Do I have to draw you a diagram?

****

Just read an interesting tweet from Jason Stanley@jasonintrator who IDs himself as a philosophy professor at Kale University. I learned this week that an expression to avoid in describing the current situation in the US is “white Christian nationalism.” The right wing media flips out about that phrase like no other. If there is one thing we are not facing, it must be white Christian nationalism.

I imagine “christofascism” is also frowned upon.

****

usufruct (n.) “right to the use and profits of the property of another without damaging it,” 1610s (implied in usufructuary), from Late Latin usufructus, in full usus et fructus “use and enjoyment,” from Latin usus “a use” (see use (n.)) + fructus “enjoyment,” also “fruit” (from PIE root *bhrug- “to enjoy,” with derivatives referring to agricultural products). Attested earlier in delatinized form usufruit (late 15c.).”

****

In May 2021, around the time of rising new awareness of violence against Asian Americans, a survey of almost 3,000 American adults found 42% of Americans were not able to name a famous Asian American. After the popular answer of “don’t know”, 11% of respondents named Jackie Chan, who is from Hong Kong, and 9% named Bruce Lee, who died 40 years earlier. No mention of the vice president.

****

Writing about Juneteenth recently, I came across this Wikipedia reference: “In 2018, Apple added Juneteenth to its calendars in iOS under official US holidays.^[59] In 2020, several American corporations and educational institutions, including Twitter, the National Football League, Nike, announced that they would treat Juneteenth as a company holiday, providing a paid day off to their workers,^[60] and Google Calendar added Juneteenth to its US Holidays calendar.^[61]“

We even turn to Big Tech to tell us what our holidays are.

****

Whaddya do when a dear friend’s wife looks like Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Another friend and author looks like Roger Stone, but no Nixon tat as far as I know.

****

Porn strikes me as something I missed out on, whereas I imagine many others see it as a sort of retrospective.

****

When I was spending a lot of time walking in Boston, before the pandemic, I started a post tiled “Boxing in the New World.” I began that “on my recent walks from work, I look in very large windows and observe two things about the new economy: more women learning to box and more workers standing at their desks—they won’t take it sitting down, I guess.”

Then I thought someone would say I was creepy.

****

AARP says you live half of your life over age 50 now. Not me I assume.

****

Please don’t balance the ledger … I appreciate all.

****

Back to Sons of Pitches … the latest pitcher got me immediately with:

“Happy Monday! I wanted to quickly share …”

They are still mostly pathetic sales pitches … but perhaps a bit riskier like these?

Hundreds of Couples Saved by Shibari Academy

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — This year’s quarantine has pushed many couples to the limit. Sharing the same space 24-7 has transformed cute quirks into annoying ticks and the bedroom into a dreadful place. Physical closeness does not equal emotional connection. Shibari Academy proposes a novel approach to breaching the communication chasm between couples by means of practicing the art of Shibari.