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Happy Birthday to Smokey the Bear!

Happy Birthday to Smokey the Bear!

Happy Birthday to Smokey the Bear!  A robust 78 years old today, Smokey is still dutifully at it, still spreading the word about fire prevention and safety for everyone. Smokey the Bear was born on August 9, 1944, when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council both agreed that a fictional bear would be the symbol going forward for their efforts to promote forest fire prevention and safety.…

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I don't see people talking about this so today is the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in where the factory owners locked working women and girls inside to "eliminate the risk of theft" (in reality it was too keep them from taking breaks), which resulted in the gruesome deaths of 123 mostly immigrant women and girls and 23 men, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor either in a panicked attempt to escape or in order to die quickly. There were reports that some of the workers were on fire already as they jumped.

The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.

The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.

This tragedy is a reminder that has been forgotten in the 110 years since: every safety regulation-- every scrap of paperwork contributing to the hundreds of pages of red tape people like to complain about--every word of it was written in the blood of a laborer.

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I hope next year treats you kindly, but above all else, I hope you treat you kindly.

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Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

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FYI for those of you that haven't filled out your student loan debt relief application, please go do that.

I know that it can be hard to deal with this stuff, especially if you get overwhelmed easily. I was waiting because I thought I would have to log into the student aid site, and I know that I can't remember my password, just to get to a long, confusing form. I was dreading it.

Don't dread it. There's no login, only 1 page, and nothing that you have to dig up information for (just your ssn and any names you've used with the dept. of ed.)

Takes a couple of minutes. Go do this for yourself.

https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief/application

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happy Thursday the 20th

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My therapist: just because you made a plan doesn’t mean you’ll always follow it perfectly, and that’s okay. It’s better to follow a plan cursorily than not at all.

Me, sobbing: THAT WAS AN OPTION???

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🖤.

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two sides of the same sunrise at our cabin in nova scotia. those colors are unedited and surreal.

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it's weird how people will be like "but we need Suburban Lawn so kids can play outside!" as if basically every kid isn't bored to tears by being confined to a yard that's nothing but flat grass.

like have you talked to a kid, have you spent time with kids, do you remember BEING a kid? "playing outside" isn't about Throwing Ball 1000 times it's about squishing mud, using sticks as swords and guns, making potions from plants, catching bugs, climbing trees, and building forts from brush and branches.

A highly manicured lawn has nothing to offer the senses and brain of a developing child. If there are no "weeds," what are they supposed to gather to make into potions?? I'm not even joking, what do you, a child, DO in a yard without wildflowers and mud and dead branches. I feel like my brain wouldn't have developed correctly if my outdoor space growing up wasn't full of chicory and asters and dandelions.

At least video games offer some dim imitation of a variety of stimuli

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Ghost story, Karen Jerzyk

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Source

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Remember these dates. #StudentLoans

#CancelStudentDebt

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I’d rather skip that step 💬

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autumn 21 on the east coast, transitions