Weekend Reading: The Delayed by Hamilton Edition

Last night, we went and saw Hamilton. It was "just" the touring group, and we had pretty crappy seats... but it was still really, really good. I'm glad I went. I realized at intermission that I would not be re-experiencing that initial jolt of "oh, I GET it, I see why this is such a huge phenomenon" that I got when I first listened to the soundtrack, but that was OK. It was still great to get to see the show.

I found that my appreciation of the characters of Jefferson and King George in particular was increased by seeing the show. Hamilton is a show that is very much about words, and you can get a lot of it from the soundtrack. But not all of it. So I'm glad I went. I'd say: go see it if you can. If you can't get the soundtrack and listen to it straight through, and you'll still get a feel for the energy of the show. I think the listening straight through part is important. I listened on a drive up to LA, and the drive was almost perfectly timed to the length of the show. I remember being just blown away by it as it ended, and being glad I hadn't set up my iPod to just play something else after it finished. I made the last little bit of my drive in silence, absorbing what I'd just heard.

Anyhow: Hamilton was good, but I was out past my bedtime and I am tired today! I am hoping for a short nap after lunch.

And here are the links I have for you this week:

First, a little promo: Annorlunda Books' next release, Tattoo, by Michelle Rene, is now available for pre-order. It got a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, and also a really nice review in Foreword (which is not out yet). Check it out!

Trump's administration (and I say "administration" here because let's be honest: it is pretty clear he isn't deeply involved in these policy details, this is coming from his advisors, not him) has finally released its immigration proposal, and if anyone wanted to argue this administration isn't just hostile to immigration- legal or not, I don't see how you still can. Josh Marshall had a good short discussion of why I say that.

(Aside: the "immigrants: we get the job done!" line got quite a cheer last night at Hamilton. Yes, it is a famous line. But San Diego is also a city with a lot of immigrants.)

I have mostly stayed out of the arguments about whether the Senate Democrats' decision to vote for a continuing resolution that allowed the government to re-open and funded CHIP but didn't resolve the status of DAC recipients was a good strategy or a bad one. But I strongly agree with this Matt Yglesias piece about the real reason the DREAMers are at risk. There is only so much the minority party can do in our current situation, and the Republican party has made it clear time and again they don't want to fix this problem. (Related: the Hastert Rule is BS, and if you have a Republican rep and agree with that statement, you might do some good by letting them know you think it is BS. We're at a juncture where I think moderate (or even pretty conservative but willing to compromise) Republicans can make a big difference if they speak up.)

If you're interested in a story visiting Clinton voters and asking them how they feel about their votes now... this one is pretty good.

If you haven't read Lili Loufbourow's essay about female pain as the price of male pleasure, read it now. It is the one link I'd say to read if you're only going to read one this week.

This is a really interesting story about a Black American novelist I'd never heard of.

Using fish skin to treat bears burned in the Thomas Fire.

Click through and read the story!

Next time someone tells you the internet is ruining literature... show them this thread.

Show them it's beautiful plot structure. Show them how the author varied tweet-length for maximum impact. With every new medium, humans create new rhetoric devices. This is ART. https://t.co/RxS2uRsvhx

— May Helena Plumb (@mayhplumb) January 25, 2018

Bunny!

pic.twitter.com/rvzRKmSASM

— うさぎ島の写真bot (@rabbit_isle_bot) January 25, 2018

Happy weekend, everyone. I'm off to take a nap to try to recover from staying out past my bedtime....

Thoughts on Missing the Women's March

I didn't go to the Women's March yesterday. Long before we knew a march would be happening, I had arranged to do a tour with my daughter's Lego team, which I coach. When I learned of the march, it was too late to reschedule the tour, so no march for me.

I was sorry I couldn't be there. It is easy to read the news coming from Washington and feel despair. When I read the news about immigration policy, in particular, I get that feeling I've described before, of alienation from my own country. It was particularly acute in the last couple of months, because we were waiting for my husband's new green card to arrive. It was months late, and while we had no reason to think the delay was connected to all of the conflict about immigration that has been in the air these days, it was hard not to connect the two things in my own mind. (I'm actually 99% certain the delay was just usual overworked bureaucracy stuff... but my irrational fears had other ideas.)

Friday, his green card finally came, which was a relief. But I couldn't help comparing the relief I felt about the resolution of an irrational worry to the ongoing and much more rational anxiety the DREAMers and the people losing their temporary protected status must be feeling. We are treating these people with so little respect, it makes me want to weep. I can accept disagreeing with my government on the right way to resolve their immigration status, but I cannot accept my government treating them and their dreams as worthless. I cannot accept our disregard for their humanity and callousness about the consequences of sending people back to countries they barely know. I cannot accept they way they are being used a political hostages, in a negotiation in which one side doesn't even seem to have a coherent statement of what they want, except for maybe "fewer brown people in America."

I wrote in Friday's links post that I feel like the mask has been ripped away from many of the immigration arguments, and the ugly racism is now out in the open. I'm not surprised, really, by the way some (who aren't even Iowa Rep. King) are now fairly open in implying that they want America to be a majority white country and that they don't see my friends who are not white as equally American. But I am still shocked by it, on a visceral level.

I grew up knowing that there were latino families in my state and neighboring states that had been on the land we all shared for far longer than my family had. There are latino families in New Mexico that have been on that land since before it was America, and I was taught that in school, even in my conservative corner of conservative Arizona. I went to school with Native American kids whose connection to the little patch of land we were all occupying was far, far deeper than mine was. It is shocking to hear my supposed leaders imply that those people are less American than me. I outright reject that notion, and am offended by it.

Now I live in a majority minority city, in a majority minority state. I think of my friends and my kids' friends, whose heritage stretches back to so many different countries: Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, China. I think of our Black friends whose chance to trace their heritage to a specific country was stolen from them along with their ancestors' freedom. We have friends who have become naturalized citizens recently, and friends whose ancestors came over around the same time as mine did, if not before. They are all just as American as I am, and I am deeply offended by any suggestion that they are not.

And yet, here we are. Selfishly, I wanted to go to the Women's March to be reminded that my version of America's future is still possible, and there are still people fighting for it. I did not get that chance, but I was encouraged by all the pictures I saw of large marches around the country. That will have to suffice. Last week, I bought a roll of postcard stamps. I'm ready to keep writing. Maybe there will be another chance to keep marching. No matter what, I'll keep fighting.

Weekend Reading: Links from the Road Edition, Reprise

I am sitting in another hotel room, writing another weekend reading post. This is the last trip I have planned right now, but of course, I don't know yet what the new job will bring.

Last week's trip home was a bit more of an ordeal than expected for a flight from San Jose to San Diego. We were just starting our final descent when the captain came on the intercom and told us that San Diego airport was fogged in. We circled for 30 minutes, and then diverted to Ontario, an airport just north of Riverside. From there, we got onto buses and made the ~2 hour trek home by land instead of air. I was originally scheduled to be home by 9:30 p.m. I actually made it home after 1 a.m. It sort of messed up my weekend: I still had to get up and take the kids to gymnastics on Saturday morning, and then I had to nap after lunch because I was exhausted. I wasn't really "right" until Sunday.

On the bright side, I caught up on some podcasts, as you will see a bit later in the links.

Speaking of links... let's get to them:

If you read only one of my links this week, make it Zeynep Tufekci writing about free speech and our current time period.

Tom Nichols' damage assessment of the first year of Trump is also worth your time.

Sen. Mazie Hirano is asking all judicial nominees about sexual harassment. It seems like a small thing, but Dahlia Lithwick does an excellent job explaining why it matters.

A summary of  couple of weeks' evidence of corruption and grift in the Trump administration is really depressing.

Here's some hopeful news on the environment: renewable energy costs are coming down faster than expected.

Cyd Harrell had many interesting, insightful things to say about the false alarm in Hawaii, from the standpoint of software user interface/user experience and government IT. Here's one thread:

on the one hand, people are asking how the Hawaii EMA staffer could make such a mistake - if you've ever not sent an email you thought you sent, or replied-all when you thought you replied privately, this is about that level of error.

— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) January 15, 2018

But if you're interested in this sort of thing, go to her timeline and read more.

This is a long but really interesting thread:

I've spent the last year and a half kicking myself for choosing terror management theory as a framework to analyze popular diet culture, not because it doesn't work (I think it does), but because it applies so well to our current political situation that I can't sleep at night.

— Michelle Allison (@fatnutritionist) January 15, 2018

Now those podcast recommendations I promised:

Susan Hennessey's Twitter feed is one I often check for a clear-eyed and level-headed summary of what's going on. So it is not surprising that Ezra Klein's interview with her is excellent. I highly recommend it if you want an overview of where we are at in terms of the investigations into Russian interference and related issues.

If you've ever despaired about the state of gun laws in America, Jason Kander's interview with Shannon Watts might help restore some hope.

This The Weeds conversation about immigration really captures how I've been feeling about the issue these days. I feel like so many arguments about tightening our immigration laws have been made in bad faith, and that the events of the past week really exposed that. We've gone from wanting to crack down on illegal immigration, to wanting to limit legal immigration, to just outright racist comments about African countries and Haiti. It really does seem like the position is actually: "we want white people to remain the majority in America, and we don't see people who are not white as real Americans." See, for instance, this:

.@MarkSteynOnline on DACA: "In Arizona, a majority of the grade school children now are Hispanic. That means Arizona's future is as a Hispanic society. That means in effect, the border has moved north." #Tucker pic.twitter.com/tCJsNMlT0u

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 19, 2018

And I guess I'm glad it is out in the open now, but wow, it is sickening. (Several people on Twitter pointed out that the commentator here, Mark Steyn, is Canadian, which is just so perfect.)

Also, this outbreak of racism and bad faith behavior is making it much, much harder to come to any sort of reasonable compromise on immigration, which is bad for our country and terrible for the many classes of people now caught in immigration limbo. This makes me very sad.

And here's a bunny to leave us on a happy note:

ほい( *・ω・)ノ pic.twitter.com/9qORJeguR7

— nao〜☆ (@evo3183) January 18, 2018

Happy weekend, everyone!

Weekend Reading: Links from the Road Edition

I am sitting at a not very comfortable table in a hotel in Santa Clara. I'm here to give a short talk in a little while, and then I'll head to the airport and fly home. It has been a short visit, but it has been fun so far.

So, I don't have a lot of time to put together links for you, but I wanted to share some I'd found this week:

First, some politics:

Here is a good explainer of the current state of the Arizona Senate race. I am following this one because I'm from Arizona, but I think it is of general interest, since it may be one of the races that determines control of the Senate.

This article about Justice Ginsberg's opinion that has set some important precedent on gerrymandering is really interesting.

Dianne Feinstein's decision to release the Fusion GPS testimony made me cheer. Josh Marshall's take on what it revealed is worth your time.

And in non-political news:

The woman who create the "Shitty Men in Media" spreadsheet wrote about it, and it is a really good piece.

Geraldine DeRutier's post about making the pizza crust cinnamon rolls from Mario Batali's apology letter is so, so good. If you only read one thing in my list this week, make it this one.

Bunnies!

Bunny hangout pic.twitter.com/Kj6VIzzSRx

— J. L. Meyer 🐇 (@JenniferLMeyer) January 10, 2018

Stern bunny!

pic.twitter.com/ybDlfEhC5Z

— うさぎ島の写真bot (@rabbit_isle_bot) January 9, 2018

And now I have to go get ready for my talk. Happy weekend everyone!

Family Fun List 2018

It is a new year... and so we have a new family fun list. Last year's post about our family fun list explains the background, but the short version is that every year we each pick three things we want to do together as a family for fun. Then we try to do them all. We never make it all the way through the list, so the person with the most items missed gets to suggest a bonus item for the next year's list. 

Before I share this year's list, let's look at how we did in 2017:

• Make a LEGO city (Petunia) - DONE, in January
• Walk around our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights (Pumpkin) - DONE, in December (obviously)
• Go to Mexico (Mr. Snarky) - DONE, we went to Tecate in October. We had fun, and the kids did a great job speaking Spanish.
• Try a new restaurant (me) - DONE, we tried out a local fried chicken place that everyone raves about called, The Crack Shack. The food was good, and we had fun.
• Invite [one of her friends and her family] to our local pizza place for dinner (Petunia) - Oops. Not done. I just didn't get it scheduled. We're going to try to do this soon, but have decided that future family fun list items cannot rely on scheduling time with another family. That's just too hard!
• Go to a botanical garden (Pumpkin) - Done, in September.
• Go to Dave and Buster's (Mr. Snarky) - Done, and OMG that was sensory overload for me. So much noise! So many lights. GAH.
• Go to Legoland (Me) - DONE, we went on Super Bowl Sunday, as is our wont.
• Have an art competition, with [my sister] to judge (Petunia) - DONE, at the last minute, in Arizona. We made caterpillars out of cardboard tubes. Mr. Snarky won.
• Paint our own ceramics at the paint-your-own ceramics place in Liberty Station (Pumpkin) - DONE, and we all had fun.
• Go on a hike up a mountain (Mr. Snarky) - DONE, also in Arizona. We walked up Tempe Butte. Mr. Snarky wanted a more mountain-y mountain, but my asthma wasn't great and the kids were skeptical, so this is what he got.
• Take a bike ride along the river (Me) - DONE.
• Bonus: Art, Cuddles, and Doughnuts Day (It is our own holiday that the kids just invented. They saw a TV show in which the characters tried to invent a holiday... and this was their idea.) - Not done. We blame the lack of rainy days.

Here's some tweets from our fun list outings:

Here is the family art project:

Family art project! pic.twitter.com/pCPzOnNn4C

— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) December 28, 2017

On our trip to the Botanical Garden, we saw a corpse flower:

Saw a corpse flower earlier today! Was past the super stinky phase, though. pic.twitter.com/AywKXuWtUR

— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) September 25, 2017

After our bike ride by the river, we pedaled over to Quivera Basin and had some french fries and enjoyed the view:

Waystation on a lazy bike ride. Am not good enough to take pics while I ride or I'd have some great bird pics. Lots out on the river today! pic.twitter.com/K6M3W1YYVT

— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) September 4, 2017

An here's proof we went to Tecate:

We walked across the border.

Here's what we plan to do this year:

• Go to a trampoline place with a foam pit (Petunia)
• Art, Cuddles, and Doughnuts Day (Pumpkin... here's hoping we get a rainy weekend day!)
• Got to a movie in a theater (Mr. Snarky... this is a big deal because neither Pumpkin nor I are big movie goers)
• Beach day (Me... actually, I'm hoping for several, but this will ensure I plan at least one good one!)
• Family sewing day (Petunia... I do not own a sewing machine, so I guess we'll all be hand-stitching)
• Go to [a local indoor rock climbing place] (Pumpkin)
• Go to [a water park near my parent's house] (Mr. Snarky)
• Try a new restaurant (Me)
• Have a picnic at a park (Petunia)
• Walk around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights (Pumpkin)
• Hike at least 400 ft of elevation (Mr. Snarky... someone learned his lesson about not being specific, I guess.)
• Go to a special event at Balboa Park (Me... there are lots to choose from, but the current front runner is either the Diwali festival or the international food festival. Or maybe we'll get to both!)
• Bonus: Go to a kids' museum

Will this year be the year we get to everything on the list? Check back in next January to find out!