Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"When I was younger I would put whichever Stephen King book I was reading in the freezer at night, where it couldn't escape and come get me while I was sleeping." -- JenniferB (djenya13), 2021-05-18

"At some point, we'll have to decide what to do about the tens of millions of Americans who contracted and survived unconfirmed cases of COVID-19, particularly those of them who will suffer lasting or chronic medical conditions as a result. Many of them will be uninsured or underinsured, and even those who enjoy what passes for good insurance (people like me) will find their paths to care obstructed. My insurance company rejected preauthorization for almost every test and scan my doctors ordered. Its effort to deny me care created numerous delays as my doctors pleaded my case to the physicians who work for Aetna; patients with worse doctors, or less flexibility might have given up. We should eliminate this abusive system for everyone, but in the immediate term, undisrupted care for COVID survivors is a more reachable goal, and it should be extended to those who were unable to confirm their infections because policymakers failed them." -- Brian Beutler (brianbeutler), "My Life After COVID", 2021-05-17

From "Trans women being told they ‘aren’t wearing enough lipstick’ by doctors, MPs hear" by Kate Ng, Independent (recent but I don't see a date-stamp on the article -- I think it's from 2021-05-13?):

Evidence was given by Dr Harriet Hutchinson, community organiser at Action for Trans Health Durham, who said that trans women are currently having to attempt "to prove your gender to a clinician", reported The Telegraph.

She told the virtual hearing that people using the charity's services "have been in appointments where they've been criticised for not wearing lipstick or received lectures from cisgender clinicians that the trousers they were wearing weren't 'feminine enough' to be regarded as female presentation".

Describing the process as "intrusive and degrading", Dr Hutchinson added: "So the idea of having to prove your gender is very reductive and forces trans people to conform to stereotypes in order to receive a diagnosis and then, of course, receive criticism for perpetuating gender stereotypes."

[Trans people -- especially but not exclusively trans women -- have been complaining about this for decades. What's news here is it being spoken, and hopefully heard, outside the trans community, in halls of power. In some parts of the US this has already gotten somewhat better, but this sort of gatekeeping does still exist here as well, especially for getting care covered by insurance. (Some providers in some states use the informed-consent approach; others require gatekeeping approval letters from therapists first, as do insurance companies.)]

"This is a calling to bring transcendence and spirituality into this world. We don't aim to escape this world, we aim to transform it. True holiness is not transcendence or escapism; it's marrying transcendence with the immanent." -- Rabbi Shmuel Reichman, on Shavuot and the Torah, 2019-06-03

[Chag Sameach to everyone celebrating Shavuot tonight & tomorrow!]

"Some pfersonal news:

"In appfreciation opf pfinally being pfurnished with the Pfizer vaccine I will be pfroducing all opf my voiceless bilabial stopfs and pfricatives as apffricates pfor the next pfortnight.

"No pfurther comments."

-- Gretchen McCulloch (GretchenAMcC), 2021-05-12

"This is not an original thought, but it's my first time thinking about it for me personally. I might have actually enjoyed sports as a kid if I could have played as my gender. What made me most uncomfortable was my body and my assigned peers, not physical activity." -- Josie Stewart (called2voyage), https://twitter.com/called2voyage/status/1390869126617485312"> 2021-05-07

"Food is not simply organic fuel to keep body and soul together, it is a perishable art that must be savoured at the peak of perfection." -- E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

[Though some of that art can be savoured a bit later as well -- see the leftovers thread sparked by MissionMomplex ... In any case, a blessed Feast of the Ascension to everybody celebrating that today, and Eid mubarak to everyone celebrating the end of Ramadan!]

Today is
Gregorian: 2021 May 13
Julian: 2021 April 30
Hebrew: 5781 Sivan 02
Islamic: 1442 Shawwal 01 -- Eid al-Fitr
Persian: 1400 Ordibehesht 23
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.8.9.5
Indian: 1943 Vaisakha 23
Coptic: 1737 Bashans 05

"The first thing you have to do if you want to raise nice kids, is you have to talk to them like they are people instead of talking to them like they're property." -- Frank Zappa (b. 1940-12-21, d. 1993-12-04), in 1987

"[E]very single restaurant violates labor laws, every single day. They get regularly inspected for food safety, but never for worker health and safety.

"You've never eaten in a restaurant that operates legally."

-- Anosognosiogenesis (pookleblinky), 2021-05-10 [followed by a thread of common/universal food-service practices that are illegal but never prosecuted]

"I have but I owned it at the time and I was out of business in three months"

TheCorrection

"Some people might wonder why a journalist might spend so much time digging in the 19th century. It's because this history lives with us, reverberates in our times. It's because slavery was the engine that fueled the growth of so many of our contemporary institutions." -- Rachel Swarns (rachelswarns), 2021-03-18 (thread starts here)

"Ther seyde oones a clerk in two vers, 'what is bettre than Gold? Jaspre. What is bettre than Jaspre? Wisdom. And what is bettre than Wisdom? Womman. And what is bettre than a good Womman? No thyng.'" -- Geoffrey Chaucer (b. circa 1343, d. 1400-10-25), The Canterbury Tales

"My cat is not insane, she's just a really good actress." -- P.C. Cast, Untamed

"The push for vaccinated people to get 'back to normal' isn't just about rushing the end of the pandemic.

"It's also a sign of a culture profoundly unaccepting of grief, trauma and the process needed for healing.

"Even if the pandemic miraculously ended tomorrow, many people would not feel safe going 'back to normal.' Why would we? We've seen people dying all around us. Hospitals and morgues filling up.

"We've seen and felt and lived the racialized violence of this pandemic, even as prominent white voices continued to declare that it was not even happening at all.

"It will take time for many of us to feel safe. AND THAT'S OK."

-- Daniel Delgado (DDelgadoVive), 2021-05-06

"People who lived through the Great Depression hid money under mattresses and kept a supply of dry/canned goods in case. It wasn't pathological, it was a 'fool me twice' kind of thing.

"We have been in survival mode whether we know it or not. Thank you again."

-- Dogs4ZeroCOVID (BernieDogs4), replying to Daniel Delgado

"So the thing that these right-wing cosplay economists like Burger King Is Full Communism Lady keep missing about the 'employment crisis' is that the reason businesses are foundering isn't that they can't compete with an imaginary UBI, it's that they don't want to compete, period." -- Alexandra Erin (AlexandraErin), 2021-05-03 [This tweet sounds like enough, but there's more in the thread, about manager-contempt, who lets employees sit down, etc.]

"Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good." -- Samuel Johnson (thanks to blueeowyn)

"Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul." -- John Carmack

"The same Republicans who are now crying about the deficit are the same people who voted for $2T in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

"Don't be fooled. The deficit is political tool used by Republicans to block laws that benefit the American people."

-- Robert Reich (RBReich), 2021-05-02

"Un-winged and naked, sorrow surrenders its crown to a throne called grace." -- Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

[A joyous Orthodox Easter to everyone celebrating it today!]

"At Bealltainn, or May Day, every effort was made to scare away the fairies, who were particularly dreaded at this season. In the West Highlands charms were used to avert their influence. In the Isle of Man the gorse was set alight to keep them at a distance. In some parts of Ireland the house was sprinkled with holy water to ward off fairy influence. These are only a mere handful out of the large number of references available, but they seem to me to reveal an effort to avoid the attentions of discredited deities on occasions of festival once sacred to them. The gods duly return at the appointed season, but instead of being received with adoration, they are rebuffed by the descendants of their former worshippers, who have embraced a faith which regards them as demons.

"In like manner the fairies in Ireland were chased away from the midsummer bonfires by casting fire at them. At the first approach of summer, the fairy folk of Scotland were wont to hold a "Rade," or ceremonial ride on horseback, when they were liable to tread down the growing grain."

-- Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins (via goodreads)

[A blessed Beltane to everyone celebrating it today! And a good Labour Day to folks in places where that's celebrated today!]

"In a way the philosopher and the barber are of the same guild; the barber cuts hair and the philosopher splits hairs." -- José Ortega y Gasset (b. 1883-05-09, d. 1955-10-18), Man and People, published 1957

[A blessed Orthodox Good Friday to everyone celebrating that today, and chag sameach to everyone celebrating Lag B'Omer!]