Good Things Friday (210) and Link Love
March 3, 2023
1. We donated 2 boxes of books to the library. That got the JKR series out of our house and cleared a whole (small) bookshelf for better books by better people. (People are complicated, yes, but JKR is unreservedly awful.)
Win win!
2. Help BIPOC folks:
- Stage 3 Breast Cancer Grandma Needs Immediate Help
- Help Ms. Smart move to Wisconsin for healthcare
- Help fund the 3rd Annual Odenong Powwow
- Help Preserve Historic Black Women’s Aid Group. NYTimes article on the group.
3. I got ONE dinner this week where Smol Acrobat wasn’t a total pill! That’s more than the usual zero. PiC does breakfasts. They might be easier but I couldn’t say.
4. It was my turn on Murderbot All Systems Red again and every two sentences are a genuine delight. I wish I could write like this.
An activism: Florida Bill Would Destroy Higher Education as We Know It
This headline and the subheadline!: It’s Not Just You, the Parents in ‘Bluey’ Aren’t Healthy People / “You don’t have to model your parenting after dogs”. Y’all. If you need to be told that Bluey isn’t an indictment of anyone’s parenting, maybe stop watching Bluey. Because Bandit and Chili, fake cartoon dogs that are totally made up, are not the problem there. I love Bluey. On occasion I think, yeah, I could stand to be a dash more fun. If I don’t know how, because I’m not naturally the fun parent, I can borrow some of Bandit’s moves. Not the one where he eats disgusting stuff, but the imagination bits.
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S. This article made me despair and see red at the same time. Fuck HHS for being so inhumane, Fuck local law enforcement for doing absolutely nothing for the kids whose abuse is reported, Fuck those lying sponsors who exploit the children and don’t ever intend to support them, Fuck Xavier Becerra in particular for removing protection for children and insisting that they treat children like products.
This is sickening and terrifying for these kids: Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them
Orca moms pay a high price to feed large adult sons
What It’s Like to Be a Bot: If consciousness is inseparable from how we’re embodied, we’ll never know
Science! (Mostly) an older TTC story: We Got Tube One
The beautiful flowers that bees can’t use
Day 3 with @gradydoc, Dr. Manning
That thing about the flowers is a bit overblown IMO. There are plenty of “improved native” cultivars, also called nativars, which may be 5% less good for pollinators but are 10x more likely to be planted so… overall a net positive. And things like leaving leaf mulch down and not trimming stems over the winter also provide valuable habitat! I have a ton of flowers, some of which are specifically for habitat (rue!) but I’m not gonna plant scraggly natives everywhere. It’s like saying you should only plant native wild hazelnuts instead of the varieties that have nuts bigger than a quarter inch. Maybe a slightly less absolutist stance will lead to more meaningful change! I’ve planted a friend’s yard with predominantly nativars but she needed a low maintenance drought tolerant garden and the most accessible source was a commercial nursery. So it’s better than the invasive English ivy that used to be there, but less morally pure than a wild bergamot meadow. I still think it’s better than nothing.
Okay I’ll step off my Native Plants In Your Garden soapbox now….
I wanted to turn part of our front yard into a low-maintenance (mostly-)native wildflower patch as a safe haven for insects. But I have had minimal luck starting them from seeds, and buying fullsize native plants would cost $$$$$ – if they’re even available. So I’ve settled for a mixed blend to start with and I’m hoping to keep slowly adding more native plants to our yard over time. Progress, not perfection!
That’s all useful info I didn’t have! I didn’t know about nativars. We are admittedly very much not gardeners yet, I just don’t have time, but I do want to learn enough eventually to do something with our yards. Just not when the youngest still delights in ripping things up and throwing them. XD
I like to tell people that experienced gardeners have simply killed more plants already!
I have a lot of strong feelings about native plants! (I also plant daffodils and peonies. They don’t all have to be native!) When you’re ready I’d recommend going to a botanical garden, especially one that sells plants, or a native plant nursery- they often have educational sessions, plus plant lovers will talk your ear off for free and probably draw you a diagram too. 😉 (My grandma lives near Ruth Bancroft Gardens which are amazing.)
Glad to hear you had one less-struggle dinner! Lol, I remember babysitting for a friend and nearly overstuffing their tot because he just… he just sat there… and ate! I didn’t have to constantly work to slip the spoon in, in-between distractions & dodges. He’d just sit still, swallow it right down, and open his mouth for the next bite! So weird!!! 😆
I hope your cold-that-never-ends is finally easing up. 🙁
Just the one! And the next day was doubly miserable XD I miss kids like your friends / JB. They did not have to be convinced to eat, not at all.
I still have a cough, but fingers crossed!