Wednesday Linkage

Happy Vernal Equinox!

It has been unseasonably cold here for the past several weeks, but yesterday was a lovely day, low 70s and sunny. Today is rainy, grey, and cold my favorite weather. Also, I have five more days of Spring Break left.

Plans for today: buy new shoes for the Kid, and then go observe squirrels on campus (this is for his anthropology lab. Squirrel Lab, they call it).

Have some links!

Remember how Florida voted to re-enfranchise felons? Yeah, don't worry, the GOP has that covered.

Here in Arkansas, our voters approved a minimum wage increase. Our GOP legislatures respond by cackling "Will of the people? I'll show you the will of the people!"

Utah GOP defines woman: A woman is a person who serves the purpose of receiving a man's seed. (Hat-tip Nicole and Maggie)


On the other hand, in Canada, a court rules that your daddy can't interfere with your medical treatment. (Predictably, this has transphobes throwing screaming tantrums. Of course your children are your property! How dare the courts say your power over their bodies has limits!)

An example of reasoned discourse from the anti-Trans people

And to take the taste of THAT out of your mouth: American Boys

Always check your sources. Also, stay away from the National Review.

Dunning-Kruger in the wild. This person knows nothing about AAVE, or about the teaching of English. Also, no shock, they're also a giant racist.

Nice reviews of my story, "History of the Invasion Told in Five Dogs."

Spring Break

Mine started last night at 8:00 PM (after my Fiction Workshop) and the kid's started today at 10:00 (after his anthropology lab). We drove up to fetch him home around noon today, with the obligatory stop at the fancy grocery before we left town.

(Fort Smith, where we live, has only two grocery stores, Wal-Mart and Harps, and Harp's is only slightly better than the Wall. So if we want something fancy, like chocolate that isn't Nestle's, we have to wait for a trip up the mountain.)

Now Spring Break is officially begun. What will we do with it? I'ma write a ton. The kid will draw a ton. Also we must do a Squirrel Lab, which is something attached to the anthropology lab.

The kid is considering doing an anthropology minor. At lunch, we all received a lecture on tarsiers, and what is important about their eyes. As all y'all know, I was briefly an anthropology major in college, so I enjoyed this lecture immensely.

Tarsier at night

We'll probably also go to the dog park at least a few times. Also I am reading many many book. More on that later.

Links

Today is the last day of Spring Break. We took the kid back up to school yesterday, only to find that their dorm did not open until noon today. So they're staying with their Uncle Charger, who is very kindly going to help them move back in today.

I'm getting sick again, I think -- some sort of stomach ailment. Queasy and feverish, though no actual vomit yet.

Spring Break: Here at Last

Everyone else in the country has already had their Spring Breaks, I believe. But ours is next week -- well, really it starts tomorrow for the kid, since the public schools get Friday off for a teacher training thing.

As the kid is in her last six weeks of high school and literally counting the minutes until she never has to go back to high school again, this extra Friday is all that stood between her and doom.

Only messing a little here. It's never been so hard to get this child off to school as it has been this past month. "Here's an idea," she tells me, frequently. "What if I drop out of school, right now?"

"That sounds like a fine idea," I say. "Then you can get a job at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is always hiring."

"But you are missing the point. Then I would never have to go back to high school, ever again."

Our plans for Spring Break: sleep a lot. Write a lot. (Do a lot of art, on the kid's part.) Go hiking at Devil's Den. Go up to Crystal Bridges at least once, to see the new exhibit, even if it is Roy Lichtenstein, who is the kid's mortal enemy. Take the dog to the dog park. Sleep some more.

The weather has been cold as balls here, but next week looks lovely.

Trump, meanwhile... sweet Jesus.