Weekend Reading: A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That Edition

The Mother's Day Tea was nice. The kids were super-excited about doing things like opening the door for the parents (and yes, two dads came) and showing us to our seats. I still think it would be better if schools didn't do things like this, but as this sort of event goes, this was a nice one.

My doctor's appointment was uncharacteristically quick- it was with my ob/gyn, who often gets off schedule due to the unpredictable nature of his appointments. But today, he was on schedule, so I was home a good hour before I thought I would be. I was excited by the idea that the day might not be a total work write-off, after all. And then I got an email from the people doing our remodeling project saying they needed a signature on some documents... so there went the extra time.

Also, when we got home from the tea, Pumpkin realized she'd left her umbrella at school. She was convinced it would get stolen out of lost and found and so I agreed to walk back to get it.  More work time, gone.

Still, I had planned for a short day, so I'm not too bothered by the lost time. It helps that the Get More Done class is selling well (early bird pricing only lasts a few more days!) and I'm starting to feel like I'll actually make it through all the work I need to get done before our vacation. I'm less convinced that we'll get through all of the items on our home to do list, though, so we may be working on that on Mother's Day!

Anyway, on to the links. They're a bit of a mishmash, but I've got some really good ones this week. And I've got a lot more interesting things saved in my "to read" lists, but realistically, I probably not going to read them in time to share them, so let's just go with what I have.

First, some politics: this is a long piece from Radley Balko defending Hillary Clinton's decision to speak out in favor of reforming our criminal justice system, but it is worth your time. Make sure you get to the part about Antonio Morgan.

An aside: I, too, am getting annoyed by the focus on the "horse race" aspects of this. I'm also annoyed by the fact that people seem to be unable to accept the possibility that Clinton's opinions on this issue have changed over the years. We all learn and grow. We come to understand situations differently. Maybe she's being cynical. But can we at least allow the possibility that she is not, and that she is staking out a position she genuinely believes in now?

I have been a bit ambivalent about her candidacy, mostly because I am tired of the venom that she induces in the people who oppose her. But her willingness to speak out on this issue actually makes me more energized in her favor. There's no doubt I would probably have voted for her, anyway- particularly in the general election, assuming she makes it through the primary. But now I feel more willing to speak up in her favor.

Moving on. I had heard about Utah's "revolutionary" approach to homelessness, but hadn't realized that the approach started elsewhere. Terrence McCoy wrote a really interesting profile of the man credited with the approach, and explains why it is considered so revolutionary.

Daniel Finney, a columnist at the Des Moines Register, is writing about his effort to lose 300+ pounds. His latest installment is really powerful.

I'm horrified by what Jesse Brown says is happening to some of the women who trusted him with their stories about Jian Ghomeshi. It sounds like Kevin Donovan is going to profit from their pain, and if that is the case, that is disgusting. This is why so many women don't tell their stories.

Acclimatrix had a really good piece over at Tenure, She Wrote about why women have a vested interest in arguing against the flawed research that said sexism no longer exists in academia.

Switching from the infuriating to the heart-breaking: Katie Hafner wrote a letter to Sheryl Sandberg about how to get through the sudden loss of your spouse that made me cry.

So did this story from Caroll Spinney, the man who played Big Bird. (Really, if you haven't read this one yet- it will probably make you cry. You've been warned.)

So, to dry your eyes:

Margaret Heffernan wrote a nice piece about what makes some teams more successful than others, which led me to a short piece by Uri Alon about how to build a motivated research group.

I posted about one of my latest designs over at Crappy Things I Made to Stop the Whining,

Did you somehow miss the wonderful cards Emily McDowell makes to give to people who have cancer? They are currently showing at the top of her shop. All of her stuff looks good, really.

Oh boy, I really need to end with something fun today, don't I?

This was one of my favorite tweets of the week. But then I'm a sucker for Pride and Prejudice in general and for the Colin Firth version in particular.

MAY THE FIRTH BE WITH YOU AM I DOING THIS THING RIGHT pic.twitter.com/ZrMP7FqpMc

— citizenrobot (@citizenrobot) May 4, 2015

Also, Twitter thinks I'm a guy and that means I get promoted tweets like this:

Most recent installment in Twitter's ongoing delusion that I am a man. pic.twitter.com/jwAEC3Ao1s

— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) May 8, 2015

And now it is time to make the pizza.