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themisterdarcy · 5 years ago

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dear darcy,

what’s up? it’s currently thursday, april 30, 2020. we are in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic, and north carolina is on lockdown. well, technically. we are actually the worst state in the entire country in pandemic support. there are 1.06 million confirmed cases in the entire country, with 9,948 in north carolina, and 1,567 in mecklenburg county alone. the stay-at-home order is still supposed to be lifted on may 8th, though. that’s next friday. i don’t know how on earth anybody thinks that is a good idea, but the governor has the power in this situation.

school is canceled for the rest of the year, meaning that i have to finish my junior year online. i’m disappointed that i have to miss prom and seeing my friends (especially kai), but i think it’s for the best. nobody expected covid-19 to be this big of a deal, or for the quarantine to last this long. the day before schools closed, my apush teacher, mr. church, told us that he thought the situation was “blown out of proportion” and i quote: “there’s no way that school is going to be canceled.” even when schools closed, we were originally supposed to be back in school by march 30! here we are, a month later, and there’s no end in sight for this crisis.

trump is being absolutely useless, and even detrimental to the effort to contain the virus. he his early information about the virus, and didn’t bother to take precautions, leaving the country unprepared. by the time of the first case, it was hopeless. this week (or last week... time is all running together right now), he actually suggested in a press conference that a way to prevent/cure coronavirus would be to inject bleach/disinfectant into the body, or to illuminate the body from the inside with a uv light to kill the virus. both of these options as said by trump (uv light actually does have some merit to it, but it is in an entirely different context than trump suggested, and still in developmental phases) would be fatal, and aren’t even a solution to the main issue at hand: containing and controlling the spread of the virus.

in my opinion, new zealand has it down. i only know about it because amanda palmer is quarantined there, but they’re getting close to the end of 5 weeks of near complete lockdown. people are not allowed to leave their houses or visit non-immediate family members at all, and parks and public spaces are closed. while it does seem a little like an overextension of governmental power, it’s working. new zealand only has 1,476 total cases. thanks to prime minister jacinda ardern, the entire country has fewer cases than mecklenburg county. yes, new zealand only has a population of about 5 million, while mecklenburg county has 1.1 million, it’s still impressive that a population five times the size has 100 fewer cases. i honestly wouldn’t mind temporarily giving up some of my civil liberties and democratic principles if it meant that covid-19 was knocked out and controlled.

the people who are protesting the lockdowns are quite frankly narcissistic idiots who cannot see past their own ego. yes, staying at home is difficult and boring, but it’s the only way that life has any sort of chance of returning to a form of normalcy. i don’t think things will be exactly the same, nor do i think they should, but i do want to be able to hang out with friends again. i do want to go to school and have my senior year. i do want to be able to move out and go to college when the time comes. the more people disregard reality and ignore social distancing, the longer life will be like this. the protesters are only making things worse for themselves, and the saddest part is that i don’t think they realize this.

i’m writing these letters to future me (that’s you, darcy!) so that i can have a document of my life from the pandemic. also, i want to be able to remember what being 17 was like when i’m older. i do keep a journal, but that’s more for songs, poetry, and breakdowns. screaming into the void of the internet just feels more Official to me. also, i can’t lose a blog. that’s the thing about the internet: it’s forever, for better or for worse.

i think that i will open each letter with a discussion of any updates about the pandemic, focusing mainly on concrete facts and statistics. these are important to document, and i wish i had been recording this from the beginning. maybe i will go back and create a timeline, but i’m not sure yet. that might just be a task for another sleepless night. after the corona rundown, though, i’ll go into my own experiences and thoughts about the events of my life. these will probably be in bullet-point form, since my mind has the tendency to jump around as if topics were trampolines. i don’t know how often i’ll write, but i will try to everyday. every letter won’t be as long as this one, that’s for sure, but i do tend to ramble on. i hope you’re not overwhelmed, darcy.

taking a much needed break from 2020, how’s your life at the moment? i don’t know how old you are, but i’m assuming that you’re in college at the very least. are you and kai still together? i hope so. i really do love them. have you come out to the family yet? have you changed your name legally yet? i need to do that before my college graduation, because i want my degrees to be in My Name. the thing is, i’ll need to come out to change my name, and that is an issue i don’t really care to think about at the moment. how did that go? was it as bad as i expect it will be? have you started t? besides transitioning, how is your academic and career life? i hope to go to the university of texas at austin and double major in physics and music theory and composition. did that happen? if it didn’t, where did you go to school, and did you stick with the course of study i mentioned? i can’t really imagine studying anything else, to be honest. physics and music theory are two of the most intimidating and difficult subjects there are, and they also happen to be my favorite subjects. i love being challenged mentally, and i also like being seen as intimidating. imagine: a punk, non-binary, queer physicist who also writes and performs music. is there anything more intimidating than that? i aspire to be the “scary kid in your physics class.” i want to be an exception.

i’ve written so much already, but i do have quite a bit to get off my chest. yesterday was a weird day, and i couldn’t sleep at all last night, so here we are. this is what being 17 is like:

it is 6:15 am, and i have stayed up all night.

i was planning on getting a lot of work done, but instead i wasted time listening to amanda palmer and browsing the internet.

my dad thinks i took my sleeping pill, so i need to stay quiet in my room until at least 10:00 tomorrow morning so he doesn’t get suspicious.

kai called me today, but only for 15 minutes. they are a month behind in school, and will only get their phone back once they are caught up. i don’t know when that will be, but i am preparing for the worst.

i identify as androgyne, meaning in between man and woman. recently, i stopped feeling like i was faking, though. instead of worrying that i was making it all up in my head, i’ve become confident that i am Androgyne. it makes sense. it always has made sense. when i was little, i asked my father if it was possible to be “half-girl, half-boy,” and i would tell people that about myself. just because i like glitter and riot grrrl doesn’t make me a girl. i am an enby.

this is the song of the night:

i realized today that i have not left the house (excepting switching between mother’s/father’s) in an entire month. at the beginning of this lockdown, i was struggling, but i feel like i’ve adjusted more or less. this feels normal, now. i don’t feel like i’m missing something from my daily life.

10 days clean :)

my sleep schedule is fucked up. dr. kissam has put me on a mood stabilizer, an antidepressant, and a sleep medicine as well as my anxiety meds because she’s concerned by my bipolar tendencies. my manic phases have gotten more intense and happen more often now, and my down phases have gotten worse than they have in a long time. i started hurting again, but i’m trying to stop. i think i have a handle on it now. i did give myself two stick and pokes on monday night, though... does that count? i don’t think so.

i have the deathly hallows on my ankle, and the androgyne symbol on my left middle finger. it looks more like an anchor or a dandelion though. :/ i like them anyways, because they are Mine. My body. My decisions. I Am My Own Person.

during the call today, i felt like kai was distancing themself from me. i don’t know if i’m overthinking a 15 minute chat, but they didn’t seem like their usual clingy, lovey self. i’m worried that they’re going to decide they don’t want to be with me anymore during this time that they are off their phone, but i know that it’s just anxiety. overthinking is my enemy. kai loves me. i love them. we are in a healthy, stable relationship (for the first time in my life!!). they aren’t going to decide to leave me out of the blue.

the song for the kai situation:

sometimes i wonder what life would be like if i could just focus on school like a normal person. i have good grades, but i am a Very Chaotic student. if i could just sit down and complete assignments at a normal pace and with consistent motivation, what would i be able to achieve? would i be in a bunch of service organizations? would i be on student council? who knows?! i am darcy, and i am tied for valedictorian while never doing my homework. i don’t know how i do it either.

i’ve decided that i don’t like my confirmation name (octavian) as my middle name. i want to take my dad’s middle name, lamont. darcy lamont wheeler. it’s a super cool name, and it has Significance. our family is directly descended from the lamont clan in scotland. it’s also my grandmother’s maiden name, which i feel like makes sense because my dead middle name was her middle name. poetic justice. symmetry. i have come full circle.

hi! my name is darcy lamont wheeler.

darcy means “dark one.” i really, really like that. i like thinking that i am connected to the somewhat dark and eccentric. like the dresden dolls, or disturbing short stories. darkness adds complexity. nuance. background.

my favorite short story is “i have no mouth & i must scream” by harlan ellison. it is so completely terrifying, so beautifully disgusting, so brilliantly bizarre, so disturbingly ominous, and i have never read anything else that has come close to comparing. i love science fiction, especially dystopian ideas about technology advancing past the point of no return. it’s crazy to me that what could be considered mankind’s greatest achievement is so close to being our downfall.

everybody is awake now, and i hear them in the kitchen. i wonder when i stopped wanting to be awake. matthew and brianna seem to wake up as early as they can and fight bedtime until the absolute limit, as if they want to maximize the hours that they have each day. each morning is a new chance for fun. they don’t seem to resent life yet. i would rather be asleep instead of conscious most of the time. days are uniformly boring and miserable, with the rare diversion. why would i want them to be longer than they have to be? is this depression or is this just growing up? i can’t even tell anymore.

i missed amanda palmer’s birthday livestream yesterday, so i’m going to watch it today. two hours of her and her quarantine buddies sounds like heaven. this woman’s music quite honestly saved my life, and she is the epitome of badass!! i love amanda palmer. i wish i could write songs like she can.

on the topic of the dresden dolls, i asked brian viglione, the drummer, to “prom” as a pretense to ask him about his experiences as a musician, and for advice about how to develop my music. against all the odds, he accepted, so now, on may 9th at 8:00 pm, i am going to facetime with Brian Viglione, drummer for the dresden dolls and the violent femmes, among many others. life? made. i still can barely believe that this is actually happening!!

i came out to my english class, including ms. blaylock on tuesday. everybody reacted really well, and in that class at least, i get to go by my name and use my pronouns. i honestly couldn’t believe that i had the balls to tell anybody besides kai’s family, but i did, and it actually went well! the fact that there are people calling me darcy makes me so happy that i can’t even put it into words. it’s validating. i am darcy. not just when i’m by myself, but in real life. i am darcy.

is it weird that i’m not crippled by kai’s absence? i used to be an unproductive tangle of anxiety whenever mary was out of touch, even for a few hours. i was constantly worried that she was going to hurt herself, or that she was going to leave me. the thing is, even though i am in love with kai and i only thought that i loved mary because she was the first girl i was with, i don’t miss them to the point that i can’t function. i don’t think about them 24/7. i do miss them at times, and i cannot wait until we can talk again, but it’s not an all-consuming thing. i can go through my entire day without talking to them, no problem. night time is a little harder, but that’s because night is always when i go down spirals and rabbitholes. maybe this means that our relationship is healthy? co-dependency is a bad thing, i know, but i don’t know what a healthy relationship feels like since the only other experiences i’ve had (jack, mary, saanchi, rachel) have all been toxic in their own way.

one thing i have learned with kai is the importance of boundaries in a relationship. just because i love everything about them doesn’t mean that it’s healthy for us to share everything. there was a time where we were both in dark places and hurting, and when they shared what they did, it would set me off. the same went for them, i was using them as a journal too often, and the emotional burden had started to affect them. we had a conversation about this though, and established clear lines that we will not cross. it felt good to figure that out. i felt mature, looking out for my own needs and respecting kai’s. isn’t that how a relationship should work?

i love kai.

i’ve written a SHIT-TON. i think this is enough for now, but i might write another letter today. this was cathartic, and i feel like i’ve processed some shit as well as made a record for the future. i hope you weren’t bored or overwhelmed by my novel, darcy. i’m just writing what i feel is important, and i hope it’s still important to you.

signing off,

darcy lamont wheeler

#Spotify

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shiftyskip · 7 years ago

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My Grandpa’s Diary- Pete Rakiewicz

Keep in mind this is boring. My grandpa didn’t do much during the World War. He didn’t jump out of an airplane, drop bombs, or kill anyone. He owned a monkey named Cheetah (because she cheated at cards) and killed time. But war isn’t always insteresting, sometimes it’s boring one side.

But I found his diary and it’s one of the only things of his other than his wartime harmonica than I have left of him. I thought I’d share it with you.

4/7/45 Saturday

It's been one full year on this island today (Oh, Brother)

Orientation at 1300 hours. Played poker, won about seven bucks. Took a shower, shaved, washed items of clothes, & brushed teeth - all in 20 min. Wrote a 3-pager to Pugs. Listened to Hit Parade. No. 1 song, Accentuate the Positive, was sung by Lawrence Tibbetts & it was murder no end! Sold ½ case of beer for Four Checks. Hit the hay at lights out.

4/8/45 Sunday

Went to church & communion, made Easter duty, last service of Father Neagle. Rec'd letters from Janie & Marion & 2 from Pugs. Wrote to Janie & Marion. Had tough time getting a vehicle from motor pool. Drove down to hospital to see Bearman, stayed 10 min, returned to area in time to see movie "And Now Tomorrow" starring Alan Ladd & Loretta Young. Did some bookkeeping. Hit the hay just before lights out.

4/9/45 Monday

Read Time, Look, Pic, Yank magazines. Forgot Novena & class in practical electricity. Rec'd letters from Johnny & Pugs. Wrote Pugs a 3-pager. Drank one beer just before lights out. Insect made noise like a riveting machine, spent 15 min. tracking it down with flash-light, threw pest out the door. Hit the hay no earlier than 2330 hours.

4/10/45Tuesday

Read new Time magazine. Watched part of basketball game - then the lights all over the place dimmed out - generator trouble. Saw movie "Ministry of Fear" with Ray Milland & Marjorie Reynolds - she sure is a sharp looker. That's against my motto 'cause I don't go for blondes. Wrote to Johnny. Hit the hay at 2230.

4/11/45 Wednesday

BUSY DAY - BUSY DAY

Used rake on movie area. Grenade range - expended but one, which took up rest of morning. Miller, our driver, nearly got done away with thru his own carelessness of course. He pulled ring, released lever, prepared to throw it while it was sizzling. Lucky for him he didn't hold it long enough to explode.Socked the new punching bag till my arms nearly fell off. Put together the parts & pieces of a grenade to keep as a souvenir.

4/11/45

Saw good movie "Hollywood Canteen" with millions of stars & Joan Leslie & Bob Hutton. She's awfully nice-looking -- my ideal of a girl friend. Was part of a general discussion session which was held after the movie in the mess hall. C.O. gave main points on TDRR&R & rotation. Questions asked were answered to the best of his ability. My choice was TDRR&R, the technical army name which in all respects is just a furlough with immediate return to same overseas outfit. Hit the hay at 2310 hours.

4/12/45 Thursday

Mess hall inspected by a General (Gilbreath) was not to his liking. Later, Bn, C.O. looked it over and also found it the same way. Fixed water barrels. Sprayed oil to kill grass around our barracks. Went to movie, saw"Greenwich Village" (Don Ameche - Vivian Blaine), "The Fighting Lady" story of a carrier narrated by Lt. Bob Taylor, U.S.N.R. a short on the birth of a B-29 Superfort. Wrote 3-pager to Pugs. Hit the hay at 2310 hours.

4/13/45 Friday

Last nights movie took in more than three hours. During the night, a detail worked on mess hall so it could pass the inspection tomorrow. Col. Trower is expected to be the inspector. Cleaned our barracks also for the inspection & we better pass 'cause I sure don't like working on Sunday. Punched the bag again till the arms nearly fell off. Finished Lesson 12 in bkkg. It's ready for mailing. Had a slight storm, rain came in sudden burst came in buckets and just sudden it stopped. Wonderful place for fishes in this place. Saw movie "Mark of the Whistler", Richard Dix. It was sort of a stinkeroo, just as bad as Lawrence Tibbett's singing. Wrote a two-pager to Bob's folks in answer to the letter of theirs that I received today. Have yet to write to the kid bro. Hit the hay at 2240 hours.

4/14/45 Saturday

Read "Valley of Silent Men" novel - pretty good.

Author James Oliver Curwood. Orientation 1300 hours. Passed inspection. which is a mystery to me. Paid in advance for Monday's beer. 6 bucks. Indulged in poker, came out a little ahead. Saw movie "Dark Waters" Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone - Fair. Missed Hit Parade. Listened to records in orderly room instead. Hit the hay sometime after 2300 hours.

4/15/45 Sunday

Yesterday received two letters one each from Pugs and Mom. Mom said she mailed radio & extra tubes to me, April 4. Dick may go home on leave (I hope so). Went to church, new priest, Father Kuhn.

Played softball, won 9-8 in extra inning. I stunk. Had three ice creams at P.X. Bought two Park lighters. Indulged in poker, came out a little ahead. Washed clothes. Didn't shave 'cause my face was a bit sunburned from this morning's softball game. Intended to take pictures but time flew too fast. Saw "Winged Victory" - fair. Should write a letter to Mom & to Pug but I'm too tired. Hit the hay at 2230 hours.

4/16/45 Monday

Stood memorial parade in honor of president's death. Had most of morning off, in which time I had my picture taken 3 times. Wrote to Dick, to Mom & a three-pager to Pugs. Had ice cream & cokes at P.X. Missed half of Novena. Saw movie "Rainbow Island" Dorothy Lamour & Eddie Bracken - fair. Hit the hay right at lights out.

4/17/45 Tuesday

Bought four tubes of Ipana, my favorite tooth paste, yes, yes. Watched basketball game. Bn won. It's about time the M.P.'s got beat. Saw movie "One Body Too Many" with Jack Haley, Jean Parker - fair. Wrote to Frank Powers. Hit the hay at 2130 hours.

4/18/45 Wednesday

For dinner we fried ourselves a steak with french fried potatoes & onions. Toasted my bread a bit and everything went swell with the beer I had stacked away. Didn't get any ice cream -- the line at the P.X. was from here to Madison Ave. Group was alerted last week, been packing ever since. Saw movie "I'll Remember April", Gloria Jean growed-up to nice proportions - fair. Played pinochle. Hit the hay at 2245 hours.

4/19/45 Thursday

Third time this week we had fresh sunny-side-up eggs. Had two bits worth of ice cream & coke. Sprayed oil to kill grass around barracks. Received letter each from Pugs, Mom, & Treble. Wrote a three-pager to Pugs. Gave five beers to Joe Bucher for nix on account of two of his buddies came to see him. Hit the hay no earlier than 2200 hours.

4/20/45 Friday

Wrote to Trebie. Saw movie "Keys of the Kingdom" Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell. Good, something on the order of "Going My Way." Had a bull session of memories on things we remembered most from back home. Hit the hay at lights out but didn't start chasing forty winks until about 2340 hours. Two pictures were good from the two rolls that were taken Sunday & Monday. (Give me strength)

4/21/45 Saturday

Read Reader's Digest. Orientation 1300 hours. Played softball against the officers, trimmed 'em alive. For myself I got one good double & a fielder's choice. Score 12-2. Washed a stack of clothes. No movie tonight for a change. Indulged in poker, was going O.K. till Kraft sat beside me. Then I lost 7 bucks. Forgot to listen to Hit Parade. Hit the hay at lights out.

4/22/45 Sunday

Went to church - 0830. Straightened my junk. Borrowed camera from Biff because we were doubtful about Bob's. Took pictures, one whole roll. Wrote to Bob's aunt & uncle in answer to letters of theirs I received yesterday. Heard Sammy Kayes's program. Turned in shoes for salvage. Got a serum shot in left arm. Hit the hay just at lights out.

4/29/45 Sunday

Co. now packing boxes. Special details only went out to work. Worked fifteen & one-half hours on Tuesday. Sprayed D.D.T. on clothes. Bought turtle-shell necklace for seven bucks - it's for Pugs. We were all set to move but the ship isn't docked as yet. Church service was given by a missionary, performed in our chapel. Been playing poker all along and I either won or came out even. Hope it continues to my benefit. All during the week we had it pretty easy - except MON. & Tues. when we tried to get ready for moving.

5/6/45 Sunday

Received letters from Janie, Bob, Moe, Bob's folks and Helen. Answered all except three of four from Pugs. Turned in roll of film to be developed next Tuesday. Saw quite a lot of movies - among them "Kismet" & "Murder My Sweet" - both were good. Received picture from Sailor Dick - he's changed a bit already. Also got a letter from Mom. It has to be answered today, Sunday. Haven't received radio as yet -- but I guess it's due in this week. Had training lectures all last week with afternoons off. Calisthenics gave me sore muscles - cadence exercise for twenty minutes all last week, Due to see "Guest in the House" tonight. Reveille was changed from 5:30 to 6:30 - good deal. Movie was changed to "Here Comes the Waves". Golly, that Bing can sing! Answered Mom's letter.

5/7/45 Monday

Played poker, lost a few bucks, then won to get back to my original thirty-five. Saw "Guest In the House" starring Ann Baxter, Ralph Bellamy - good picture, she did a nice bit of acting. Had more of same stuff of last week. Forgot to mention we had from seven to ten shots in the last ten days.

5/9/45 Wednesday

Packed all our stuff & equipment, emptied the barracks. The band played solid for us right in front of our company. Went to see three-fourths of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". Then we were called to the company area. Piled 100 fellows, duffel bags, packs etc. into cattle truck. Left at nine o'clock, boarded the Bluem Fontaine, a Dutch (?) ship, at ten.

5/10/45 Thursday

Docked at Tulagi in the morning. At sea sometime in the P.M. In the next two weeks we had air raid drills, exercises, long lines for P.X. & chow & you had to be a contortionist to find a decent place to park your carcass. Chow wasn't any too good. The hold was next to hell. I had five days of K.P. & it was murder.

5/24/45 Thurs.

Docked at Batangas, P.I. in anchorage. Hit the shore in "Ducks". Flips greeted us with joy. I caught a blister-rash which caused me a lot of agony. Made friends with Jon, Mary & Eusabio. Invited to a chicken dinner. It was good. The first three days we slept in pup tents - with centipedes crawling over our stomachs. Then we changed to pyramidals. The first thing I noticed was that most of the kids had jungle ulcers all over their legs. Then we moved to the Guadalupe ruins on the outskirts of Manila. It was another hill-camp almost like Guadalcanal.

6/4/45 to 7/16/45

Stayed in camp most of the time, saw quite o bit of movies. That lasted about 5 to 6 weeks. Then Ronnie introduced me to Lydia and you couldn't find me in camp. Her brother taught me basic tango and rhumba. Rec'd my radio in good condition. It came 7-7-45 or thereabouts. Also about this time, I rec'd the photo album from Pugs, filled it with pictures I had on hand.

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas

The message from Big Bend Regional Medical Center was stark: The only hospital in a sparsely populated region of far West Texas notified local physicians last month that because of a nursing shortage its labor and delivery unit needed to temporarily close its doors and that women in labor should instead be sent to the next closest hospital — an hour’s drive away.

That is, unless the baby’s arrival appears imminent, and the hospital’s unit is shut down at that point. In that case, a woman would deliver in the emergency room, said Dr. Jim Luecke, who has practiced 30-plus years in the area.

But that can be a tough call, he added. Luecke described his concerns for two patients, both nearing their due date, who had previously given birth, boosting the chance of a faster delivery. “They can go from 4 centimeters dilated to completely dilated within a few minutes,” said the family physician, who estimates he’s delivered 3,000 babies.

Some pregnant women already travel an hour and a half or longer to reach the 25-bed Big Bend Regional in Alpine, said Dr. Adrian Billings, another family physician who delivers babies there. “Now to divert these ambulances at least another 60 miles away, it’s asking for more deliveries to happen en route to the hospital, and potentially poor maternal or neonatal outcomes.”

Luecke can’t recall a time when the obstetrics unit at Big Bend Regional has closed.

But it’s happening in other parts of the state: Ten rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the past five years or so, leaving 65 out of 157 that still do, according to the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.

Hiring and retaining rural nurses has become even more challenging amid the pandemic as nurses have been recruited to work in urban covid-19 hot spots and sometimes don’t return to their communities, said John Henderson, chief executive officer at TORCH. More recently, some Texas hospitals have offered signing bonuses of $10,000 or more as they jockey for nurses, he said. “Covid has caused a resetting of market rates and a reshuffling of nurse staffing.”

The circumstances at Big Bend Regional, which serves a 12,000-square-mile area (about the size of Maryland), illustrates the ripple effects of potentially losing obstetric services across a broader region. The hospital, owned by Quorum Health Corp., serves a swath that extends southwest to the Mexican border and includes Big Bend National Park as well as the communities of Presidio and Candelaria. The nearest hospital, the 25-bed Pecos County Memorial in Fort Stockton, is 68 miles northeast of Alpine.

As of late July, Big Bend Regional’s obstetrics services remained in flux, with the unit closed for four- and five-day stretches, said Billings. Physicians have been told that the unit would typically remain open only Monday morning through Thursday morning of each week until more nurses arrive, he said.

The staffing crisis highlights the need for more state and national efforts to train rural nurses and other clinicians, Billings added. “The big concern that I have is that, if we don’t fix this, this could be the beginning of a rural maternity care desert out here in the Big Bend.”

The hospital, which delivered 136 babies last year, said it is “working feverishly to ensure adequate staffing levels in the coming weeks,” recruiting to fill 10 nursing positions in the labor and delivery unit, according to a statement to KHN. “When our hospital is on diversion for elective OB patients, we communicate in advance with nearby emergency transport services and acute care providers to ensure continuity of care,” the statement said.

Kelly Jones of Alpine, who worried she was having contractions, couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone for a few hours at Big Bend’s unit in mid-July. She decided to drop off her son at a friend’s house and head to the hospital.

Jones, who is nearly full term, knew the unit had been closed a few days earlier that month but didn’t realize that closures were still occurring. “I went in and said, ‘I think I’m in labor.’ They were like, ‘Well, you can’t go into labor and delivery because they’re closed. So we’re going to take you to the ER.’” In the end, medical personnel determined she wasn’t going to deliver that day and she went home.

Since the hospital first alerted doctors last month, the unit has been on diversion July 5-9, July 14-18 and then again July 22 until Sunday, July 25, according to Billings. Efforts were being made to recruit nurses from Odessa, 150 miles away, to fill in, but the outcome was uncertain, Billings said.

Luecke scheduled an induction for one patient for July 26, when her pregnancy would be at 39 weeks — a week short of full term — and the unit was scheduled to be open. “We are trying to induce them [women] on the days that they [the hospital’s unit] are open,” he said.

Jones, who is being cared for by another physician, is scheduled for induction Aug. 2, at 39 weeks. “For a while, I was not sleeping. I was really stressed. I was panicking about every scenario,” said the 30-year-old, whose pregnancy was initially considered high risk because her son had been born prematurely.

But Jones felt better once her induction date was set. And what if the baby arrives sooner and the unit is closed? She’s been told to go to the ER, to be taken from there by ambulance to the local airport and flown to Fort Stockton.

Malynda Richardson, director of emergency medical services for the town of Presidio, which sits along the Mexican border about 90 miles from Alpine, said its first responders transport more than two dozen women with pregnancy-related issues each year, most of them in labor, including an average of two who deliver en route. First responders, including paramedics, are not typically trained to assess a woman’s cervix for dilation, making it more difficult to gauge imminent delivery, she said.

Also, when responders drive an additional two to three hours round trip to reach Fort Stockton, that affects the Presidio community, which can reliably staff only one ambulance, Richardson said. “What happens when we do have that transport [of a woman in labor] and have to go to Fort Stockton and then we have somebody else down here having a heart attack and we don’t have an ambulance available?”

Rural obstetrics units require far more nurses than doctors to remain open, so diverting women elsewhere in the short term makes sense, said Dr. Tony Ogburn, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. “If you don’t have trained nurses there, it doesn’t matter if you have a physician that can do a C-section or do a delivery; you can’t take care of those patients safely,” he said.

Registered nurses who work in labor and delivery have completed specialized training, such as how to read a fetal heart monitor, so a nurse from the ER or another hospital unit can’t easily step in, Billings said. “It’s kind of like having a small football team or a small soccer team and not being able to pull from the bench,” he said.

Billings said he’s reached out to Dr. Michael Galloway, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Odessa and has been helping coordinate efforts to recruit nurses from that city. But even if Odessa nurses agree to pick up some shifts at Big Bend Regional, they are likely a stopgap solution, said Billings, who questions how long they’d be willing to work so far away from home.

Luecke believes Big Bend Regional administrators are doing everything they can to improve nurse staffing. But, like Billings, he’s worried that these July temporary closures could become longer-term.

“We are hoping August will be a different situation,” Luecke said. “But it’s pretty iffy right now.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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stephenmccull · 4 years ago

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12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas

Luecke can’t recall a time when the obstetrics unit at Big Bend Regional has closed.

“We are hoping August will be a different situation,” Luecke said. “But it’s pretty iffy right now.”

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hellahartwin · 8 years ago

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So I decided to make up a list of dates in the KM timeline for people who may want or need them, bc I have yet to see some place where everything is together in one post. There are some other facts scattered throughout.

Harry Hart’s First Mission: July 29th, 1981 (End) - This is the Sun article that Harry says came morning after his first mission. The date is visibly labeled as Thursday, July 30th, 1981.

Lee Unwin’s Death: December 02, 1997; December 19th, 1997 - While the date on Lee’s medal--infamously printed, incorrectly, in the American order--states ‘12.19.97′ which could be assumed to be Lee’s death date, James Spencer’s agent screen gives his admission as December the 2nd of that same year. Either we consider those screens incorrect (consistency on dates is not exactly the strength of this series), or it took Harry time to argue reparations for Lee’s family, fail, and set up something of his own.

Eggsy Unwin’s Birthday: September 06, 1991 (Virgo); June 03, 1992 (Gemini); September 26 (Libra) - There are a lot of contradictory accounts on this front so take your pick. You’ll note I didn’t put the birth year on the last one. This is bc it’s just...so ridiculous lol. It’s listed as 1985, making Eggsy almost thirty in the first movie which just. No. I’m sorry that makes no sense haha.

Roxy Morton’s Birthday: September 22, 1992 (Virgo, Virgo-Libra Cusp); January 12 (Capricorn) - The reason for the lack of birth year on the last one is the same as for Eggsy, the source listing her as almost thirty in TSS and no. There’s nothing wrong with thirty but...they weren’t thirty lol.

Other Candidate Birthdays: December 21, 1991 (Charlie Hesketh) (See below the cut); October 01, 1992 (Hugo Higgins); May 11, 1992 (Rufus Saville); July 14, 1991 (Digby Barker) - All from here. It should be noted that the screens listing Eggsy, Roxy and the Boys birthdays all place them around 22 which is a little strange so the years are probably open for adjustment?

Agent Birthdays: January 12, 1975 (Gawain); November 14, 1969 (Lamorak); June 17, 1972 (Geraint, TGC); October 19, 1940 (Gambon!Arthur); - For more information on these agents and where they are seated, you can see this link which also has the stills that these numbers came from.

Agent Recruitment: April 03, 2001 (Gawain); May 10, 1995 (Lamorak); December 02, 1960 (Gambon!Arthur) - Not listed is TGC!Geraint bc it's a bit of plothole that will take some headcanons or straight up ignoring of what’s listed. Also interesting is that Gawain was recruited within the seventeen years that Chester said they had gone without an agent death meaning Gawain’s predecessor must have retired instead of perishing in the field. Same link as for the above ‘Agent Birthdays’ but here it is regardless for further details on this.

Eggsy Voluntarily Discharged from Marines: June 10 (Year Unclear; possibly 2008 or 2011) - The year on this one is listed as 2008, but given the wildly incorrect dating on Eggsy and Roxy’s admission to Kingsman on the same screens, this could be a year chosen in relation to that. Given his age according to TSS, 2008 doesn’t seem at all feasible. Eggsy would have been anywhere from 15 to 17 if that were the case, and that’s when he was discharged. Not even when admitted. As they are listed as joining the table in 2012 on the inconsistent screens, this would be a four year gap between those years. Basing it on their actual admission in 2015 (or arguably 2014; see ‘End of Film’) would make an solid alternative year 2011 (2010).

James Spencer’s (Lancelot) Death: 2014 - Stated on the screen behind Merlin. This incident was in a remote location in Argentina.

Eggsy Placed Under Arrest: February 21, 2014 - The date listed on Eggsy’s arrest record from bts. Interesting other facts from this: the station is listed as ‘Holborn’ (I’ve seen lots of fic writers use this) and the officer we see Eggsy talking to is likely Sergeant N. Moore. As stated and linked above, James Spencer’s death was in 2014 which backs up the year.

End of TSS: Days Following June 16-21 (Year Unclear; likely 2015) - During the altercation between Harry and Valentine in the tailor shop, Valentine mentions that the suit he’s being fitted for is for the Royal Ascot. Later, on the plane with Gazelle, he’s wearing this suit and the bugged hat while checking off members of the Royal Family. This heavily implies that he has just left the Ascot. He says that ‘tomorrow’ they’re testing at Southglade Mission Church. With this in mind, we know that the ending occurred in June. (The Royal Ascot is always in June.) It could be June 2014, but this seems unlikely due to a few factors. Most importantly, this would make it a mere four months after Eggsy’s arrest. Eggsy doesn’t even get JB until he’s been into training for a bit and the dog is fully grown by the final test. Daisy as well is shown to have aged considerably. It seems far more likely that the dog test and the fallout that leads to Harry’s “death”/V-Day occur in June 2015. Specifically, somewhere between or after June 16-20, 2015. The earliest frame would be June 16-18th, 2015 (with Valentine attending the first day of races (16th), leaving, doing the test at Southglade the following day (17th), alerting his followers later that night that V-Day will happen in 6 hours--as we see on Chester King’s phone after Eggsy kills him--, and the climax occurring before the dawn of the next day (18th)). The latest would be June 20-22nd, 2015 (with Valentine attending to the end of the races (20th) and etc (21st & 22nd)). But should you prefer to see the dates for the 2014 Ascot, here is a link.

General Time of TGC: Around June 22-26, 2016 (or, if the 2014 Ascot detailed above is preferred, around June 24-28, 2015) - A card over the flashback to Statesmen’s rescue of Harry tells us that the ending events of TSS occurred one year previous. We also see Eggsy attending the Glastonbury Festival which gives us the round about date. (See here for the 2015 alternative dates.)

This is all the information I could wrangle together. I may add to it as necessary. If there’s something I left out, please let me know!

Added Points

(Check below the cut!)

Charlie Hesketh’s Birthday: December 21, 1991; December 21, 1989 (Sagittarius, Sagittarius-Capricorn Cusp) - As stated above, Charlie’s birthday is set at December 21, 1991 in TSS. However, Eggsy’s feed reads Charlie as 26 in TGC which would mean his birth year would be closer to 1989 if we maintain that TGC takes place in June of 2016.

James Spencer’s Birthday: May 28, 1975 (Leo) - Stated on the screens shown during the Kingsman toast following his death. This would make him 38 when he was cut down, a few months out from turning 39.

James Spencer’s Admission: December 02, 1997 - From the agent screens stated above, making him 22 upon becoming Lancelot.

Two Known Valentine Tests before the Events of the Film: 2012 & 2013 - Stated by Merlin and on the screens behind him. The first surge in 2012 happened in Uganda and the surge in 2013 happened in Chechnya.

Harry Hart’s Birthday: early July 1957 to late July 1960 - This one requires a bit more estimation. We have to work under the assumption that Harry was, at the very least, 18 years of age when he was recruited. Even this, however, is a little tight as he would have needed to have spent some time in the Army beforehand. Being 19 at the time of his recruitment is a better soft cap. On the other end, I think we can say with relative confidence that during TGC, he was not quite 60 yet. Also, we have to bear in mind that while Harry’s first mission was in 1981, we’ve seen that training can take at least a year. If not more. For simplicity’s sake though, when estimating his age at the time of that first mission, I will simply be adding a year to the soft recruitment cap of 19. So on the table below, remember that it is working under the assumption that the bolded number was Harry’s age during his first mission, but his recruitment age is assumed to be a year below. Something to keep in mind if you want to lengthen or shorten how long you headcanon his training took. I personally love Harry being very young or even one of the youngest recruits in Kingsman history so I usually go for Colin’s birth year. Bc I mean. Imagine someone handing super bb!Harry a gun. As far as actual birth date goes, I have found that settling on a zodiac sign can help. I’m a Scorpio!Harry girl myself. Birthday Range vs First Mission Age for Reference:

late July 1960 - early July 1961: 20 (TGC, around 55; turning 56 soon)

late July 1959 - early July 1960: 21 (TGC, around 56; turning 57 soon)

late July 1958 - early July 1959: 22 (TGC, around 57; turning 58 soon)

late July 1957 - early July 1958: 23 (TGC, around 58; turning 59 soon)

late July 1956 - early July 1957: 24 (TGC, around 59; turning 60 soon)

#meta #reference #timeline #kingsman #kingsman 2 #text post

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auskultu · 8 years ago

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The Case of a Runaway Flower Child

J. Anthony Lukas,��The New York Times, 19 October 1967

Last Friday Pamela Rae Koeppel painted a blue flower on her right cheek. The next day the 14-year-old schoolgirl left home. Last night she was found in a hotel on the edge of Greenwich Village.

After two policemen had staked out her room there, Pamela called her parents and said, “You found my hideout. You’ll get my friend in trouble. I’m coming right home.”

Pamela's four-day sojourn in and around Greenwich Village illustrates the growing problem created by thousands of young runaways, particularly girls, who are flooding the Village area to live as hippies.

Yesterday, several hours before she was found, Pamela’s father, Adolph, called The New York Times in hopes that publicity would not only help find her, but also warn other parents of the difficulties in finding runaway girls.

Interviewed as he paced the white marble corridors of Federal Court in Brooklyn, where he had just finished summing up in a complicated condemnation case, he said: “I’ve got a twitch in my eye, a belt in my stomach, a jury out with my case and a daughter somewhere over there in that jungle.”

Mr. Koeppel and his wife, Rhoda, who live in a 560,000 ranch house in Lake Success, a Long Island suburban community, had reason to believe that Pamela was in Greenwich Village living as a “flower child."

"I asked her about that flower on her cheek when she got into the car for me to drive her to school Friday,” said Mr, Koeppel, who practices law in Mineola, “She said, ‘Oh, daddy, I’m a flower child.’ Where else do these flower children go around here but Greenwich Village?”

Mr. Koeppel also had discovered that his daughter was secretly seeing a youth known as “Chichi,” who lived on West 14th Street and frequented the Village. "I thought she might be with him,” he said yesterday, Four days after Pamela left home, the combined efforts of Mr. Koeppel, his family and friends, the Nassau County Juvenile Aid Bureau and the New York Police Department had failed to trace her.

“We heard from Pamela twice by telephone on Sunday, but nothing after that,” Mr. Koeppel said between nervous puffs on his fourth cigarette since lunch. “I had visions of her lying dead somewhere like that Linda what’s-her-name.”

Linda Fitzpatrick, an 18-year-old girl from Greenwich, Conn., was found murdered on a boiler-room floor in the East Village on Oct. 8. Dead beside her was her 21-year-old hippie friend, James L. (Groovy) Hutchinson.

Since Linda’s death, the Police Department’s Missing Persons Bureau and police stations in Greenwich Village have been deluged with calls from worried parents trying to trace their children.

The police said yesterday that for the first time in the city’s history runaway girls were outnumbering runaway boys, and officials say this trend is apparently accelerating.

Pamela Koeppel’s case may be representative from another point of view. Her parents say she was a "disturbed child” who had been seeing a psychiatrist once a week for almost a year.

Some social workers and psychologists who have studied the hippie movement believe that many hippies have emotional or psychological problems and use the hippie scene as camouflage.

Until a few months ago Mr. and Mrs. Koeppel thought they had Pamela’s problems well under control. Her. psychiatrist apparently thought so, too—she let Pamela take the summer off from her therapy sessions.

“As far as we could tell she went through the summer very well,” Mr. Koeppel said. "She found some new girl friends—I guess there must have been seven or eight in and out of the house during the summer on Long Island—swimming, drive-in movies, dates at the malt shop.’

But Mr. Koeppel said the family, which includes a “very happy and normal” 18-year-old daughter who is a college freshman in New York, began to notice a return of Pamela’s troubles as school approached this fall.

“There were too many highs, too many lows, and at times she was getting to be really low,” he recalls.

In mid-September she started seeing the psychiatrist again, and after a couple of visits, the psychiatrist recommended that she see Pamela twice a week instead of once.

“Naturally we were deeply concerned,” said Mrs. Koeppel, who was interviewed later. “We asked the psychiatrist whether there was any identifiable illness. She said no, but that Pamela was disturbed and needed increased attention. At one point the psychiatrist even suggested a brief hospitalization for a series of tests.”

Meanwhile Pamela was becoming more argumentative at home. "She began telling us that we were watching her too closely, that we weren’t giving her enough freedom.”

At the same time Pamela began showing interest in the hippies and the flower children. She started wearing what her father calls "hippie clothes” and expressed admiration for the “new scene.”

Only after her flight from! home did the family discover just how deep that admiration was. This week they picked up a pile of her compositions for an English class at Great Neck south Junior High School. One of them read in part:

“What is a flower child? A flower child is a young person belonging to a new generation which is very idealistic and thoughtful. They believe in love, beauty, peace, understanding, freedom, sharing and helping each other. Flower children are trying to change the world with these ideas.

“They love to express themselves by wearing rings, beads and flowers. Flowers are beautiful because they are part of nature. Flowers are lovely, beautiful, peaceful and don’t do anybody any harm but be beautiful. The flower child is the same way.”

C-Plus on Flower Essay She got a C-plus on the com position, with no comment from the teacher.

The family had several long discussions with Pamela about her attitude. "We tried to point out to her that the flower children and the hippies are not creative persons, not really doing anything useful,” Mrs. Koeppel said.

"Sometimes I felt we were getting through to her,” the mother said, “but I guess we never really did. As hard as we tried, I guess we never really knew Pamela.”

Several times in the last few weeks Pamela told her father she was going to run away.

“What would you do?” she would ask. He replied. “I’d send the police after you.” “Think they could find me?" she would say. "Certainly,” he answered. "Want to bet?” she would say with a little smile.

On Thursday night father and daughter held the last of their discussions.

The following morning Pamla painted the flower on her cheek and went to school. On Saturday morning, Mr. Koeppel wanted her to go shopping with her mother, but the girl said he planned to meet some friends in Great Neck.

“It was the same old double-talk she’d been giving us when he went to meet Chichi,” he said. “I don’t know why we fell for it. We probably should have put her under lock and key.”

Instead, he drove her into own in the family Cadillac they also own a Rambler). At 11 A.M., Pamela got out of the car.

Her long, lustrous brown hair rose a little in the breeze as she said good-by to her father and promised to call him at about 7 P.M., so he could pick her jp for dinner.

From then on her movements were unclear. The father later learned that she railed a friend on the South shore that night and asked whether she could stay at his place overnight. He was not enthusiastic, but about 2 A.M. she apparently arrived by train to the South Shore town, got somebody to drive her to the friend’s house and demanded a bed. She got one.

At precisely the same time—with her phone call now, seven hours overdue—her father called the Great Neck police and formally reported her missing.

The Juvenile Aid Bureau of the Nassau County police said yesterday it got the notification four hours later, at 6 A.M., but apparently the full search did not begin until the following day.

Early Sunday morning, however, Mr. Koeppel called a former law partner who happened to live in Greenwich Village and together with two other friends, they scoured the Village and the East Village by car and on foot, covering Tompkins Square and Avenues A and B.

At 11:30 A.M. Mr. Koeppel called home and discovered that Pamela had called a half hour before. She told Mrs. Koeppel “the mother is making me make this call,” apparently a reference to the mother in whose home she had spent the night. After a 10-minute conversation—in which she said only that she was all right and 'was not coming home—Pamela hung up.

The call was traced to Oceanside, a town on Long Island’s South Shore.

‘Pulled the Troops Out’ “We immediately pulled our troops out of the Village, and all Sunday afternoon we searched the South Shore, again with no success,” Mr. Koeppel recalled. But he did not know then just how close he had come.

For at 7:30 P.M., Pamela called home again and talked with her father for half an hour. She told him she had been in a restaurant in Long Beach, adjacent to Oceanside, that afternoon at 4 P.M. when she saw him enter. “She said she ducked into the ladies room and stayed there until I left,” he said. “I felt like a fool.”

The evening conversation, as the father described it yesterday afternoon, was “a kind of bargaining session” during which Pamela demanded that her parents agree to give her more freedom before she would return home and her father hinted at certain concessions but refused to commit himself.

At one point the father thought he was making some progress. “Look, honey,” he said. “Come home. I’m sure we can work all this out.” Pamela said she would think about it. She promised to call by midnight to let her father know if she was returning home that right or Monday. She never railed.

However, Mr. Koeppel had the phone call traced 10 Long Beach, so Jack Fitzgerald, a detective from the Juvenile Aid Bureau, and an associate spent Monday and Tuesday in the Long Beach area 'checking hotels.

But Detective Fitzgerald und nothing, and yesterday and his associate carried their search again to Greenwich Village.

Meanwhile Mr. Koeppel continued his search. On Tuesday afternoon he, his wife and a couple of friends drove to the Sixth Precinct police station, where they picked up several detectives for a tour of the West Village.

“The cops were so bored by the whole thing,” Mr. Koeppel said, “and when I got out to Washington Square, I realized why. There were more than a thousand people out there, all those crowds coming out of N.Y.U., and I realized we were facing a massive search.”

Later in the evening Mr. Koeppel and a friend made a more intensive two-hour search through the East Village on their own, checking such well-known hippie hangouts as The Cave, the Psychedelicatessen and the Something, on Avenue A, and the Dom on St. Mark’s Place.

“It was then I realized just how hopeless a search it was,” he recalled yesterday.

However, yesterday the Koeppel’s luck changed. In midafternoon. the mother found a scrap of paper with Chichi's name and a number on it. She alerted Detective Fitzgerald, who passed the information on to the Sixth Precinct.

The number was traced to the Alton Hotel at 64 Seventh Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets. Detective John Stratford and Detective Sgt. Alfred J. LaPerch went to the hotel at 4 P.M. yesterday. They found that a Pamela Jones, who answered Pamela’s description, was registered there.

The detectives waited until 6 P.M., but Pamela did not show up. So they left, leaving word with the desk clerk that if she came in, he should call the Sixth Precinct. Shortly after they left, Pamela came in. Apparently convinced that her flight was now useless, she called her mother and said she would be coming home. Pamela took the Long Island Rail Road home alone, arriving t at the Koeppel residence shortly after 9 P.M.

Last night Mr. Koeppel said: “Naturally we're glad we’ve got our girl home. But it was really just blind luck that we found her. If she’d been really down in the heart of hippieland, it would have been goodbye.”

#hippies #counterculture #new york #runaways #teenagers #greenwich village #1967 #1960s #sixties #60s

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ishiireviewer · 8 years ago

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RATING: 5 Stars.

REVIEW:

God, what a beautiful book! I absolutely loved it. So so so much. It drove me close to tears at one point.

I want everyone to read this book. It’s not like other LGBT books out there because this one focuses on the person instead of the couple.

It had such a flowy quality. So easy to read through in just one sitting.

And I just loved this book so much and I don’t have any words for it.

ANNOTATIONS:-

1. I really love them. I send a steady, visible stream of it—love—from me to them. From my chest to their chests. From my brain to their brains. It’s a game I play. It’s a good game because I can’t lose

2. But it feels good to love a thing and not expect anything back. It feels good to not get an argument or any pushiness or any rumors or any bullshit. It’s love without strings. It’s ideal

3. Ms. Steck reminds me of the arrow—one of Zeno’s arguments. The idea is that an arrow shot at a target has to move through time, but since time is made of tiny moments, the arrow, in each tiny moment, is at rest and not moving. “That’s like saying that if I take a picture of Clay”—I point to Clay, who is wearing his Kurt Vonnegut asterisk T-shirt today—“while he’s running hurdles and I freeze that moment in time… that he never really moved during the race.” Ms. Steck says, “Yes. That’s a little like what Zeno was trying to say

4. Hippocrates. Father of Western medicine. He said this: “There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance

5. She said, “This will be a time of asking questions and not rushing to answer them. A time of poking holes in your own theories. A time of thinking and not knowing

6. Like—moving. He said it was impossible to move because time stands still inside each little split second

7. She sighs and rolls onto her back. “So what’s the big deal about some philosopher who said motion was impossible? Philosophers said all sorts of crazy shit. Wasn’t that their job?” “Their job was to find truth.” “And did they?” I look at Dee and I think that Zeno was totally right, even though that’s not what he meant: For people, motion is sometimes impossible. For Dee. For my mom and Ellis. For nearly everyone. (I wanna understand this)

8. think if we kept a calendar of who gets called gay in high school, there would be a new person on every single day of the 180-day school year. Gay, dyke, fag, lesbo, homo, whatever. Every single one of us has heard it somewhere along the ride. It’s more common than the flu. More contagious, too. Nobody gossips about whether you have the flu or not

9. (Her mum is hating on ignorant people and she believes that she herself isn’t one. We think we know, but we don’t. Not really. What is knowing, though? It’s all thinking anyway, isn’t it? Idk)

10. She leans in to kiss me good-bye, and when she does, I wish I lived on the right planet where kissing Dee Roberts wasn’t a big freaking deal. Where it didn’t mean I have to affix a label to my forehead so people can take turns trying to figure out what caused it or what’s wrong with me. And I wish I didn’t have to lie so much (Yeesss)

11. When Dee kisses me, the taste of her is enough to make me die right here on the spot. I don’t care if some mountain biker zooms through on the path. I don’t care about anything. Not Zeno or Socrates. Not motion or truth. When Dee kisses me, I am alive. I am moving. I am the truth

12. I’ll go,” I say, seemingly out of control of my own mouth. Why did I just say that? I think I can do Thursday,” Ellis says. “Great,” Mom answers. “We’ll go Thursday.” She doesn’t look at me when she says this. Her hand is still on Ellis’s arm. This was like a private conversation they had. My offer to go along stayed in another dimension (Awwwww. Poor baby I love Astrid)

13. We start our unit on the Allegory of the Cave. It’s a part in Plato’s Republic where he wrote a dialogue between his brother Glaucon and his teacher, Socrates. The short version: People chained in a cave are only able to see a wall. The wall has shadows cast from a fire they can’t see. They guess at what the shadows are. Their entire reality becomes these shadows. Clay has read it before. Of course. Knows all about the Allegory of the Cave. “The only life these prisoners know is the sounds and shadows of the cave. Imagine living like that!” he says. “Or maybe we are living like that, right?” Ms. Steck stops him before he can spoil the rest. Apparently there is more excitement to come for the prisoners in the cave. For now, all we have to worry about is a three-hundred-word essay from the point of view of one of these prisoners exploring the realm of belief versus the realm of knowledge (Man) (I wanna read philosophy!!!)

14. “No,” I say, trying to be gutsy, too. “I’m also going to say that if you—if you think you love me, then shouldn’t you treat me like you love me and respect me? And be patient with me?” I realize that I’m saying this not just to Dee but also to my mother. And Kristina. And Ellis. And Jeff. And maybe even myself. (Awwww baby. I wanna hug you)

15. “I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know.” I watch a plane zoom across the sky, and envy the power and control of it. I simultaneously realize that without a pilot, it would crash. “I need to be my own pilot,” I say. “And I don’t understand why my copilot is saying stuff like shit or get off the pot. It just doesn’t seem like a good team

16. I sigh deeply and lie back down to look at the sky. No airplanes. No passengers to ask. So I ask the clouds. Did you guys know there’s a wrong side and a right side? Why didn’t you tell me? The clouds don’t answer. “So when you said shit or get off the pot, you didn’t mean for me to make up my mind,” I say. “You meant for me to just come out, be gay, and be done with it.” “Well, yeah. I don’t see what the holdup is.” “You wouldn’t understand,” I say. “Obviously, this was a piece of cake for you.” “Are you saying you might not be gay? That this is all just some kind of joke or something?” “It’s not a joke.” “So what is it, then?” “It’s a question. And I’m answering it. But I don’t know the answer yet, and I’m sorry

17. Isn’t it enough to be in love with Dee’s amazing eyes and the smell of her hair? Isn’t it enough that she thinks I’m funny? That we have fun when we mess around at work? Why does everything come with a strict definition? Who made all these boxes? (And then the marriage proposal couple. How cool. The boxes being jewish stuff. I love how the questions she asks has a response from up above)

18. “I don’t know. Isn’t that what you learn in humanities?” I think about what Frank S. would say. But I say nothing (Is that because socrates says nothing? Awesome)

19. Maybe it’s okay that people talk you into things. Maybe if they didn’t, you’d never go anywhere (Yus)

20. I feel an intense paranoia that if I use their toilet paper, they will be even more pissed off with me than they already seem to be (I wanna help her. Why is she so insecure? I feel protective towards her)

21. I hear my dad’s voice: You have to let people get to know you before you decide they don’t like you (Yyaaasss)

22. What does the airport look like at four o’clock in the morning? Did they even have coffee brewing? Was there toilet paper in the stalls? And why don’t I feel ashamed right now? Is that a sign? (Because its not your fault. Passenger’s story about her friend and her and two boys who took advantage. She finally feels okay about it. That’s because she finally accepted that what happened wasn’t her fault. Which is the same in case of astrid and cops busting gay bar)

23. All we can see is the wall Mom wants us to see. On it she’s drawn the people we know in shadow. For me, she’s drawn you and Dad and the residents of Unity Valley. For you, she’s drawn me and Dad and the residents of Unity Valley. Based on Mom’s shadows, I see a sister who will always be better than me. A sister who will always win because I am a loser. She has cast this same shadow for Dad. We are the losers in the Jones family illusion, and you and Mom are the winners ME: Now imagine we were set free from this illusion. Our chains removed, our heads able to turn and look at each other. What would I look like to you? And what would you look like to me? And what would Dad look like to us? Would we still rely on the shadows, or would we see the real people? ELLIS: You’re starting to worry me, Astrid. ME: That’s because you’re still chained ME: I guess not, too. ELLIS: But if I change the way I think, Mom will stop loving me. ME: How do you know? ELLIS: I know because that’s what she did to you (Aw)

24. They say: Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear? But no one actually talks to us. (Wow. Yes. They hear it from others but never from us. And they believe what others say.)

25. You’re completely wrong, you know. You’re completely full of shit.” “That’s not what we heard.” They say that in unison, like the creepy girls in The Shining. They say: That’s not what we heard. (Because you didn’t. Not really)

26. She asks, “What do you think Plato meant to say when he talked about the freed people returning to the cave? Did he think they couldn’t handle the outside world? Did he feel they needed to be controlled? What does that compare to in our society? Do we have places like the cave?” She glances at me when she asks this, but she doesn’t call on me, and I send love to her for it. Ms. Steck, I know you sat in that faculty room and heard every stupid rumor. I love you because this discussion is exactly what I needed. I will not be like Kristina and go back into the cave

27. I replace the word gays from her sentence with these other words: blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, women, people of mixed race, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, Russians, Poles, Yugoslavians, Ukrainians, mentally and physically disabled

28. Frank Socrates, and he says, in my head, Settle for nothing less than the truth. Even if the answer is I don’t know

29. When I see the first plane, I make a deal with its passengers. I say: Look, this is a loan. I don’t know if love is something I will run out of one day. I don’t know if I should be giving it all to you guys or not. Today, I feel like maybe I should have kept some for myself for days when no one else loves me. Not even my best friend (Awww boo)

30. And then I send the love up. It’s as easy as it always is, and it’s hard, too, because I really don’t know the answer to this mystery. Is love something that will always be available? Will it always be confined and untrustworthy like it feels today? Is there enough to go around? Am I wasting mine on strangers? (Awww. No baby. That’s what makes you a wonderful person.)

31. (God this book is so fucking beautiful. Drove me to tears. After the above, a guy in plane feels bad about not feeling loved and then he receives Astrid’s and he feels happy. And astrid thinks it’s a waste which is proved wrong by this dude. How fucking beautiful.)

32. While I’m brushing my teeth, I think about how our sisterhood deteriorated. I blame Mom. Of course. But as I look at myself in the mirror, I see some other stuff. My snubbing her when she decided to be a small-town girl. Me deciding she didn’t need me anymore when she got old enough to stop watching The Wizard of Oz. Me not inviting her when Dad and I would make stuff together. Me deciding that Mom would always like her more… and having it reflect on her instead of just on Mom. So maybe I helped it happen. Maybe we’d be closer. If I told her the truth, she’d probably accept me eventually, and we could just be sisters again

33. As he walks away, I think about what he said about Justin in the locker room, and I think about Ellis and her gross towel thing this morning, and I figure out what confuses people so much about other people being gay. They think it’s all about sex (Yyyeeesss. As if that’s the only element about their personality.)

34. NO wins, twelve votes to ten. Ms. Steck doesn’t say anything. She just leaves the results on the board above the ugly homophobic signs, and all I can think of is what she called us: Unity Valley’s best and brightest. And we’re three votes short of equality. (Best and brightest being a paradox. And 3 votes short which makes her paradox “equality is obvious” ring true)

35. I think about what she said to me last night. How I had nothing to lose and how she had everything to lose. I count eight people at her table. I count zero at mine (Does this mean in a revengey manner?or was she just justifying kris’ statement?)

36. First, to define equality. Then to define obvious. I mean, I can even try to define is if I want, because equality isn’t really working in the present tense, is it? Because equality isn’t really obvious to most people. And I don’t mean to say the world is filled with racists or sexists or homophobes. I mean to say: Everybody’s always looking for the person they’re better than. In fourth grade, it’s the second graders. In ninth grade, it’s the eighth graders. Adults look at teenagers like we’re the stupidest creatures on the planet, when really we’re just lining up to take their jobs in T-minus five years. I am equal to a baby and to a hundred-year-old lady. I am equal to an airline pilot and a car mechanic. I am equal to you. You are equal to me. It’s that universal. Except that it’s not

37. I feel myself getting pissed off, so I take a minute to try to figure out how to say what I want to say. Frank S. lights Dad’s pipe. I have no idea how he knew where to find it, but I guess if I made him up in my head, he must know everything I know. I feel relaxed by association

38. Still, it’s none of your business until I’m ready to tell you. Calling it a lie is wrong. And kinda hurtful. I really know what you’re trying to say, but try to think about it from my side. It just sucks that you’d hold my own confusion—which tortured me for months—against me. Seriously.” (I agree)

39. Why? I’m right! All those people who are chained here thinking that their reputations matter and that this little shit matters are so freaking shortsighted. Dude, what matters is if you’re happy. What matters is your future. What matters is that we get out of here in one piece. What matters is finding the truth of our own lives, not caring about what other people think is the truth of us! (Yyyaaasss)

40. I take a second to think about him—Frank Socrates—and I decide he’s my new hero. Not because he shows up in my life and talks to me when I want him to, but because of who he was and what he stood for. I just love how he rejected all the boxes

41. The world is made of so many types of different people, and we have to learn that though they might be scary at first, they are not inherently bad because they are different.” He starts this way and goes on to talk about his days in school as a mixed-race Latino and how hard it was for him growing up. He got beat up a lot. Teased every day. I start to feel resentful. You mean to tell me that it’s 2011 and this guy gets paid to have remedial talks with high school students about how they shouldn’t hate other people? Isn’t this elementary? Shouldn’t it be automatic? What kind of species are we if we have to have people come talk to us about this crap? And how, if we’re that stupid, did we get to the moon and help build a space station? He tells a story about how his mother was from Cuba and how she hated Puerto Ricans. He says, “No matter how many times I tried to explain to her how stupid this was, she never changed. It was just ingrained in her. “Some of you have it ingrained in you. You weren’t born with it. You were taught. No baby has hate for anything.” He produces a baby (a real baby) and bounces the kid on his hip. “We were all babies once, right? This little guy doesn’t care what country you were born in or what religion you might practice or how much you weigh or who you might love

42. I just went to my twenty-fifth class reunion, guys. Let me tell you—people change. The girls who passed around rumors about all the weird kids? Are nice and have their own weird kids. The so-called losers who graduated at the bottom of the class? Are driving luxury cars and running big businesses. The kid who made fun of all the gay kids? Is gay. I’m not saying this will happen to all of you, but what I’m trying to tell you is that high school doesn’t end here. You guys will know each other for a long time, and you will get to see how life changes people. I only hope that for right now, you remember that there is no place for hate in a happy life. I don’t care who you are, where you come from or what God you believe in. I can guarantee you that if you hate, you will never achieve true happiness

43. “I don’t know why this is so important for me to tell you, but I’m a virgin. Seriously weird for me to be telling you that, I know, but this whole thing, it’s not about sex. I just fell in love, and it happened to be with a girl.” “O-kay,” he says. “When I told you I didn’t know if I was gay, I was telling you the truth. I just know I’m in love—with a girl. I had no idea of anything past that. It’s very Socrates, you know? I’m not questioning my sexuality as much as I’m questioning the strict definitions and boxes of all sexualities and why we care so much about other people’s intimate business.

44. And if any of you has a problem with any of it, then it’s your problem. Being gay is hard enough without having to worry about your family being weird about it.”

45. How can we say nobody’s perfect if there is no perfect to compare to? Perfection implies that there really is a right and wrong way to be.(but that keeps changing, no?) And what type of perfection is the best type? Moral perfection? Aesthetic? Physiological? Mental

46. By the end of the day, I’m exhausted. Frank S. must have been one hearty guy to argue on the streets of Athens all day the way he did. Our humanities class enjoys a bunch of snacks and a Socrates Project party in the humanities room, where we all debate one another’s paradoxes and are reminded by Ms. Steck to question everything and continue to challenge others with our open minds long after we remove our togas

47. I listen to the air. I don’t hear a thing. Not one thing. They say: They say:

48. The nice thing about the passengers is they can’t say anything back. I can’t see any faces full of disappointment. I can’t hear them saying bad things about me. I can’t hear them call me the politically correct term for Indian giver… on Thanksgiving Day. Anyway, it’s not like I want my love back. I’m just slowing down business. They can have a little. I can say, “I love you!” when I see a plane. I probably always will. But they can’t have all my love. I have too many uses for it now

49. Okay. I sent them my love because I didn’t need it here,” I say. “Mom never loved me, and Dad was too busy doing other stuff, and you didn’t love me because Mom had turned you against me, and then when Dee came along, I knew I couldn’t love her even though I love her more than anything. But I knew I wouldn’t be allowed. Not by Mom, not by Unity Valley. Not by you. Not by anyone

50. will notice, you know, when you find some cute guy and marry him and have a bunch of kids, that you might not be gay and sleeping with your lesbian sister. If they believe lies, then that’s their problem, not yours (True)

51. And then I look out the window and down at the green-and-brown landscape, and I toss my love to whoever might be there to keep it safe. Maybe if you catch this love, you can keep it safe? I ask them. Maybe someone down there knows what to do with it while I go and get brainwashed by people who hate me? Dee says, “What?” I try to think of what just happened, but I can’t explain it. All I know is that a huge, overwhelming feeling of love has just landed in my heart, and I have to keep it safe for a while. “Nothing,” I say. “Don’t worry about it I’m left with this feeling, though. A lucky feeling. I squeeze Dee’s hand and kiss her on the cheek. I can do that now. I can do whatever I want. I look at the plane, and I send my love. Don’t worry. I’ll keep it safe. Stay strong

52. (I thought the ending would be her sitting on a plane and receiving the love of someone else but this is way better. And so much better)

0 notes

dinafbrownil · 5 years ago

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Must-Reads of the Week From Lauren Olsen

Hiya! I’m Lauren Olsen, your new Newsletter Editor. That’s right — the totally official, no more fill-ins, always-here-for-you Newsletter Editor. As the replacement for editor extraordinaire Brianna Labuskes, I’m here to tackle all your health news needs.

Why yes, you’re right — a pandemic is a heck of a time to take over this job. I’d argue, however, that it’s the best time, because who doesn’t need a hand sorting out all this craziness? So far, 2020 has been like trying to paint the “Mona Lisa” while riding a unicycle in a rainstorm — in other words, a sloppy mess teetering on disaster — but, with any luck, when it’s done we might all manage to smile.

In the meantime, I won’t Louvre you in the lurch. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Be sure to read each day’s top health news headlines in KHN’s Morning Briefing, compiled by yours truly. Please subscribe, if you haven’t already — and tell your colleagues and friends, too. Have a comment about the Briefing or the Breeze? Send me an email at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.

A Gift for You, My New Friend

Because we’ve just met, I’d like to offer you a token of friendship: Today’s Breeze will do its best to have a positive spin. Things are dreary enough in the world right now — you don’t need me to blow more gray clouds your way. In the words of Helen Keller, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

What’s Donald Up To?

Today, let’s play a game called “What’s Donald Up To?” You won’t win any points or money. What you will win is the knowledge that there are 180 days until Inauguration Day! (I suppose your real prize will be if “your guy” wins, whether it’s President Donald Trump, Joe Biden or Kanye West.)

So what is Donald up to? He began his busy week of tweeting, mask-wearing and name-calling with a feisty interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday. In it, he lamented increased COVID testing (“I’m glad we do it, but it really skews the numbers”), called Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s infectious diseases superstar, an “alarmist,” boasted about the sagging U.S. economy (“I built the greatest economy in history, I’m now doing it again”), reasserted his opinion that the virus will “disappear” and downplayed the potentially devastating physical effects of COVID-19 by saying some people just have the “sniffles.” When asked about the nearly 1,000 deaths a day in the U.S., Trump said it “is what it is.” On the positive side? Well, the interview was only about an hour.

The critiques rolled in, and for most of the week we saw a kinder, gentler version of Trump. Maybe it was because he was happy he supposedly aced the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a test that detects early signs of dementia. Or maybe it was because he’d passed “multiple” COVID tests a day, according to his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. (“I don’t know of any time I’ve taken two in one day,” he clarified a few hours later.) Or perhaps he was simply feeling generous, providing $5 billion for struggling nursing homes, resuming COVID task force briefings, renewing the national public health emergency and even (gasp!) tweeting a pic of himself wearing a mask. But I think the real reason may have been because two White House cafeterias closed this week after a staffer tested positive for the coronavirus — providing another excuse for him to keep eating McDonald’s. (Just a theory.)

Even so, Trump’s good mood subsided by the end of the week, probably because he had to cancel the GOP convention in Jacksonville, Florida, amid the state’s rising COVID cases. (Not to mention that the Duval County sheriff did warn him about not being able to provide security.)

Wondering what Biden, Trump’s probable Democratic rival in November, was up to? Well, this week he released his massive “caregiving plan” for Americans — $775 billion over 10 years. (That certainly would buy a lot of Care Bears.)

California and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

California, the most populous state, on Wednesday surpassed New York as the worst-hit state for cases (tallying 413,576 as of that day). The increase of 12,112 was the biggest single-day increase since the pandemic started. At the national level, there have been 4 million cases — it took only 15 days to jump from 3 million to 4 million — and the death toll stands at 144,000. Unfortunately, the rise in cases is outpacing the rise in testing, with The New York Times explaining: “About 21,000 cases were reported per day in early June, when the positive test rate was 4.8 percent. As testing expanded, the positive test rate should have fallen. … Instead, the positive test rate has nearly doubled.”

The number of COVID cases is likely 10 times higher than what we thought, experts now say. On Saturday, the FDA approved the use of pooled testing, essentially allowing the testing of many more people using fewer tests. But the White House, not to be outdone, announced it would push to phase out funding for testing from the COVID-relief bill in Congress. (More on that in a minute.)

In the “oops” category, 113 people in Rhode Island, about 90 in Connecticut, 26 in Kentucky and dozens in New York were told they had COVID-19 when in fact they had tested negative. (Does that qualify as positive news? I’m not sure, but I’m happy those folks are fine.) Conversely, in The Villages, Florida, one of America’s biggest retirement communities known for its golf and rockin’ house parties, is seeing a spike in positive cases, jumping from the single digits last month to at least 29 last week.

Scientists delved into the big question this week: Can you get reinfected with COVID? And the absolute, no-doubt-about-it answer was: Um, not sure. But it’s unlikely, they say. Scientists did determine that mosquitoes most likely don’t spread COVID, and they’re testing whether UV light, which can kill many nasty germs, can kill this virus, too. As a bonus, the CDC now says that if you do get sick, you should isolate for 10 days, not 14. (But severely ill patients should isolate for 20 days.)

So Much for Vacation

Congress returned from a two-week summer recess Monday to begin work on the fifth COVID-relief bill of the year, and it played out like a real-life version of Chevy Chase’s “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” starring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as Clark Griswold, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the Ferrari-driving Christie Brinkley and Trump as the security guard at Walley World who basically ends their fun. (My goodness, can’t you just envision it?)

Republicans had a $1 trillion agenda that included funds for schools and COVID testing, a payroll tax cut, direct checks for individuals and $600-a-week stipends for laid-off workers. Senate Republicans seemed near a deal with the White House on Wednesday as the Griswold family station wagon chugged along. But the car crashed Thursday when the two groups failed to reach an agreement on the unemployment issue. (Mind you, the Democrats haven’t even gotten involved yet.) Republicans vowed to have a new deal next week. As all this was going on, smooth-driving Pelosi left tire tracks all over Trump while speaking on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Tuesday, calling the coronavirus the “Trump virus.”

Let’s Make a Deal: Which Vaccine Is Behind Door No. 1?

Am I the only person who can’t keep track of all the vaccines and treatments in play? Chinese group Sinopharm said it will have a vaccine ready for the public before the end of the year. (Woohoo!) British pharmaceutical firm Synairgen announced a breakthrough nebulizer treatment that reduces the severity of COVID-19, and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine AZD1222 showed promising results in human trials, too. Meanwhile, behind Door No. 2, the Russians are insisting they didn’t try to steal British coronavirus vaccine research.

Back in the good ol’ U.S. of A., five pharmaceutical giants testified to Congress on Tuesday that they wouldn’t cut corners when developing a vaccine. And Wednesday, as if on cue, Pfizer and German firm BioNTech made an unusual $1.95 billion deal to supply 100 million doses of a not-yet-finished vaccine to the federal government, which plans on giving it to Americans at no cost. (Not to nitpick, but there are 330 million people in America. I’m not great a math, but still …)

Meanwhile, behind Door No. 3, the Department of Justice indicted two Chinese nationals this week on charges that they hacked and stole research from companies working on COVID vaccines in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Spain, Australia and other nations.

The REALLY Important Questions

Sure, all of that stuff has big implications. But here in the real world, we’re worried about simpler stuff. For example, when can I watch NFL football? (Not for a while.) Has baseball started? (Yes!) Can I travel to the Bahamas (no), Niagara Falls (yes) or New York (maybe)? If I live in California and need a haircut, where can I get one? (Outdoors.) Should I buy my teen some condoms? (It’s up to you, but more adolescents are improvising with plastic wrap — shudder.) Does it hurt to get shot with a less-lethal projectile? (Um, HECK YES.) Should I wear a mask in Atlanta, at a Marriott hotel or when buying jeans at the Gap? (Yes.) How about at the bank? (Yes, as long as you promise not to rob the joint.)

That about wraps it up for me. Hope you enjoyed my inaugural Breeze. Keep smiling! Until next week,

— Lauren

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/friday-breeze-health-care-policy-must-reads-of-the-week-from-lauren-olsen-july-24-2020/

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blogwonderwebsites · 7 years ago

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Business Reliable Sources: Kavanaugh gives unprecedented interview to Fox’s Martha MacCallum

Business Reliable Sources: Kavanaugh gives unprecedented interview to Fox’s Martha MacCallum Business Reliable Sources: Kavanaugh gives unprecedented interview to Fox’s Martha MacCallum http://www.nature-business.com/business-reliable-sources-kavanaugh-gives-unprecedented-interview-to-foxs-martha-maccallum/

Business

Business A version of this article first appeared in the Reliable Sources newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

Business Kavanaugh speaks

If you thought this was unprecedented, you were right: “It is unheard of for a Supreme Court nominee to give interviews during the confirmation process.”

That’s according to WaPo’s recap of Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh’s emotional interview with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum.

From the standpoint of the Trump White House, going with MacCallum made a ton of sense: MacCallum is a well-credentialed female anchor who hails from the news side of Fox, not the opinion side.

I’d love to know Bill Shine’s level of involvement in the interview. It aired in full at 7 p.m. ET, but I noticed that Fox shared several clips from the interview in time for the network evening newscasts…

Business Behind the scenes…

Via CNN’s Kevin Liptak: “One WH official says Trump has been pushing to take a more offensive approach in defending the nomination and that this was how aides interpreted his command. It’s not clear that he specifically instructed Kavanaugh to sit down with Fox (though it’s possible) but it was the result of his desire to be assertive in combatting the claims rather than just playing defense…”

Business “Not a good look for the Supreme Court…”

Law prof/CNN contributor Steve Vladeck texts me: “The interview is a microcosm of everything that’s been wrong with this confirmation process. We shouldn’t prevent nominees from speaking publicly, but to do so under these circumstances, in that context, and in a manner calculated to exacerbate the partisan divide over the nomination, is not a good look for the Supreme Court in the long term, even if it helps the political calculus for the nominee in the short term. It reinforces the view that nothing in this process matters at all except getting 50 votes by any means necessary…”

>> Another view, via CNN contrib Matt Lewis on Twitter: “People are more likely to rally to your defense if they see you’re fighting, instead of being passive.” So the TV interview was wise for Kavanaugh. “He hasn’t controlled the narrative for a week, now…”

Business Latest developments

— WaPo’s Erik Wemple tweeted: “I would have liked to see Martha MacCallum press Kavanaugh on his relationship with Mark Judge. In all, though, I thought she did a good job — and certainly didn’t serve up only softballs, as many predicted.”

— Brian Fallon, one of the left’s leading anti-Kavanaugh organizers, tweeted that “MacCallum is pressing Kavanaugh more than I would have guessed…”

— Perhaps the most memorable Q&A was about Kavanaugh’s virginity… He said he didn’t have “anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter…” Of course, intercourse isn’t at issue here…

— The TIME’S UP initiative just came out and said “the time has come” for Kavanaugh to withdraw…

— Earlier in the day, Mitch McConnell said “Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor…”

— A WaPo reporter found Mark Judge “holed up in the house of a longtime friend in Bethany Beach, nearly three hours” from DC…

— Trump’s best/worst typo ever? At 10:37 p.m. ET, he tweeted that the Dems are pushing “False Acquisitions.” He meant “false accusations.” He deleted and reposted the tweet…

Business Debating the New Yorker’s decision

Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer spent much of Monday explaining and defending their reporting about Deborah Ramirez. Charles C.W. Cooke, channeling many conservatives’ reactions to the story, said it “looks reckless beyond all reason.” Drudge’s Monday evening headline asked, “RONAN MISFIRES?”

Beyond the partisan battling, many journalists raised questions about the lack of corroboration of Ramirez’s account, and the fact that it took time for Ramirez to assess her own memories. Some suggested that their news outlets would not have published the story. Mayer rejected that — and pointed out that she “found a classmate who heard the identical story at the time.” Farrow said on “New Day” that “this is a fairly high level of evidence for this kind of a case.” And David Remnick noted that the pair “wrote with fairness and transparency about what doubts there might be.”

Other arguments in the mag’s favor: Ramirez agreed to go on the record. And Democratic senators were aware of the allegation and were already looking into it. So the debate continues…

>> The NYT said that it “had conducted numerous interviews but was unable to corroborate” Ramirez’s story. Some folks tried to turn this into the NYT v. TNY. But the paper dismissed that, noting that it “did not rebut her account and, unlike The New Yorker, was not able to obtain an interview with Ms. Ramirez…”

>> BTW: Given Farrow’s very public dispute with NBC News, Monday’s TV rollout made sense: Mayer was on NBC and MSNBC’s morning shows while Farrow was on ABC and CNN. Mayer also did CBS…

>> Correction: Yesterday I said that this was Farrow and Mayer’s second co-production. It was actually their third story together…

Business “The weaponization of haste”

Megan Thomas emails: This is a really good one from The Atlantic’s Megan Garber on “#WhyIDidn’tReport and the weaponization of haste.” This line stands out: “The game clock, the time bombs, the midterms, the calendar, the fleeting moment, the lifetime appointment, the mechanical tickings of political partisanship…”

Business All eyes on Rod Rosenstein

I was on a plane half the day, blissfully free of WiFi, so when I landed and loaded Twitter, I was super confused. There were tweets about Rod Rosenstein resigning, not resigning, thinking of leaving his job, staying in his job, etc. The tweets were out of order, of course, because of Twitter’s terrible algorithmic timeline. News apps were a much better way of finding out what really happened. By the end of the day, the NYT and CNN had excellent tick-tocks…

Business Thursday, Thursday, Thursday

Trump is set to meet with Rosenstein on the very same day that Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are set to testify.

>> Jim Acosta on “AC360” Monday night: “It’s almost going to be like watching tennis, looking up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

>> NYT’s James Poniewozik had the tweet of the day: “Thursday would be a good day for CNN to launch CNN8, ‘The Ocho.’”

Business “Anyone’s guess”

Maggie Haberman on “AC360:” “What will happen on Thursday is anyone’s guess. People I’ve spoken to around the president are not certain what will happen. They’re not certain whether Rosenstein will really walk in and say ‘I’m resigning…”’

Business FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

— Ed O’Keefe called this a “metaphoric moment at the White House today.” While he was live on CBSN, “discussing a false alarm shakeup at the Justice Department, they tested the alert system on the White House grounds. It was only a test. All of it…” (Twitter)

— ��Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram, have resigned and plan to leave the company in coming weeks,” Mike Isaac scoops… (NYT)

— A must-read: Robert Silverman on the “culture of online hate” promoted byBarstool Sports… (Beast)

Business SiriusXM is Pandora’s savior

They’re billing the combo as “the world’s largest audio entertainment company.” SiriusXM is paying $3.5 billion in an all-stock deal for Pandora that had been foreshadowed for a while. As Chris Isidore reports here, “Pandora’s ability to stay an independent company was very much in doubt. SiriusXM had already invested $480 million to buy 19% of Pandora’s stock last year, and it was widely reported to be looking at a full purchase…”

— Peter Kafka tweeted: “Giant satellite audio company buying giant internet audio company could be an antitrust problem, but this one seems to pass what economists call the Trump/Murdoch test…”

Business Telegdy and Cheeks promoted at NBC

“Two veteran NBC executives — George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy — were named co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment on Monday, replacing Bob Greenblatt at a time of upheaval in network television,” the LAT’s Meg James writes.

It was reported on Friday that Greenblatt was ready to step down, and was going to talk with Steve Burke about it over the weekend. “But if his departure is not a surprise, the suddenness is. His last day is Monday, the same day the 2018-19 television season begins,” the NYT’s John Koblin writes.

Greenblatt said something similar in interviews with both Timeses: These jobs are challenging and tiring, and he’s ready to try something new…

>> Other factors noted by Koblin: “Greenblatt wanted to see if Comcast’s last-minute bid for 21st Century Fox’s properties would work and could possibly expand NBC’s portfolio. (It did not.) And two of Mr. Greenblatt’s close friends — the producer Craig Zadan and the Broadway star Marin Mazzie — have died in the last five weeks…”

Business Lowry’s take

Brian Lowry emails: Telegdy’s promotion at NBC Entertainment reflects a slightly wider lens in terms of the path to top entertainment jobs at the broadcast networks. Telegdy comes out of the reality/alternative area, just as CBS Entertainment prez Kelly Kahl rose through the ranks in scheduling. Both are paired with a veteran development executive, in Telegdy’s case, Cheeks…

Business NBC gets a huge Tiger bump

Frank Pallotta emails: Tiger Woods’ first victory in five years came with a huge ratings boost for NBC. The network’s coverage of the Tour Championship on Sunday earned a 5.2 overnight rating, a 206% spike over last year’s tournament. 206%! The telecast peaked at a 7.1 rating as Woods finished his round, ending his long victory drought. As a golf fan, I’m happy to see Tiger back but likely not as happy as NBC execs…

>> USA Today’s Dan Wolken: “Tiger Woods’ first win in five years feels like a new beginning, not the end…”

Business FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

— Ryan Broderick’s latest: “Reddit’s largest pro-Trump subreddit appears to have been targeted by Russian propaganda for years…” (BF)

— “Sky shareholders are having a great day. Comcast investors? Not so much.” Here’s Hadas Gold’s full story… (CNN)

— “James Lipton is leaving the Actors Studio.” The program’s new home on cable, Ovation, says “a rotating roster of hosts still to be determined will replace Lipton,” effective next fall… (EW)

Business ABC touting its nightly news win

Nightly news #’s for the full 2017-18 broadcast TV season will officially come out on Tuesday… ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” will be celebrating its second yearly win in the total viewer category… “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” remains #1 in the 25-54 demo (22 seasons in a row!), but ABC has been making gains in the demo too…

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The big picture: Some of the 6:30 viewership gains of the past few years have dissipated. CBS has lost both total viewership and demo audience in the past year. NBC is basically flat in total viewership and down a bit in the demo. ABC is up year-over-year in both measurements…

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 25, 2018: 12:12 AM ET