Monday, March 7, 2022
Still, endings have a disproportionate influence on any narrative.
— Ron Chernow, Grant
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Many covers were addressed to President Roosevelt from collectors and admirers with the desire that they would form a part of his stamp collection.
— "The Postage Stamp Collection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," wall text, Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History
Saturday, March 5, 2022
He made the comments during a meeting with female flight attendants from Russian airlines before International Womens Day, which will be marked on Tuesday. Mr. Putin has often used such choreographed events to make high-profile statements.
— The New York Times
Friday, March 4, 2022
On Monday, TripAdvisor and Google Maps halted reviews at some locations in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus after pro-Ukraine volunteers targeted the sites to share uncensored information with the Russian public about the war.
— Kate Conger and Adam Satariano, "Volunteer Hackers Converge on Ukraine Conflict With No One in Charge," The New York Times
Thursday, March 3, 2022
Worse yet, contaminated diversity is recalcitrant to the kind of “summing up” that has become the hallmark of modern knowledge. Contaminated diversity is not only particular and historical, ever changing, but also relational. It has no self-contained units; its units are encounter-based collaborations. Without self-contained units, it is impossible to compute costs and benefits, or functionality, to any “one” involved.
— Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
It isn't really about the product.
— Daniel*
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Today's the day everyone runs their "Putin's weird table" stories
— @emily_elsie
Monday, February 28, 2022
There are decades where nothing happens; and then there are weeks when decades happen.
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin via @esaagar
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Oh my god, you'd be so scared wouldn't you.
— Lily laughing as she imagines me in a bathtub full of mice
Saturday, February 26, 2022
I believe there is power in a whisper.
— Ásta, Multiple Formats*
Friday, February 25, 2022
Its technology is how a society copes with physical reality: how people get and keep and cook food, how they clothe themselves, what their power sources are (animal? human? water? wind? electricity? other?) what they build with and what they build, their medicine - and so on and on.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, "A Rant About "Technology"," via Kelli Anerson's presentation at Multiple Formats
Thursday, February 24, 2022
"The first cultural device was probably a recipient.... Many theorizers feel that the earliest cultural inventions must have been a container to hold gathered products and some kind of sling or net carrier." So says Elizabeth Fisher in Women’s Creation (McGraw-Hill, 1975).
— Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction"
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Too many times do I hear a fiber artist talk about their work being about labor because their artwork took a really long time to make. This does not make one’s work about labor. Rather, I argue that oftentimes it is about leisure—that one has the choice to commit a large amount of time to making one’s art.
— Aram Han Sifuentes, "Steps Towards Decolonizing Craft"
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
At the same time, coveting the prestige of a temporary cabinet position, Washburne advanced a bizarre proposal: he wanted to serve briefly as a cabinet secretary so he could forever claim the title... Washburne would hold the post for only five days, leading one senator to wisecrack, “Who ever heard before of a man nominated [as] Secretary of State merely as a compliment?”
— Ron Chernow, Grant
Monday, February 21, 2022
Years ago, I was really stupid: In the book “Arthur’s Thanksgiving,” I put our home phone number in a little illustration of a bulletin board that says “Call Arthur at 749-7978.” Every Thanksgiving, the phone began to ring and ring and ring.
— Marc Brown, "Marc Brown on the End of ‘Arthur’ and His Favorite Fan Theories," The New York Times
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Without the booster data for 18- to 49-year-olds, the outside experts whom federal health agencies look to for advice had to rely on numbers from Israel to make their recommendations on the shots. (After several inquiries from The New York Times about the booster data for that age group, the agency posted it on its website Thursday night.)
Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data “because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She said the agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.”
Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.
Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data “because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She said the agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.”
Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.
— Apoorva Mandavilli, "The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects," The New York Times
Saturday, February 19, 2022
It's all good stuff.
— Henry*
Friday, February 18, 2022
Boy, that was a sick one. Let me write that down. "If their toes are strong enough they will not break."
— Love Island
Thursday, February 17, 2022
It's no more weird than a negative one.
— Donald Thornton on irrational numbers
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Once Lee had disappeared, Grant's officers stooped to a rapacious frenzy as they snapped up every conceivable memento of the meeting. Wilmer McLean pocketed $20 from Sheridan for the table on which Grant composed the surrender agreement; the next day, Sheridan gave it as a gift to Libbie Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer, who, legend says, flew off with the prize on horseback... One journalist left a vignette of this crazed hunt for sacred relics: "Cane bottomed chairs were ruthlessly cut to pieces... Haircloth upholstery was cut from chairs, and sofas was [sic] also cut into strips and patches and carried away."
— Ron Chernow, Grant