Weekend Plans (& Friday Links)

Can you believe it’s March already? I went to turn the calendar page in Hudson’s room—still on December—and couldn’t believe it when I had to flip three pages ahead. I’m not complaining though!

Thank you for the comments on this post last week—I’ve so enjoyed them. Aron told me that, inspired by one, he was sharing with the kids something brave he’d done and told them about a bladder surgery. Afterward, with wide eyes, Hudson asked if he’d shrunken himself down to get inside. We’ve been smiling about it ever since.

What will you be doing this weekend? We’re hoping to get in some gardening before the rain starts and then play a game of Settler’s with friends on Saturday night. We also have a sitter for Sunday evening, with the goal of dinner and a movie. I’ve got some summer-camp planning to do, and I need to start thinking about packing etc. for Thailand. But in the meantime, some links of note…

What Barry Jenkins would have said if Moonlight‘s Best Picture win would have been properly announced.

Despite my full and unwavering support for the Women’s March, I don’t love the idea of a general strike by women, fearing that it will have the same divisive effect—by class and race—that derailed first-wave feminism. This article takes a more negative tone about the Women’s March, but echoed many of my sentiments on the topic of the general strike: “It is a case of high-minded ideology that, while well-meaning, doesn’t take into account the fact that some women can’t miss even a single day of work without fear of being fired or docked a full day’s pay.”

Fascinated by this Out of Eden walk.

So, um, how do you stop saying “um”?

George Bush and Michelle Obama. Love this!

The most fun prints! I’d love one in linen.

This pantry’s shelves are so dreamy! I’d like to do this to our food pantry—I think it would be perfect.

What do you think? Is Black History Month necessary? or is it an ‘unnecessary band-aid on a selfish wound’?

It’s okay, and necessary, to feel outraged about the “white nationalist takeover of the U.S. Government.” Says Krugman, “an aroused public that’s willing to take names is all we have.” Phew.

How does on-site childcare really work for parents? 

Did you read The New Yorker article on the “the new Cold War”? I haven’t yet, but really enjoyed the Fresh Air interview with the authors—a much more in depth look at our relationship with the Russian government.

This 4-minute Jeff Bridges You-Tube video on plastics hasn’t left me since I saw it. I want to make real changes in our practices, but am also very aware of how much effort it will take.

My friend Hannah, who wrote this wonderful post about reading, just started a new blog and I’m so thrilled!

I get emails addressed “Dear Mommy blogger,” and they really rub me the wrong way.

How kids catch our social biases.

Finally, something striking from that NPR interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker:

On Trump’s calling the press the “enemy of the American people”

Remnick: It goes back to Robespierre. [“Enemy of the people”] is an ugly, ugly phrase. I don’t know how self-aware Donald Trump is of that kind of phrase. I guarantee that Steve Bannon knows what “enemy of the people” means. Stalin used it to keep people terrified. If you were branded a vrag naroda, an “enemy of the people,” you could guarantee that very soon there would be a knock in the middle of the night at your door and your fate would be horrific.

To hear that kind of language directed at the American press is an emergency. It’s an emergency. It’s not a political tactic, and if it’s a political tactic, it’s a horrific one and that needs to be resisted, not just by people like me who are editors or writers — but all of us. This is part of what distinguishes American democracy and it is untenable, immoral and anti-American.

And on that light note, have a good weekend!

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