot of Zofran, she stopped puking, and after an overnight stay to see if she’d had a stroke, an MS flare or “just” loose crystals in her ears, she saw a neurologist to establish care with one out here in Oregon. And it was the neurologist who said, you know you really should see a hand surgeon about those lumps in your left hand. Which hurt when she bonks them. So she did. And the hand surgeon, in Bend, went WHOA NELLY you need those lumps out. Can it wait until after my grandson Adam’s wedding in September? Nope. We’ll schedule the surgery for next week. That’s how fast she came to have 22 schwanomas removed very delicately; they apparently cluster like grapes along nerves. The surgeon had to cut her hand like Zorro because straight-line scars would contract and she’d have even more trouble opening her hand fully. The presenting problem of dizziness turned out to be a temporary issue of rogue ear crystals, but what came out of all the hullabaloo was a hand that no longer hurts.

She’s fine now, and stretches her hand out with the use of heat.

Recently, Valerie spent hours with 3 neighbors killing chickens, then defeathering them, and finally putting them in baggies to freeze. For her labors, she got two whole chickens (minus their heads, and innards), and two livers. Valerie does love liver and onions. (The big animal vet she sometimes works for says eating liver is like sucking on an oil filter. I’ll take his word for it and avoid the whole situation.) The neighbors, who’d bought chicks to grow them into meat chickens (not egg-producing ones) now have 35 chicken carcasses frozen for winter meals. Valerie invited me to help. Ha! Ha, ha ha HA! That would be a no. I did take over our new-to-us poodle named Griffey. He’d have LOVED to smell all the feathers as they were drifting to the ground. The whole business was a revelation. I didn’t stay long. (Shudder.) If I’m going to eat chicken, I need to appreciate where the poor bird on my plate came from. I just don’t need to pluck the actual feathers off myself.

Later that same day, after Valerie’s chicken-plucking and a long shower, we drove to the Lakeview Elks Lodge for a fundraiser for the senior citizen meal program. (The Elks Lodge is the largest venue for big gatherings in the county.) There are 350 senior citizens living below the poverty line. The program serves less than a third of that, and although the meals are offered for free, they are not entirely subsidized by tax revenue, therefore, fundraiser. I’ve come to know the folks at the Senior Center through my many requests for transportation, and they are hardworking, smart women.

Val and I sat and chatted with a husband wife pair we’ve gotten to know from St. Luke’s Episcopal. And then, my coworker, fellow knitter, and Valerie’s primary care provider walked in with her husband. I gestured wildly and they joined our table. She’s the health care person who refers the most clients to me for mental health assessment. I got to know her when I worked in Christmas Valley, those 18 months when I drove north each workday instead of south. She referred clients to our tiny mental health outpost up there. Other things we have in common: she’s a liberal. She’s lived and worked on the east coast. She grew up with a high ACE score (which means, many Adverse Childhood Experiences.) She’s a serious introvert and has a very busy, stressful life in the same clinic that I work in. I admire her very much. Her name is Kathleen.

The Lakeview Senior Center program started and we heard about services to folks 65 and older in the county, which include home delivered meals, transportation to far-flung doctor appointments in Bend and Medford, and daily meals with socializing. Right before dinner was served, there was a loud clatter and thud at the edge of the tables. A man had collapsed. A small group surrounded him. Kathleen asked, is something wrong? Yup. She went over to the man, and stayed there until the EMTs took him out on a gurney to the emergency department. She came back to the table, regretful that she’d had half a beer and had to breathe that breath onto this guy, who’s had trouble with dehydration since his car broke down and he wandered around in the desert for days. Despite the Hebrews’ and Jesus’ success at wandering in deserts, it’s not recommended.

We finally chewed on our tamales, beans and rice, followed by sheet cake. Manley, and Valerie, talk old haying equipment, and tell stories. One of my favorites is about the time when young Valerie worked as a ‘hooker’, that is, she hooked lumber so that it could be lifted by a CAT(erpillar) onto a truck… she tells this story so much better than I do… A guy in a caterpillar hoists her up by large hooks which she holds onto, and he lifts her over to the log he wants her to put on the truck next. She puts the hooks where they go and up goes the log onto the truck.

One day, she’s swinging in the air above the logs still waiting to be loaded, hanging on by her hands, and she sees that the guy running the caterpillar is slumped over the enormous steering wheel. Has he had a heart attack? She swings herself around to see the other crew member to find out if he notices the slumped guy, and guy #2 is slapping the side of the truck in paroxysms of humor. Uh oh. She looks down and her bra straps had snapped and her bra was now visible as a belt around her waist. The caterpillar driver managed to catch his breath and graciously swings her up and over a bush and she drops down. After she’d gotten her bra back up where it belongs, she came out behind the bush and bowed.

A great story. One of many that show how a tough woman gets out of a pink-color trap to work alongside cranky menfolk who learn begrudging respect for this ‘hooker’ and ‘millwright’ and shoe cobbler and… my partner is remarkable …

At the benefit dinner, we listened to the brief explanation of how Meals on Wheels is a program of the triple A which has nothing to do with the American Automobile Association, despite the importance of ‘wheels’ in home-meal delivery, but is rather the Area Agency on Aging. Which is a governmental entity. And that’s all that’s said about that by the director of the program. Because we are in an anti-government, very “red” county. But I know that it’s the Older Americans Act that funds all the ‘triple As’ in the country, one covering every county in the USA. (Since Lake County is the red headed step child of Klamath County, that triple A covers 2 counties.) And I know that the Older Americans Act was one enduring program signed into law by Lyndon B Johnson as part of the Great Society Legislation which also brought us Medicaid and the Voting Rights Act, to name just two more important bits of ‘government.’

Just ask Valerie. My blood pressure goes up when people disparage ‘government’ around these parts. I know too many very good people who served in ‘government’, how many laws are so deeply helpful to everyone, like the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act. How most things that we complain about are due to the influx of corporate control over government, and how reluctant the government is to tax corporations. Campaign finance reform would be the way to drain the ‘swamp.’

Nevermind. I’m trying to chew all my food and not eat too much of it since my bariatric surgery in April as the evening wears on.

(I will post about the weight loss adventure one of these days…)

I’m glad we went. I’m glad to show my face in support of the senior center. Plus we got to visit with two folks I like. One of whom knew just how to care for a man who collapsed.

The other day, Kathleen walked into my over-decorated office and said, Jane I really need your help. Expecting to hear about a patient who was crying in the examining room and who would soon be ‘warmly handed off’ to me for counseling, I was surprised to hear she needed help with the first couple of rows of a 90-stitch knitting project. Could I cast on? Why of course. “Other duties as assigned.”

*****

In other news, we are adjusting to life with a dog. Since Valerie’s faithful Westie, Dudley, died about 7 years ago, she’s dog-sat various pooches and lived happily with my 13 year-old cat, Moe. Since Val’s pretty much retired from ranch irrigation, she’s now able to spend time with a dog. She was vocal about wanting some sort of poodle mix, because they are smart. Lake County is full of cow dogs, pit bulls, and lots of chihuahuas for some reason. When her daughter Hope saw a message on Facebook about a family needing to rehome a poodle mix, she signaled Valerie, and next thing we know, we have a dog named Griffey, named after a baseball player. He’d been born 6 years before in Maryland, and flown by a coworker’s father to a ranch here; Erin has a poodle breeding business. Poor Griffey apparently didn’t like being in a herd. That family rehomed him with a young couple who had a baby and worked long hours away from home. Griffey pooped in their bed. So Griffey came to us.

This pooch is very well behaved. Aside from chasing the cat, which we are trying to discourage, he obeys Valerie’s voice, loves going gallivanting in the desert every mid-day, and enjoys the cat food Moe turns her nose up at. We take him with us to town for church, and he sits in the truck, waiting for our return. Moe gets the house to herself for a few hours. We’ve become a family who lives with a dog. His current names include “Nickelplate” (which is cheap jewelry), “poor, sad dog”, Snicklefritz, and “Your dogliness.”

I swear there are 2 rush hours in Lakeview every weekday: one at lunch to let the dogs out to pee, and one at dinner for the same purpose, even if folks are going out to dinner later. The homeless people have dogs; the owners won’t go into subsidized housing if their dogs can’t come, too. Dogs and guns. Everyone has them. We don’t have guns. But we do have Griffey. Currently, Griff and Moe are negotiating how to sleep on their humans without hissing and growling at each other. This is not going well; however, Moe, who’s never lived with a dog or encountered dogs in her sheltered life, is learning to hiss and swipe, which may be far more effective than us ordering Griffey to resist a primeval impulse to chase.

The other thing I’ve been doing is starting up and nurturing a group of women who knit, crochet, or want to learn. I miss knitting in a group, chatting, sharing stories about anything. These gatherings have been called “Stitch and Bitch”, but there is no bitching that I can tell. Occasional complaints about the wait service at the first venue we tried, which had but one worker and one cook for the entire restaurant. We moved to the bowling alley, a large building that has a cavernous party room with a wall protecting us from the racket of big ball bowling. The food has been better and the waitresses take good care of us. So TJ’s Family Fun Center is where we can be found on Wednesday evenings right after work.

I’m surprised by the enthusiasm, and we’ll see if it lasts. The very first gathering, there were 11 of us, and a couple women came to learn. I’m a pretty patient teacher, as long as you’re right handed. I’ve listed youtube videos in our facebook group for lefties, and lots of projects. Here are a couple that I finished this fall.

#woodstove crochet

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cnfhumss12a-blog · 6 years ago

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Down the Rabbit Hole

By Tamara Cloa

Down the rabbit hole, Alice fell into Wonderland - a surreal land full of the peculiar and the unexplored.

I was feeling a bit tired from all the requirements I had to do and the preparations I had to make for my organization’s concert. I almost dozed off in an air-conditioned SUV over the chatter of my friends as my white noise. We were on our way to Binondo - a part of Manila that upto that day still foreign to me. All I heard is that everyone who lives there is Chinese. The good thing though was that I went with my friends - Dana, Keegan, Trisha, Lianne, and Emiliane. And the best part? Trisha’s mom - whom I call “Tita” - offered to be the White Rabbit to our Alice. Otherwise, we would have taken the LRT - which could’ve brought us there earlier by a few minutes. The downside was that taking the LRT did not give the luxury of privacy and convenience as compared to a private car.

I snapped from my daze as I felt the SUV come to a halt. I checked my surroundings to find a BDO Teller Machine, a street sign that said “Paredes”, and an alleyway. Tita said that she wanted us to try a local favourite: Quik Snack. It was at the middle point of the alleyway called Carvajal. This alleyway became the rabbit hole we fell into. Its sides are lined with carts that had towers of fruits like oranges, apples, dragon fruit, watermelons - you name it. Sometimes, there would be a Chinese drug store or two popping up between the fruit carriages. I held on to my belongings. My parents told me that Binondo is a sketchy place full of sketchy characters. Especially at this point, I didn’t want to lose my phone - considering that my mom accidentally paid for my bill ‘til October.

The White Rabbit led us to a cavern of delicious, affordable, and authentic Chinese delicacies - Quik-Snack. We were not met by a birthday tea party where the Mad Hatter and Hare were in attendance. Instead, we were welcomed by a local eatery filled with local diners: women wearing pearls sipping on iced coffee with coffee jelly and ice cream on top; police in uniform awaiting their ordered lunch; elderly men enjoying their solitude with a newspaper at hand, and families sharing a delicious meal together. The aroma of freshly steamed buns and the distinct peanut smell of sate sauce lend a comforting feel to an otherwise hectic ambiance. After a few minutes, I was served a hot plate of mami noodles with beef and sate sauce along with a glass of iced coffee. Soon after, more dishes such as oyster cake, soup noodles, and meat buns followed. I’d say the food was reasonably priced; most of the menu items were priced below 200 pesos.

The amazing food did not distract me from the bits of history that ordained Quik-Snack’s interior. Old Chinese comics and rough sketches filled the posts, while a mural of the establishment’s past decked the walls. The charm that this restaurant has and the warmth it exudes makes one big on Chinese food. I felt like I was back in time - maybe around the 1940s. Filipinos and Chinese people in their Americanos and the like would share the home-like space Quik-Snack had. Probably.

We stepped outside their door and ended up on Ongpin Street.

We felt small compared to the buildings that surrounded us. The hustling and bustling of vehicles and the people did not help at all. The small tend to look up. There was a noticeable contrast between the the style of the then-new metropolitan to the latest high-rise condominiums. Black and white like the opposing sides of a game of chess. Yet unlike chess, there was the presence of a gray area that helps tie both sides together. The traditional-yet-modern feel that the lanterns give to its surrounding area was stunning. It helped remind one that this is Chinatown, and in Chinatown, there are a lot of Chinese drug stores. I’m not entirely sure what to feel about these traditional types of medication, but I guess that’s because I’ve never seen one up close.

One particular store caught my eye. It had a grand facade without even comparing it to the other Chinese pharmas. The outside was reminiscent of either a temple or a traditional royal building. Being someone who never been at a Chinese drug store before, we decided to take a little sneak peek at some of their wares. It was as if we were in the presence of a caterpillar riddler that smokes. There were trays of ingredients that we could not recognize. That was how exotic - or possibly illegal - the herbs/goods were. My parents weren’t joking when they said that Binondo has some sketchy characters. We stayed there long enough to figure out their system. Once a customer tells them of their illness, they crush and mix ingredients into an powder for consumption. Maybe they could put “DRINK ME” or “EAT ME” labels on them.

While talking to the lady-pharmacist, we found out that this was actually a family-run business. She said that they’ve been putting up the shop since the year 1938. During those 81 years of being in business, you’d think that people might have forgotten all about them - considering the presence of modern medicine- yet they haven’t. They still have a steady stream of customers coming to them. Talking to the people there helped to bring the feel of the store back down to earth, but there was still this uneasiness I was feeling just being in there. Was it the smell? Maybe. Did some powder get into the air and messed with my brain? No, hopefully.

We went off to continue our venture, leaving the putrid scent of the store behind.

A block away, we reached a street that was lined with traditional shops. Most had lovely red lanterns hanging outside their storefronts. One shop had endless rows and columns of shelves filled with jars of Chinese treats - none of which I’m familiar with. Tita bought each of us a jar with a label that was in Chinese. It looked like sweet tamarind, but I can’t be too sure. I think my mom bought something similar from Taiwan during one of her trips. I didn’t like the candied-somethings she brought, but I guess I’m willing to give whatever-this-is a try.

Across the street, there was a store that was too cramped for its own good. The goods being sold seemed random too: thick blankets, tea sets, incense, and more. Tita saw the confusion on my face and said, “This is a traditional Chinese wedding shop. I bought my wedding materials here”. I had too many questions in the my head: why do traditional Chinese weddings need these? What do they symbolize? How long has this shop been here? Tita was looking for something, so I had to asked Google instead. Even Google couldn’t fully grasp what they meant.

Around the corner, I noticed a white-walled store that didn’t seem to belong. On its shelves weren’t exotic ingredients, but bottles of medicine from some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies. It was just like any other pharmacy I could find outside of Binondo, but this shows that while tradition is important for the Chinese, they are willing to see things in a modern context. I felt more at ease after seeing this. Maybe not all of the things I hear about Binondo are true. Maybe I could grow to love it.

Beside the pharmacy, there was a shop that sold symbols of luck, fortune, and the like. They had different types of precious stones, statues, and even gourds. When asked, the saleslady explained that the vegetable was used as a charm to keep diseases away. This is one of the things I’ve always wondered about Chinese culture. Why do they rely on stones and charms to help them? I wonder where they got their beliefs from. I could ask Trisha or the saleslady, but that would seem extremely rude. I rather keep those kinds of questions to myself.

We walked a bit more to a bakery along Salazar Street. The place was filled with stacks of siopao, cuapao, hopia, tikoy, bread and other Chinese delicacies. The best part? They made them in-house, which made them special. The smell of freshly-baked goods wafted the air. If they’re trying to get me to buy something using smell, it was working. Being the Filipino, I bought my dad some ube-filled hopia which is his favourite. I got it for around 80 pesos. And as with most Filipino adventures, buying pasalubong signified the end of our journey.

I sat in the rather empty LRT carriage in a daze - as if waking from a dream. Being in Binondo, I kind of forgot that I was still in Manila. I found things I’ve never seen, heard, or known of. Ironically, I was a tourist in my own country. At first, I felt scared and out of touch with Binondo’s ambiance. Maybe one day, I could gather up the courage to gothere alone and explore more what Binondo had to offer, waking from my dream of rumours and growing up to delve deeper - just like Alice. Gallery: https://cnfhumss12a.tumblr.com/tagged/Tamara

#english #Tamara

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zrtranscripts · 7 years ago

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Season 6, Mission 19: Catch Us If You Can

Working against better nature

JANINE DE LUCA: Put your helmet on now, Runner Five. [helmet beeps] And now open the airlock. [door hisses open]

SAM YAO: [laughs] Wow. Looks beautiful in there. Look at that, Janine! Lush foliage. Dense jungle. Brightly colored birds flitting between the trees. Enormous spiders on the jungle floor. But I mean, beautiful enormous spiders with jeweled eyes and blue carapaces.

JANINE DE LUCA: It's beautiful but deadly, Mr. Yao. Runner Five, make no mistake: you must not take off your European Rescue Force suit. That biosphere can kill you in a dozen different ways before you take a single step.

SAM YAO: Yeah, and you've got to take a few more than that.

JANINE DE LUCA: I'm sorry we can't come with you, but we cannot draw more attention than necessary to your mission. Bounty hunters are already on Miss Stein's trail, and a large contingent entering the Paradise Project biodome would certainly be noticed. It's all up to you.

Selma, the heroic woman who allowed herself to be taken in by the Minister's breeding program is hiding in the center of that dome, several kilometers in from where you are. She must know the dangers. She must have taken an ERF suit herself, and be hiding in there because no one else will dare to follow.

SAM YAO: Now, I get that there are probably deadly spiders, and snakes, and scorpions, and stuff, but... is it so deadly that not even paid bounty hunters would follow?

JANINE DE LUCA: This place was an experiment that went wrong, Mr. Yao. There are... creatures in this dome. Bio-engineered larvae. Minute, but deadly. If there is a single crack in your suit, Five, they will crawl in, burrow into your skin, lay their eggs, and emerge as six-inch-long maggots.

SAM YAO: Uh, what the... what?

JANINE DE LUCA: So you have to keep moving. Head towards the center of the dome. Now, Five. Run!

JANINE DE LUCA: You're doing well, Runner Five. It must be stifling hot inside that suit, but you're making good progress. And think of poor Miss Stein. By my reckoning, she's been in that biodome for five days. Her suit will be drawing water from the air for her, but she'll have no way to get food or relief from the heat.

SAM YAO: How do they get it that hot in England, anyway?

JANINE DE LUCA: The sphere has its own microclimate powered by a geothermal well beneath its foundations.

SAM YAO: Ah, right. Another one of those. Gotcha. Should have worked it out myself, really. [communication device beeps] What was that?

JANINE DE LUCA: Ah, one of my operatives, Pit Viper Seventeen, has taken out one of the bounty hunters chasing Miss Stein. She confronted them five miles from the Paradise Project, armed only with a birthday cake candle holder, apparently. That's my operative.

SAM YAO: Oh. Wow. Yeah. Ooh, that photo's intense. So, uh, one less person to follow Five into the biodome. [laughs] I have to say - I mean, apart from the deadly larvae and stuff - it does look like paradise. I mean, look at that beautiful blue butterfly circling Five's head, flapping its wings gracefully. [laughs] Look, there's a cloud of them off to the left.

JANINE DE LUCA: Runner Five, those butterflies are the adult stage of the flesh-burrowing larvae. They will attempt to penetrate your suit using their enhanced proboscises. If they can, they will then liquefy your flesh and strip the skin from your carcass.

SAM YAO: Oh. Right, okay.

JANINE DE LUCA: You must not allow them to land on you, Five. Run!

SAM YAO: Okay, okay. The dangerous butterflies are gone now. There's some uh, spiny red caterpillars on that tree, Janine.

JANINE DE LUCA: Don't touch them. Deadly.

SAM YAO: Yep. That would have been my guess. And those gorgeous orange plants with the huge yellow and green striped flowers?

JANINE DE LUCA: Lethally toxic.

SAM YAO: Of course. And the vines? I presume, if Runner Five touches them, they'll come to life and take that suit in a death grip, hoisting it high above the jungle floor.

JANINE DE LUCA: What? No. Watch out for them, though, Five. They might trip you.

SAM YAO: [laughs] It's good to have you back, Janine. I've missed this. You and me in the comms booth. Or like, a makeshift comms booth in a van three miles from the Paradise Project.

JANINE DE LUCA: I've missed it, too, Mr. Yao. I may have been running a team of ruthlessly efficient assassins, but I've grown used to your homespun, amateurish charm.

SAM YAO: Janine, that is probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me.

JANINE DE LUCA: I'm impressed with the way you've all managed in my absence. I must confess, I was rather expecting to find more... damage to Abel Township.

SAM YAO: Yeah, well, a couple of drawers in the farmhouse might be sort of temporarily sealed shut with marmite, but otherwise, you left us good instructions. We did miss you, though.

Listen, I wanted to ask. I mean, maybe I just didn't get it, you know? But you couldn't have known that we'd need to find Selma, and ANNIE would be the only way. Unless you did know?

JANINE DE LUCA: I did not.

SAM YAO: Yeah. Right. So like, here's the question: what was worth leaving us for so long, Janine? I mean, I get that you've found out stuff about Sigrid's operations, and there's the whole team of assassins situation, but... [sighs] well, what did you go undercover for?

JANINE DE LUCA: Wheels within wheels, Mr. Yao. Beneath every structure, another structure. Or to put it another way, Sigrid rules the country, but who rules the rulers?

SAM YAO: Uh, what?

JANINE DE LUCA: An army marches on its stomach, Mr. Yao. A nation, even more so. It's need-to-know. I can tell you this: Sara Smith always told me to watch out for Xia-Hifa. But the game they were playing was longer than anyone realized. Just believe me that I had my reasons.

SAM YAO: Oh, yeah, I do! I always do. Did you see that, Janine? Shadow on the monitor. I can't quite make it come into view.

JANINE DE LUCA: Hmm. Yes. It's near the perimeter, Five. I'll send one of my women to take a look through the outside of the dome.

SAM YAO: Wait. Couldn't be Project Glass, could it? Could it be that quick?

JANINE DE LUCA: We'll find out. Keep going, Five. We know there are several groups after Miss Stein. You must reach her before anyone else does.

[monkeys howl]

SAM YAO: What was that?

JANINE DE LUCA: Howler monkeys. I believe they've been genetically engineered to have congenital rabies. Watch out for them, Five.

SAM YAO: Yeah, because otherwise, Five was just not really paying attention.

[communication device beeps]

JANINE DE LUCA: Damn it.

SAM YAO: What is it? Is Five in trouble? Janine, what's going on?

JANINE DE LUCA: No. Message from one of my Pit Viper assassins. She's been wounded in intercepting one of the Minister's bounty hunters. She dealt with him, of course. Threw him under the train tracks 10 miles away. But she's out of commission now, and one of the other bounty hunters might have slipped past her.

Runner Five, Miss Stein has no way to communicate with the outside world and no knowledge of how many people are looking for her. If you don't get to her, one of the others will.

[arrow thuds into tree]

SAM YAO: What was that? Someone's shooting arrows at Five! Did you see that, Janine?

[arrow splatters against Runner Five's suit]

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, you're hit! The arrow isn't sharp. It's covered in a sticky substance. There's more dripping down from an arrow lodged in the tree above you, Five. Get out of the way!

SAM YAO: It just looks like honey.

[butterflies buzz]

JANINE DE LUCA: It's attracting those butterflies. Five, you have to run now.

[butterflies buzz]

SAM YAO: Okay, okay. So you're just about outpacing those butterflies through the undergrowth, Five. And you're coming up on a waterfall where you can wash off some of that honey.

JANINE DE LUCA: [whispers] Yes, I see him. Make sure you're in position at the vent.

SAM YAO: Did you work out who fired that honey arrow at Five, Janine?

JANINE DE LUCA: It's a bounty hunter. He can't know who Five is, or he’d have radioed Sigrid to report us at once. Must just think Five's another bounty hunter after the purse. Lucky for us.

I have one of my women positioned at the top of the biosphere near one of the air vents. When he passes beneath... [bounty hunter shouts and collapses] Clean kill, by a poisoned dart. Better than he'd have given Five.

SAM YAO: Ugh. Yes. Five, look to your right. Do you see that? I think it's zombie Paradise Project workers. I can just about see their T-shirts under all those butterflies.

Ugh! Ugh, no! I never thought I'd be that disgusted by butterflies. Their tongues are sort of licking through those zombies' eye sockets, and – oh God! I can see them. There are larvae hatching out of their sides. Ugh!

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, if those zombies catch you, you will die in at least three different repulsive and painful ways. You must move quickly. Head for the waterfall. Go!

[water splashes]

SAM YAO: That's it. All the honey's washed off in that waterfall, Five. And you've lost the zoms. Well, they sort of fell to maggoty pieces. You're safe to continue.

[comms shack door opens]

JODY MARSH: We've got a report for you, Janine. Pit Vipers Five and Eight are wounded, but they say they've taken down the [?] ensemble who were going to use a tank to reach Selma in the biodome.

JANINE DE LUCA: Ah. I can always rely on them.

AMELIA SPENS: What's going on in that biodome? Is Runner Five having a tropical shower? I don't want to tell you your job, Janine, but that seems like the kind of thing I'd do, to be honest.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Spens, Mr. Yao and Miss Marsh tell me you've been instrumental in this operation, therefore you may sit on that stool and watch the remainder of the mission without talking. Runner Five is nearing Miss Stein's location.

AMELIA SPENS: You know, if you make me sit silently on a stool, I'll make you regret it eventually.

JANINE DE LUCA: Certainly. Runner Five, there's a sharp bend ahead around that hillock. We have no line of sight until you round the corner, so take care.

[monkey shrieks]

JODY MARSH and JANINE DE LUCA: Five, duck!

JANINE DE LUCA: It was a monkey, Runner Five. It has receded into the jungle. Proceed. Very good instincts, Miss Marsh.

JODY MARSH: It wasn't anything. It's just what you would have done.

JANINE DE LUCA: That's what I mean. Miss Marsh, Miss Stein is in that range of caves up ahead. If you were her, where you be sheltering?

JODY MARSH: Hmm. That one's too close to the treeline. You'd attract the attention of the monkeys. That one's too near the water. There are probably insects in it. Hmm. That one looks deep and cool. I'd be in that one.

JANINE DE LUCA: My thoughts exactly. Head for the third cave on the second ridge, Runner Five. Run!

SELMA STEIN: [startles] Who - who's there? Who's there? I'm armed! Oh! Oh, Runner Five, it's you. I've never been so glad to see anyone in my whole life.

JANINE DE LUCA: Five, if you adjust the controls on her communicator to channel seven, she'll pick up our broadcast through your transmitter. [communicator beeps] Miss Stein, we're here to rescue you.

SELMA STEIN: Oh? Who's that?

AMELIA SPENS: It's me, Selma. It's Amelia. You remember me? I'm a terrible, horrible person who really owes you a long Jacuzzi and a massage once you're out of that suit.

SELMA STEIN: You really, really do.

AMELIA SPENS: Selma, I don't want to have to ask you this -

SELMA STEIN: It's all right. I didn't get everything you need, but I think I got enough. I had to run. I really didn't mean to, but they got suspicious. They kept me in the holding area for too long. I knew something was going wrong.

SAM YAO: They found your GPS tags. They turned them off.

SELMA STEIN: Did they? Then... how did you find me?

SAM YAO: We had to... [sighs] we had to call in some favors.

SELMA STEIN: It doesn't matter. This is all that matters. I didn't find the location of her serum factory, but I found its code name. In her files, Sigrid calls the serum factory Project Angelica. If you look for Project Angelica in her private files, you'll find out where those babies are.

AMELIA SPENS: Oh, good. Then all we have to do is get to a private terminal in Sigrid's palace. Sounds like just the sort of certain death challenge Team Abel are always up for.

#zombies run #zrs6 #s6m19 #catch us if you can #zr transcript #zrs6 spoilers

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jiawongwrites · 8 years ago

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[Fiction] Alice

The great house where I grew up was always singing. A symptom of old foundations and the wind seeping in through every crack, my father told me. Dress warmly, Alice, and you’ll be fine. In winter I wore gloves over my stiff fingers, and in summer my face would be kissed by the gentle breeze no matter where I was.

I always thought it was mother caressing me; her feather-light strokes heavy with the love she could no longer give me. When she sung to me, I smiled and sang along with her. Our voices blended in the great house her father had left to Papa and I. He never liked our singing.

“It is improper,” he frowns, “For a respectable young lady to have such wild imaginings of a dead woman.”

“Your wife,” I tell him, but he is no longer listening.

Father’s friend is a physician. They talk in muted conversations and I am given medicine: tonics and phosphates. I am prescribed long walks in the country air until I am well again. I walk and walk but mother still sings to me.

Papa finds a house in the country for me to live.

It’s grand, certainly, far bigger than the walls where mother sings to me. The people there smile at me and wear clean uniforms. They say they will take care of me until I am well again. The walls here do not resonate with mother’s singing. Instead, they vibrate with the sound of chatter; other respectable ladies who are waiting to be told they are well again.

My room looks over the green grass, and in the distance I can see the tree branches dancing in the wind.

I don’t see much of the house in the end.

They take away my books first, so I read pamphlets and announcements on the communal board. But when I ask for a newspaper- mother does love the advertisements after all- they whisper and say no. So I wander the grounds, chasing after mother’s voice. I’m far away from her but she comes to me still, and when I can’t hear her I lift my skirts and spin until she’s laughing along with me.

When they find us giggling on the grass, they put me back in my room and the door only opens when I bathe once a day. Two days.

But no matter, because I hear her still, when the window opens and she rushes in to kiss my cheeks. I tell her about the people here. They don’t like me reading, I say. They want me to learn sewing so I will be prepared when I marry. They don’t like me talking to you, I say.

They leave my room unfurnished now, because my imagination is too great. A wild thing never to be tamed! If I had a pen and paper I would write it down and send it to all the other women here. We could read them together after supper then sew great tapestries just like the stories of old. They keep mother outside the window, and she howls against the pane of glass. No matter, we will find a way.

I lift my skirts and spin, but the air here is stale and thick with dust. My brow runs with sweat and I fall as the room whirls. I breathe laboriously and imagine mother is pushing inside my lungs and forcing my life. Ah, that’s right. She always did like me rosy-cheeked and excited. The walls in my room don’t creak with her soft, soft, singing, even if I press my ear right next against the wallpaper.

There is a scratch in the wallpaper. The yellow rips to reveal the white paint underneath; a torn head pulled up into two white ears; he will listen to me. When I finish, he hops about the room, and I chase him.

“Eat, Alice,” he tells me. “Drink.”

So I do. To keep my strength, you see. It pleases them, and they tell me when I am well again I may take my meals in the hall with the other guests. The food makes me grow larger; they will give me small portions until my skirts fit again.

Mother, it has been some time since we last talked. I miss our singing. I try to sing by myself, but the tune is never quite right. I press my ear to the wall to hear you, but all I have now is the white rabbit; he hops around the room and so I follow. He always seems to be in a rush, mother. I wonder what world lies beyond the scratched paper- that blasted yellow that stains my fingernails so. The rabbit has friends, mother: birds who can’t fly and little mice who chitter French poetry to me. They race about the room, round and around and around and around-

They give me cake, mother. I am becoming a lady, you see, and one of them allows a small candle and wishes me many happy returns. I think one return is enough, don’t you think? A return by your side, just once, and that will suffice for me. The caterpillar has taken a liking to that orange flame. Perhaps it is a welcome change to the ghastly yellow. I’ll give it to him, mother, and he will curl up by the glow and breathe in the tendrils of smoke as we continue our conversations.

Who am I?

Why, I don’t quite know.

What am I doing here?

Papa brought me to live here.

Why?

Why, indeed.

When the candle burns out, he crawls away. I try to follow, but the yellow paper bars my way: I shall remain here. My cheeks are wet, from the sharp smoke that stung my eyes perhaps, or the unfulfilled yearning of reaching that wonder land beyond the walls, where animals play croquet and a tea party awaits. Mother, you would love it there, I believe. You could sing like a lark and those who listen would only smile and applaud you. Perhaps this room is far bigger than I realised! What adventures lie beyond the paper!

Yes, indeed, now I have something to look forward to! I follow the white rabbit and I am the treasured guest at his tea party, the swirling patterns and designs made only greater by the stained fungus that creeps downward. Mother, I didn’t see this before. They wouldn’t let you sing so you drew me an adventure on your walls! I am only sorry I didn’t notice before.

Let’s play croquet, shall we? No, I didn’t bring any of the mallets. This fellow- oh, a sweet flamingo, is he? Well, we can turn him upside down and use the hedgehog for a ball- he’s always curled up like that, anyway. You look far grander than I’ve ever seen you before. Although why won’t you come out when those smiling faces appear? They say they will help me, mother. Is it because you’re afraid they won’t let you come to me? No matter, I will go to you instead. The wallpaper is not so thick, mother, though it lies in shreds on the floor. Yellow dotted with red! My, that one does have a bright smile. From ear to ear, though it never quite reaches his eyes. He tells me he will call for Papa. What for? I am perfectly happy here now. In fact, I do not wish to leave! Let’s stay, mother, for we are together once more.

And why-! There he is, your husband and my father.

“Dear God, Alice,” he cries. “What on earth are you doing!”

“After our game of croquet, we are invited to a tea party, Papa!” Now why indeed is he crying like that? Such a noise- he’ll frighten off the sweet animals!

“Is this my fault?” he asks in between great heaving sobs.

“Father, you must excuse me,” I tell him.

And I, sweet Alice, return to you.

/end

LINKS [Blog] [IG] [Twitter] [Wattpad]

#alice in wonderland #disney #lewis carroll #the yellow wallpaper #charlotte perkins gilman #writing #scribbles #feminism #fairy tales #retelling

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sensitivefern · 8 years ago

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Reading: After having had to read so many mediocre books in connection with the Civil War and Canada, it is a pleasure to get back for a while to really well-written ones. Smollett’s Travels through France and Italy, Auden’s excellent anthology of Walter de la Mare’s poetry, Saintsbury’s Miscellaneous Essays, a volume I had never seen which I picked up at Blackwell’s in Oxford. Saintsbury at his best, in his middle period... Lionel Trilling cannot understand why I admire Saintsbury.

[Edmund Wilson]

===

BALTIMORE, SEPTEMBER 24, 1945. George S. Schuyler, the Negro journalist, was here last night, and August and I put in a couple of hours palavering with him in Hollins street. He is now in charge of the New York office of the Pittsburgh Courier... He said that the Courier now has six or eight regional editions, and sells 280,000 copies a week. Its gross intake last year was nearly $2,000,000. [...] His view of World War II and of the events likely to flow out of it is substantially mine, so our confab was free from argument. He has a white wife, but is very dark himself, with plainly negroid features. I have been following his doings for nearly twenty years, and... [he] is unquestionably the most competent Negro journalist ever heard of... When I compare him to any of the dunderheads now roaring on the Sun, I am sharply conscious of his enormous superiority. He is not only much more intelligent than they are; he is vastly more honest.

[H.L. Mencken]

===

HANS IN LUCK

Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes right – all that falls to them is so much gain – all their geese are swans – all their cards are trumps – toss them which way you will, they will always, like poor puss, alight upon their legs, and only move on so much the faster. The world may very likely not always think of them as they think of themselves, but what care they for the world? what can it know about the matter?

One of these lucky beings was neighbour Hans.

===

LICHEN: ‘Eternity’s soil maker’, you could call him. Long before your ancestors and mine appeared on earth, he was laboring endlessly on flinty rock and sterile sand, in steaming tropics and icy tundra. [...] Lichens are eaten by snails, mites, caterpillars and the like, and these creatures supply manure to further the soil making. [...] In ancient times, lichens were used for everything from dyes and pigments to perfume and hair tonic. Tanners, brewers, distillers and medical men found them highly useful. At one time, various lichens were recommended as cures for dozens of ailments, and as a narcotic and even an insecticide. [...] LICHENS IN THE GARDEN: You can have a lot of fun with lichens in both your indoor and outdoor gardening... Collect some lichens in the country. Look for old rocks and tree trunks overgrown with them. A knife can be used to scrape them off. After a few hours drying in the sun, they can be crumbled and rubbed into the surface of a rock freshly sprinkled with water. This moisture is very important – sprinkle the rock two or three times a day. In a few days, a gentle green will appear, gradually deepening until the whole surface is carpeted Granite is slower to respond than sandstone, shale or limestone, but the result is equally pleasing.

===

Paeonia Seeds are double dormant – they need to be cold-stratified (indoors or out) for several weeks; during the long period of warm stratification (‘summer’) roots may develop, but the seeds still need another bout of chilliness... plants will ultimately reach the flowering stage in perhaps 5 years... black seeds are fertile; all others are not...

‘Oriental poppies reproduce naturally from broken roots left in the soil, so root cutting usually succeed. They should be 3 inches long, inserted vertically into free-draining soil mix. Keep in a sheltered place over winter. When the new shoots have good roots in spring, line out in a nursery bed or pot singly’... seeds need light to germinate; a steady 50 degrees would be appreciated...

===

dame’s rocket | Hesperis Seeds require light and a temperature between 60 and 85 degrees... start indoors 8-10 weeks, outdoors, midsummer – mulch over winter...

hyacinth Don’t bother starting seeds indoors – sow seeds in late summer to early autumn, 1/2 inch deep; germination is iffy... offsets can be planted, but, again, success is iffy...

===

July 29 [1853]. Moist banks covered with the nearly grown, but green, partridge-berries now. Prenanthes, almost... Coral-root well out, – Corallorhiza multiflora, – at Brister’s Hill. There are some beautiful glossy, firm ferns there, – Polystichum acrostichoides (?), – shield fern. Nature made ferns for pure leaves to show what she could do in that line. I also see some small, umbrella-shaped (with sharp cones), shining and glossy yellow fungi, like an election cake atop... Clethra, a day or two in some places. In the Poorhouse Meadow, the white orchis spike almost entirely out... This is the best place to find the Pycnanthemum muticum and lanceolatum that I know.

[Thoreau, Journal]

===

❚David Frum Nature wants 5 of your 7 children dead. It wants you dead by 50. Everything better than that is brought to you by science & technology

WASHINGTON — Protesters disrupted Sen. Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing for attorney general on Tuesday, including two men wearing Ku Klux Klan costumes and a woman wearing a pink crown. The conservative Alabama senator, who is Donald Trump’s pick for the nation’s top law enforcement official, faces concerns over how committed he would be to civil rights. The disruptions occurred during the morning session of his hearing. As Capitol Police took the men wearing white hoods and sheets out of the Senate hearing room, they yelled, “you can’t arrest me, I am white!” and “white people own this government!” They held up hand signs saying, “Go Jeffie Boy!” and “KKK.”

Trump responds to "golden showers" Russian report with hysterical ALLCAPS tweet

52 Million-Year-Old Tomatillo Fossils Rewrite Veggie History

Blac Youngsta Accused of Stiffing Strippers

Thirty years since January 1987 when heavy snow fell in Kent

Roy Innis, Black Activist With a Right-Wing Bent, Dies at 82

Schitt’s Creek This sitcom starring Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Chris Elliot is back with new episodes.

Russia has compromising info on Trump: report US media has published a report claiming that Donald Trump has deep ties to the Russian government. The unsubstantiated document also claims the Kremlin has material they could use to blackmail the president-elect.

Despite The Facts, Trump Once Again Embraces Vaccine Skeptics Theories that a preservative in childhood vaccines could cause autism have been disproved and dismissed. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he'll be heading up a Trump-requested commission on the topic.

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weddquotes · 4 years ago

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+87 Tips to Decorate with this Theme

New Post has been published on https://weddquotes.com/wedding-decor/87-tips-to-decorate-with-this-theme/

+87 Tips to Decorate with this Theme

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