Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Make a joyful noise unto Hashem, kol ha'aretz; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise." -- Tehillim (Psalms) 98:4, Orthodox Jewish Bible

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise." -- Psalms (Tehillim) 98:4, King James Version

[To everyone celebrating Shmini Atzeret / about to start Simchat Torah tonight: chag sameach!!]

"Seriously, though, the not-insignificant subset of humanity with the desperate need to FEED PEOPLE are one of my great proofs that humans are fundamentally pretty decent.

"I have only known a few people in my life who were truly, deeply faithful to their religion. But I have known a great many cooks who needed to see people fed with a passion that eclipsed any paladin's loyalty to their god."

-- Kingfisher & Wombat (UrsulaV), 2022-10-15

"Sorting out your adhd diagnosis is like needing scissors you don't have to open the packaging of your new scissors" -- brokeblak mountain (NayukaGorrie), 2022-10-06

"We are not getting back
 to the old normal
 but in this moment creating
 a new normal.
 
 The new normal
 is just like
 the old normal
 only crueler."
  -- Plague Poems (PlaguePoems), 2022-09-22

"I spoke to a colleague of mine today who asked me if I had 'any plans for the Fall', and honestly, it took me a second to realize she meant 'autumn' and not the collapse of society and civilization

"So that's where I'm at"

-- Jess (MeetJess), 2022-10-07

A thread that started 2022-10-09 (before which I had no idea there were so many anthroporphization-of-a-disease Twitter accounts):

Covid19 (friendlycovid19):
"Off to conference with my fellow infectious diseases! (You think only humans have conferences?) Looking forward to leading sessions on 'How to make humans pretend you don't exist' and 'Developing a good (immune) escape plan.' Any of my #pandemicposse gonna be there? #infectacon22
 
"Also there will be cheese cubes. #infectacon22"

Put a Mask on it (patientadvAU):
"Will all your relatives be there?"

Covid19 (friendlycovid19):
"Yes!
 
"Well, except BJ7.5 who has always been a little shy. They'll be attending remotely."

Measles (AirborneMeasles):
"Oh I will totally be there. And I'll even be there for a few hours after everyone leaves! #pandemicposse #infectacon22"

Polio (Polio2022):
"I will be there and presenting on the benefits of live attenuated vaccines in immunocompromised hosts. Also catch me afterwards for the dance party"

Michelle Fontenot (mommyflommie):
"Will there be entertainment, perhaps a reading from 'Love in the Time of Cholera'?"

Covid19 (friendlycovid19):
"MildCholera ? Your call!"

King Cholera (MildCholera):
"Yes!!! A lot of people don't realize that I'm the hero of that story!"

Ashley (skogenskvinna):
"I'm guessing Polio will be there since their career is really hot again now. (Must have a great manager and PR team.) And be sure to say hi to Bubonic Plague! Such a legend."

Pandemic Patty (PandemicPatty1):
"Plague is an ICON The real OG. I'm such a fan! I'd just DIE if we ever got to meet!"

Ashley (skogenskvinna):
"Haters will say Plague and Polio were eradicated, but their true fans know they'll always re-emerge when the time is right!"

uninspired. (noxidls):
"I've heard Ebola isn't that contagious and we shouldn't be too concerned. So the message is getting out!!"

Measles (AirborneMeasles):
"And what, pray tell, did you hear about me?"

uninspired. (noxidls):
"Very little lately, which means your time is here!"

Measles (AirborneMeasles):
"Oh I knew it!! I'm trying so hard to make a comeback right now. #measles"

JNowak (jlnowak):
"Do you know if the session 'How to make humans pretend you don't exist' covers escaping detection in rapid & home tests? "

Alyssa (a_lil_bow):
"Let me know if Ebola has anything interesting to say! I hear they're trying to go international!!"

MB Devine (devine_mb):
"Will there be a lot of break out sessions?"

Measles (AirborneMeasles):
"Ohhhhhh I see what you did there."

rintakumpu (rintakumpu1):
"'It warms my plasmids to see all your unmasked flagella here. With improvements in public health and sanitation, the last 100 years have been tough for us. But these in vivo events are important for the social and psychological well being of all pathogens.' -The Plague, patron."

And Dr. Rashid Kashani, BA, BSc, BScOT, MScOT, PhD (RashidKashani), quote tweeting the start of that thread:
"Every time I see colleagues posting from in person conferences now."

"It makes me so happy because, I said from the very beginning is, all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters, the way, like, Macbeth or Batman always gets passed, you know, from great actor to great actor.

"It's kind of like someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth or someone, you know? And I feel like in not so many cases are there female characters."

-- Margot Robbie, on rumours that Lady Gaga will be the next to play Harley Quinn in a movie (PinkNews article by Charlie Duncan 2022-10-19)

"Go tell it to the white men! They're lookin' for Indians that stay proud even when they hurt... just so long's they don't ask for their rights!" -- from The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (12967) by George Ryga (b. 1932-07-27, d. 1987-11-18)

[Today is the first full day of Sukkot, Thanksgiving in Canada, Indigenous People's Day a bunch of places, still Columbus Day in some places, I think. I picked one of those to fit a quote to. (It's also the birthday of at least three of my friends, and also John Prine). To folks celebrating Sukkot, chag sameach! To Canadians, a good Thanksgiving! To various friends, happy birthday! And to everyone, a thought about indigenous peoples in various lands, and what the rest of us owe them.]

"all year we imagine
 our houses are our houses
 stable and comfortable
 waterproof and familiar
 
 but these seven days
 remind us that permanence
 is overrated, that our true home
 is under the stars"
  -- from "Permeable" by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (velveteenrabbi), 2009-10-02

[Wishing for a week of suitable weather for everyone about to start their Sukkot observances this evening!]

"Ah yes, the gender wars. We lost a lot of good men. But ... we apparently gained a lot of good men, so I think it's a wash." -- Jon Stewart, on The Problem, with Jon Stewart, season 2, episode 1: "The War Over Gender", 2022-10-07

"it has taken the rest of the world decades to catch up to bugs bunny's approach of being whatever gender is the funniest at any given moment" -- dj gun pussy (TheWeightOfUwU), 2022-09-27

"I wish
 you were as angry
 with the people
 who are prolonging
 the pandemic
 as you are
 with the people
 who remind you
 that the pandemic
 has not ended."
  -- Plague Poems (PlaguePoems), 2022-09-29

"Atonement may be a divine gift, but one requiring the courage to acknowledge that the past, no matter how seemingly recalcitrant - no matter how 'damaged' I may feel - is mine to transform. The repentance that is transformative is an 'act of love' for only by accepting the self, however daunting a prospect that may be, are transgressions turned into a source of life. When repentance comes out of fear of punishment, and the past is merely renounced, transgressions are made null, but the self remains unchanged. But repentance based upon love works because intentions and actions, never simple, are open to reframing. The story I tell now reveals that the past about which I feel regret, perhaps even shame, is not only consistent with, but propels me towards a future I had not yet imagined." -- William Kolbrener, "Poetry of Repentance" 2011-10-03

[An easy fast to everyone fasting today, and a meaningful Yom Kippur to everyone who is observing it, fasting or not.]

"The Onion's journalists have garnered a sterling repu- tation for accurately forecasting future events. One such coup was The Onion's scoop revealing that a for- mer president kept nuclear secrets strewn around his beach home's basement three years before it even hap- pened.

"The Onion files this brief to protect its continued ability to create fiction that may ultimately merge into reality. As the globe's premier parodists, The Onion's writers also have a self-serving interest in preventing political authorities from imprisoning humorists. This brief is submitted in the interest of at least mitigating their future punishment."

-- Brief of The Onion as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Sixth Circuit, Stephen J. van Stempvoort (Counsel of Record), October 2022

This is not the best part. I didn't want to spoil it. It's only 18 pages once you get through the table of contents and table of authorities.

[To everyone celebrating Yom Kippur tonight/tomorrow, may you have an easy fast if you're fasting, a moving and meaningful holy day whether you can fast or not, and g'mar chatima tova!]

"America's superlatively poor performance cannot solely be blamed on either the Trump or Biden administrations, although both have made egregious errors. Rather, the new coronavirus exploited the country's many failing systems: its overstuffed prisons and understaffed nursing homes; its chronically underfunded public-health system; its reliance on convoluted supply chains and a just-in-time economy; its for-profit health-care system, whose workers were already burned out; its decades-long project of unweaving social safety nets; and its legacy of racism and segregation that had already left Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of color disproportionately burdened with health problems. Even in the pre-COVID years, the U.S. was still losing about 626,000 people more than expected for a nation of its size and resources. COVID simply toppled an edifice whose foundations were already rotten.

"In furiously racing to rebuild on this same foundation, America sets itself up to collapse once more. Experience is reputedly the best teacher, and yet the U.S. repeated mistakes from the early pandemic when faced with the Delta and Omicron variants. It got early global access to vaccines, and nonetheless lost almost half a million people after all adults became eligible for the shots. It has struggled to control monkeypox-a slower-spreading virus for which there is already a vaccine. Its right-wing legislators have passed laws and rulings that curtail the possibility of important public-health measures like quarantines and vaccine mandates. It has made none of the broad changes that would protect its population against future pathogens, such as better ventilation or universal paid sick leave. Its choices virtually guarantee that everything that's happened in the past three years will happen again."

-- Ed Yong (edyong209), "The Pandemic’s Legacy Is Already Clear: All of this will happen again", The Atlantic, 2022-09-30

"we also can't make art out of our trauma while we're still in it. i am in the midst of writing a play which delves deep into a very painful period of my life and it is only possible to write it now that I am well, happy, in therapy, on meds, and that phase of my life is behind me

"the pervasive notion that 'good' art must be skewed toward darkness instead of light (i.e. drama is inherently superior to comedy) is frequently extended to artists as human beings in genuinely destructive ways, implying that our suffering is the most interesting part of us

"the takeaway from the lives of artists who wrestled with mental health or trauma shouldn't be 'wow the chaotic darkness in their heads is really what made them special,' it's 'think about all the incredible art we didn't get from them because they were in pain all the time'

[...]

"the implication that artists SHOULD suffer in order to produce more interesting art implies that they have a responsibility to the rest of us to put our desires before their own health, and that's so fucking sinister and capitalistic and evil when you really break it down"

-- Claire Willett (clairewillett), 2022-10-01

Selected snippets from a Twitter thread started 2022-09-30.

The Layman's Linguist (LaymansLinguist):

What's your favorite early childhood language """error"""?

From my toddler classes long ago:
• pop pop motorbikle ("Papa's motorcycle")
• wash closh b'gosh (any towel)
• firef*ck (to be yelled at every siren they heard)
• m'cake (how the littlest ones said "Ms Kate")

Leni Morgan She/Her (MorganLeni):

[...]

My favourite was when we were putting her to bed & she asked for her "fluvy"

I said "It's called a duvet"

Totally dead pan serious "Oh I can't say duvet. Night, night mummy"

Followed by "why are you laughing?"

ChrisP (Wordsmithgetxo):

I've posted this before on Twitter, but my favourite is from when my son (now 35) was about 3 & asked my Spanish wife to warm up his dinner "en tucroondas" (literally "in yourcrowave").

That last one was what really grabbed my attention, but the one before it is way to cute to leave out.

[Happy Independence Day to my Cypriot kin!]

"I've been hearing almost all my life about 'overachievers' and 'underachievers'.

"What, these days, is considered just plain achieving? Is that passing the math test? Is it getting a raise?

"What's the difference between that and either of the others?"

-- twistedchick, 2022-09-25

"There's always a false dichotomy that's made between peace and justice that one must preceed the other, whereas theye both must work in tandem. In parallel. If you're going to rebuild a society, you need to account for crimes, especially the worst of crimes, especially crimes that have torn apart a nation." -- Robert Petit, interviewed by Matt Galloway on the CBC program The Current, 2022-09-27 ( transcript), ( listen (whole episode)), segment titled "Tribunal into Khmer Rouge's brutal rule closes after 16 years, upholding 3 convictions" ( Apple podcasts), ( Podchaser).

"Technically I started writing about misogyny the day I was born, I class the first 19 years as research." -- Lentil Pentil (Lenniesaurus), 2022-09-21

[To everyone fasting for Tzom Gedaliah today, may you have an easy fast.]