Reading Rambo

WHAT AN APT TITLE FOR OUR TIMES A book about archaeologists! ("why does this matter," she said, curled in a ball in the corner) Bop around the world with Marilyn Johnson! ("nothing matters now") See what being an archaeologist in the 21st century is REALLY all about! ("aagghhhhhhhhhh") Take your everyday-life escapisms where you can get them, my friends. This is our new reality. And it sucks donkeyballs. But here we are. And I read a book I rated 3/5 stars on Goodreads! Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble  is by Marilyn Johnson, author of that book you probably saw at the bookstore a few years ago where she talked about how librarians would save the world. WELL WHERE ARE YOU NOW, LIBRARIANS. Anyway. Johnson's thing seems to be deciding to find out more about an interesting job and then going around and interviewing people who do that job in a variety of ways. Here she picked archaeology, which is...

The Women's March was a tremendous day of protest and solidarity, and a worldwide announcement that we will not quietly accede to this unprecedented situation. But it's over. And I'm left with this feeling. You're probably left with this feeling. We're all left with this feeling, and it is just so scary and it makes me want to lie down and not get up. I've been thinking about what to do and how to make this a livable situation, and the answer I've found is, as always, in the past. Do you know why movies aren't made about the 19th century women's movement? Or the anti-slavery efforts in 18th century America? There's no triumphant ending. Elizabeth Cady Stanton never voted. Neither did Susan B. Anthony. Or Sojourner Truth. Most abolitionists who labored from 1785 through the early 1800s only saw increased division and rancor in their lifetime concerning the topic dearest to them, something as huge as the recognition of an entire ra...

How...did previous generations cope with rage fatigue and a constant sense of impending doom? Oh, I know — they just died at like age 35. In the Middle Ages, at least. People in the '60s just did drugs. IT'S ALL MAKING SENSE NOW. Like...I get it now, guys I'm fighting a constant ostrich-like urge to bury my head in the sand and continue going about my normal life, while social media tells me on a non-stop loop that nothing is okay and you have to act now NOW. We do have to act. But it helps no one if we're all CONSTANTLY feeling bad about not acting all the time. So. I am going to go to the March in Chicago on Saturday, and I'm going to read some news articles and try to be informed on what's really going on, and I'm going to try and stop myself from collapsing into a puddle of despair. On that note! What have I been reading this month: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why  by Bart Ehrman. Someone at my church lent ...

I have a lot of thoughts about Mary Astor's Purple Diary , most of which can be summed up in the notes I made on my voice recorder while walking in downtown Chicago, which begins with " You know how you write that story about meeting the person you're obsessed with? And you don't show it to other people? Well, Edward Sorel decided to...like...publish it. And illustrate it. " For those of you who didn't have a lot of alone time with Turner Classic Movies in high school, Mary Astor was a movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood, more specifically in the 1930s. By the mid-1940s she was playing mom roles, but in the '30s and early '40s she had kickass parts like the wealthy eccentric sister in Preston Sturges's The Palm Beach Story , and that main lady character whose name I don't remember in The Maltese Falcon . Edward Sorel is apparently "one of America's foremost political satirists." He also happens ...

  Getting a real job that requires, y'know, time and energy and attention, has played havoc with my Goodreads stats, let me tell you. Said job, plus a girlfriend who, while being extremely supportive of my book obsession, also would like me to talk to her sometimes, mean I had an appx 30 book drop in my reading this year, for a grand total of 46 books read. I will be over here in this box What themes did we find for this year's reading though! Of this 46, 22 were by women, which is...not quite half. Of my entire reading for the year. I know. Me. My reading. Over half of it by men. I am not worthy to be in your presence, Leslie You're probably thinking "hey, wha happened" and I get it. I...get it. Well, Neil Gaiman happened. And Ron Chernow. And David Sedaris and Norman Cantor and John Lewis and Edward Carey and just a LOT of dudes writing books I wanted to read. Because y'know what, it's going to happen, because the publis...

Lucretia Mott was not the only one fighting for abolition in Philadelphia. There was also: I love this picture because underneath their severe hairstyles this looks like any social justice group photo I know what you're thinking: "Wait...is their acronym...PASS?" And YES. Yes it IS. As in "How about some slavery?" "Mm, PASS. Get it? Like the society name and also I don't want any because it's terrible." Mott and her husband James were co-founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833 (AASS -- no, the acronym is not as good, and yes, there were a lot of anti-slavery societies), and Mott helped craft this line of theirs, also mentioned in the previous post about her life : The building in this picture is Pennsylvania Hall. Pennsylvania Hall was built by the badass SJWs in the first photo, aka the members of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, as a place to hold meetings, preach, teach, whateve...

Lucretia Mott, guys. Damn. I've always just kind of thought of her as one of those older suffragists who probably wrote some things for ladies and then Elizabeth Cady Stanton went charging forward with it. WELL THAT'S WHAT ELIZABETH CADY STANTON WANTED YOU TO THINK. One of the main reasons we don't hear much about Mott is that Stanton and Susan B. Anthony literally wrote the book on the history of women's suffrage. Also Mott had other fish to fry. Abolition fish. Abolitionists had been organizing since 1775 and they were not only determined to stop slavery, but were becoming radicalized in their efforts as the battle for America's future seemed to grow more and more pressing.  Lucretia Mott was a Nantucket-born Quaker (did you know Nantucket used to be a Quaker island?) who then moved to Philadelphia with her husband James Mott and KICKED ALL THE PRO-SLAVERY PEOPLE'S ASSES. Through, like. Earnest discussion, peaceful boycotts a...

Jean Shepherd is a writer who revels, bathes, and frolics in the English language. You have all sorts of writers: utilitarian, plot-driven, wanting-their-prose-to-be-poetry-without-writing-poetry, and you have writers who just obviously love words so DAMN much. William Styron is one of these ("the quagmiry but haunting monochrome of the Narew River swampland") and Jean Shepherd, famous for In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash , the basis for the fan-damn-tastic film A Christmas Story , is another. I have made quote graphics for your reading ease, since it seems all wish to be visually entertained nowadays. Also I like making quote graphics. Onward!: FROM THE SUN-DRENCHED SHORES OF GREECE REDOLENT OF THE EARTH'S BOUNTIES. I'm super-into how he uses the English language. While Jean Shepherd was a man very much of his time (that time being 1921-1999), he was also a man who knew his way around a dictionary, if you know what I mean. ...