Posts
You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument
— You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument, Caroline Randall Williams in The New York Times
Pay discrimination at Pinterest
— Discrimination charges at Pinterest reveal a hidden Silicon Valley hiring problem, Katharine Schwab in Fast Company
UK Domestic abuse victims rising under Coronavirus lockdown
— As Domestic Abuse Rises, U.K. Failings Leave Victims in Peril, Amanda Taub and Jane Bradley in The New York Times
Kingdom sounds
Yesterday I watched a whole season of Kingdom on Netflix. It's a big budget zombie show set in 16th century Korea. It being a Korean language show, there are English subtitles. However the subtitles not only translate dialogue but describe other sounds. Here is a non-exhaustive list of those subtitles.
New life in the high street
We’re coming back to the world in floods of normalcy at the moment. One of my best friends was back in town on Thursday, and he came over for dinner and a drink. He was able to see our new home, I was able to cook for him, we were able to sit in our living room together and chat. We kept up chatting until just before midnight. We were all just so thankful to be able to have the kind of conversations you have with your friends in person when you’re relaxed. Then on Saturday morning I walked down...
Time in the park
I've been meeting my manager in the park every week during lockdown. He lived in a neighbourhood nearby and we both missed seeing people from work face-to-face, so it made sense. Plus the weather's been good for the most part so it's been nice to sit and have our catch up in the sun with either a coffee or a beer. Today I cycled there from the new house; it's about fifteen minutes away. On the way back from the meeting I was sitting in a bike lane behind a mother on bike with her toddler in a seat mounted...
A Case for Turning Empty Malls Into Housing
— A Case for Turning Empty Malls Into Housing, Patrick Sisson in Citylab
Thirty degrees
It’s thirty degrees outside and we’re all, including the cat, feeling languid. The internet is down for much of South London, which adds to the general sense of stolid malaise. The past few days have been much more active. I’ve been buzzing around the house trying to make it a home bit by bit. It’s a tightrope doing the practicalities while basking in the glow of our fresh, new space. Try to sit in the airy new lounge without a care like you never could before, but also get that shoe rack and cutlery drawer insert ordered. When is the...
New house peace
This morning I woke up in my own house to sunlight. I got up and took a shower, the water pressure was great. I sat at the kitchen table and listened to the news, and then practiced my Spanish for a while. I hung out some washing to dry. Nobody came along. I had forgotten how it feels to start your day quietly and at your own pace. The weekend was an endless blur of stress and back strain, but we’re in here now, a home of our own. It is the greatest thing. We’ll have lunch in the garden...
The Bosses Are In Their Country Houses
— Newsrooms Are in Revolt. The Bosses Are in Their Country Houses., Ben Smith in The New York Times
What If Working From Home Goes on forever?
— What If Working From Home Goes on forever?, Clive Thompson in The New York Times
George Floyd march
The Black Lives Matter protests have become the story of the day. Hundreds of thousands of people in cities all over the world have been demonstrating for over a week. We joined the end of a march in Brixton first, hearing about it from a friend who saw it pass through Kennington and cycling out to join the fray. It was the first crowd I’d been in in months. It made the fact that people were shouting in one voice even more striking. A man stood over the crowd with a megaphone and thanked them for assembling, spoke about the...
Minneapolis Will Dismantle Its Police Force
— Minneapolis Will Dismantle Its Police Force, Council Members Pledge, Dionne Searcey and John Eligon in The New York Times
What a World Without Cops Would Look Like
— What a World Without Cops Would Look Like Mother Jones, Madison Pauly in Mother Jones
Floyd protests from afar
We’ve picked a new house. It’s going to be a house! It’ll have a garden and stairs and space for the cat, space for us to work and relax. We’re leaving in three weeks unless some recalcitrant property manager or landlord gets in the way. Outside, COVID-19 measures had begun to relax and things had begun drifting slowly toward normal. Then a few days ago the US exploded with protests against police violence in response to the murder of a man named George Floyd by a policeman in Minnesota. All over the country the authorities have responded with a police...
George Floyd Protester Relief Resources
I've been struggling to keep track of links to the relief funds established for Black Lives Matter activists across the USA who've been arrested, injured, or killed by the police. I'm throwing them up here, with sources linked at the end, to keep track of them for myself and for others who are struggling to pull them out of Twitter. For now, I've donated to the Brooklyn Bail Fund. There's now an even easier way to donate to a wider range of organisations fighting for this cause. Just make one larger donation on this page and it will be split...
Is It Safe to Keep Employing a Cleaner? Wrong Question, Lady
— Is It Safe to Keep Employing a Cleaner? Wrong Question, Lady - The New York Times, Roxane Gay in The New York Times
American Police Departments
— 7 People Shot at Louisville Protest Over the Death of Breonna Taylor - The New York Times, Mike Baker in The New York Times — National Guard Called As Minneapolis Erupts in Solidarity for George Floyd, Matt Furber, John Eligon, and Audra D. S. Burch in The New York Times
All the history I learned in my youth came from the American Girl doll books
— All the history I learned in my youth came from the American Girl doll books, Jessie Gaynor in LitHub
How Phoebe Bridgers Made 'Punisher'
— How Phoebe Bridgers Made 'Punisher', Angie Martoccio in Rolling Stone
Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?
— Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism? - Los Angeles Review of Books, Jodi Dean in Los Angeles Review of Books
Off-Road Land Trains
— The Incredible Story of the US Army's Earth-Shaking, Off-Road Land Trains, by Peter Holderith