Luckily, I have all sorts of tricks for this sort of schedule, one of which is the mid-afternoon veggie roast: Cut up some vegetables, drizzle with oil and seasonings, roast in the oven or turbo broiler for 45 minutes. It doesn’t take long to put together, and it doesn’t need to be attended to while in the over, allowing me to continue working.
While tasty, it doesn’t look pretty close up. It’s layogenic (pronounced “LIE-o-jennic”), a Filipino/English hybrid term that was BBC’s “Word of the Day” back in January. It means “attractive from a distance, but not close up,” — the “layo” part comes from the Filipino word for “far” or “distance”.
Here’s the story: I was assembling a set of shelves for our front hallway, and I was having trouble driving in its screws with the allen key provided. So I duct-taped the allen key to a screwdriver, which provided the necessary torque to finish the job.
Among the organizations to accept a loan from the government-run, taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program (a.k.a. the PPP) is none other than the Ayn Rand Institute. These loans have an ultra-low interest rate of 1% and mature over either 2 years (if issued before June 5, 2020) or 5 years (if issued after June 5, 2020).
Of course, the Ayn Rand Institute wouldn’t have done this without coming up with some kind of excuse, no matter how weak. Here it is:
“It would be a terrible injustice for pro-capitalists to step aside and leave the funds to those indifferent or actively hostile to capitalism,” Ayn Rand Institute board member Harry Binswanger argued in May, stating that the organization would “take any relief money offered us.”
Recommended viewing: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace – Episode 1: Love and Power
I’ve joked that Ayn Rand’s novels were popular with people who majored in business and computer science — the former because she appeals to their greed, the latter because she appeals to their revenge fantasies.
Blogger John Rogers on Ayn Rand’s writing: “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
With most fireworks displayed canceled due to the pandemic, there will be more than the usual number of people lighting their own fireworks. If this is your plan, this safety announcement is for you!
Hand sanitizer and fireworks don’t mix
The pandemic complicates everything, including fireworks. In this case, it’s because COVID-19 means that we’re using more hand sanitizer than ever.
Hand sanitizer is at least 60% alcohol, which catches fire rather easily. Make sure your hands are dry before lighting fireworks, sparklers, and matches or lighters.
Alcohol (as in booze, not rubbing alcohol) and fireworks also don’t mix well
It’s generally a bad idea to microwave paper, including money…
…but it’s even worse to microwave library books, as they have RFID tags, which are made of a thin layer of metal. Microwaves heat up thin layers of metal really quickly, bringing them up to the temperature that will ignite paper:
The library quarantines returned books for 72 hours before loaning them out again, which is believed to be enough time for contaminated surfaces to become safe:
Remember, viruses aren’t made of living cells. From a certain point of view, they’re just chemicals — DNA, protein, and fat — but they’re chemicals that have a knack for replicating themselves by rewriting the DNA of cells that they infiltrate:
So yes, keep borrowing books and other materials from the library. Wash your hands after using them. But don’t microwave them!
I have a number of readers from outside North America who’ve asked me the meaning of two American English expressions: stan and spilling tea.
“Stan” means “hyper-obsessed fan.” It comes from Eninem’s number, Stan (the video is above) — the one where Eminem raps over Dido’s Thank You in the voice of a creepy, increasingly-unhinged fan who’s obsessed with him. Stan was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary last year.
Juneteenth — the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States — dates back to this day in 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.
For those of you who were reading closely, June 19, 1865 is a full two and half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on New Year’s Day in 1863, and a couple of months after the end of the Civil War in the U.S. and Lincoln’s assassination. Juneteenth marks the official end of slavery.
The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new employer to employee relationship, many left before these offers were completely off the lips of their former ‘masters’ – attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom. Even with nowhere to go, many felt that leaving the plantation would be their first grasp of freedom. North was a logical destination and for many it represented true freedom, while the desire to reach family members in neighboring states drove some into Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Settling into these new areas as free men and women brought on new realities and the challenges of establishing a heretofore non-existent status for black people in America. Recounting the memories of that great day in June of 1865 and its festivities would serve as motivation as well as a release from the growing pressures encountered in their new territories. The celebration of June 19th was coined “Juneteenth” and grew with more participation from descendants. The Juneteenth celebration was a time for reassuring each other, for praying and for gathering remaining family members. Juneteenth continued to be highly revered in Texas decades later, with many former slaves and descendants making an annual pilgrimage back to Galveston on this date.
For the next five weeks, I’m teaching an online Python class from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. That means that on those days, I eat dinner a little earlier, which in turn means that I’ve got to have it prepped earlier.
