Favorites from gentlyepigrams
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Tell us something good: a free thread
WaPo gift link: A campus sign said ‘Tell us something good.’ Students delivered.
Free thread for this week. Do you have a small something good to share?
"The blast radius of this terrible decision is virtually limitless."
Legal battle looms (AP, NYT) after Trumpov freezes federal grant funding (Reuters, WaPo). Originally reported by Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket), Steve Vladeck offers an explainer (One First) on the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and related constitutional issues. The freeze has already been challenged in a lawsuit (Reuters).
Music while working
I enjoy listening to mostly wordless music while I work from home at my desk job -- what are your recommendations?
The MeFite as noisemaker... it's your weekly free thread
What sort of noises do you make? Do you make music like Alice Coltrane? Are you a cross-linguistic onomatopoiea fan? Or are optical sound effects more your thing? Ever enter a yodeling contest, like they have at the Iowa State Fair? Or is the groan more your thing, as with groaning boards, groaning ghosts, or plain groaners?
Perhaps your noises are more fundamental? There's more to life than noise, though. How are you doing? What's happening this week in your life?
Ruff love
Tired of seeing paintings of countless puffed-up toffs rendered in oils for posterity, German visual artist Volker Hermes breathes life into the boring old routine with his updates on Old Masters paintings. His Hidden Portraits use digital technology and collage to refocus our gaze on symbols of self-representation and social status embedded in such paintings.
Intersex Interviews
Video interview with Roshaante Anderson. 14 minutes long. Content warnings for frank discussion of genitals, sex, and transphobia/intersexphobia.
Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Roshaante was born with a vagina and internal testicles. He did not find out he was intersex until he was 11 years old.
Best quirky London museums?
What are your favourite obscure and quirky London museums for someone who likes history but has been to all the major sites?
Assistance and medical transport services in Houston
I'm looking for services to help a friend get to doctor's appointments Houston. He is a fall risk and needs help getting from inside of his house into a vehicle and into a medical facility. He doesn't have a local support system and I live in another state. I am not in a position to talk to his insurance or health care providers so I am trying to find something private pay.
Cancel event in Google Calendar/Jotform
Our group uses google calendar with jotform to submit a new event.
Is it possible to cancel an event?
Businesses to Boycott?
What businesses do you avoid because they have values you disagree with? Please give your rationale in your answer. This question is inspired by reaction to Trumpov. But please give answers from anywhere in the world, for various values.
Engaging sci-fi, fantasy, romance, etc. book recommendations
I am looking for engaging sci-fi, fantasy, romance (especially if combined with one of the others), or similar books that are generally positive in tone/ending. Some bad things can happen, but I want to feel much more happy than sad or mad once I'm finished. Some example authors are T. Kingfisher, Ilona Andrews, Malka Ann Older, and Martha Wells.
(More) engaging sci-fi, fantasy, romance, etc. book recommendations
I got a lot of great answers to my previous question, but I've read a lot of the recommendations there now, and I'd like some more!
Tell me everything I need to know about hiring a car in the UK
I’m British, but I’ve never hired a car before. I might need to do it for the first time, at a time of fair personal stress when I don’t have much extra bandwidth for learning new processes. I’ve read the RAC guide to car hire but I don’t know what else I don’t know.
What would you do in Edinburgh and Glasgow?
My partner and I will be in Edinburgh and Glasgow in late October and I'm looking for recommendations for things to do, see, eat, drink.
Fantasy books with great world building?
I’m looking for more rich worlds, especially books written in the last 5 years.
How to better navigate the 'new classical' genre?
Nils Frahm is to Piano, as ______ is to strings*
Alternatives to Wordpress
Given the shitty behavior of Matt, I want to move my blog off of wordpress.com.
“You know what they say—strict parents raise sneaky kids.”
Helicopter parenting often doesn’t end when a child graduates from high school. Today’s parents have more tools than ever at their disposal to stay involved (or overinvolved) in their children’s lives and keep track of their whereabouts, habits, and activities, from tracking services like Life360 to Facebook groups specifically for parents of college students. If college is historically meant to be a time of self-exploration, complete with bad decisions and murky mistakes, an increasing number of parents seem to be attempting to curtail that growth. from Helicopter U. [Slate]
A critical hit: Dungeons and Dragons as a buff for autistic people
While research and anecdotal reports suggests that autistic people may be particularly drawn to the hobby due to its structure and inclusivity (Fein, 2015), understanding how TTRPGs could
function as social support was of specific interest.
As such, this study aimed to investigate how autistic individuals experience TTRPGs in groups of all autistic players. In what way do TTRPG games function as a safe space for autistic people where they can interact comfortably and expand their social lives?
Need gothic images site
I'd like a website source for mostly traditionally flavored gothic art that I can use. Not AI art.
This story has it all
Judge Orders Part of African Art Collection Discovered in Houston Shed Sold to Settle Debt
Mysterious smuggled art, evil landlord, embezzlement of civic funds,and bankruptcy.
Best way to do Maya Riviera in five days
What's the best approach for a dad and daughter to spend five days in Maya Riviera in late August?
London for the not-so-mobile
My mom and I are going to London in September. Mom's mobility is limited. She can walk 1/4 mile (400 meters) or so then has to pause or sit for a few moments. She will not use a mobility aid of any kind. Given this, can you help me understand accessibility at the following sites: Tower of London, British Museum, and Buckingham Palace (specifically the tour that includes the state rooms). I'd also appreciate any other notes you have about visiting London for someone with limited walking ability.
The greatest sneakers that ever existed..... just out of my grasp.
I'm looking to buy another pair of the most beautiful perfect shoes that ever existed. Help me find them somewhere out there! They're sneakers by Camper, in a navy blue sparkley color with dark blue soles.
seeking *organic* ultra dark (95%+) non-fruity chocolate
similar to lindt's 95%. more below, peeps:
Where do you buy blu-rays online these days?
I would like to buy blu-rays from places that aren't large companies like Amazon, Target, etc. (I'm in the US.) I buy them in person sometimes from Scarecrow Video in Seattle, but don't get over there too often. What small companies/stores are you buying blu-rays from online?
Is there a way to download videos from Facebook?
Is there a way to download videos from Facebook?
Just the facts, ma'am/man
There are a variety of "low-carbon" or "bandwidth-friendly" variants of news sites out there that load headlines with little styling and no images, such as CBC Lite, and much, much more.
It's 2024. How do I transcode my DVDs to my hard disk
I have a bunch of movies on DVD. I would like to have these movies in a more modern format, so I can travel with them, for example, without toting around a DVD player. What's the best way to do this on an Apple Silicon Macintosh?
Remixed Classical-ish Music
I’ve been enjoying Max Richter’s Recomposed Vivaldi and Lara Downes’ Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined. Both of these recordings take music that I have listened to my whole life and present it in new and surprising ways, and I am looking for more like this. Your recommendations are much appreciated!
Theme park summer wear - help me not melt
I am shortly going to be spending many days at a very hot and humid theme park with my tween (who is feeling better). How am I going to survive the heat? Is linen or a tech fabric better? Sleeveless or protect more from the sun? Lightweight sneakers for support or Tevas?
Looking for suggestions for materials and specific clothing items. I don’t generally do dresses or skirts, especially since I’ll be riding lots of rides.
American sporting hero regains her crown (of cheese)
CBS Chicago: Abby Lampe, winner of the 2022 Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling women's race, returned this year to regain her crown/cheese [Instagram]. Though absent in 2023 (won by Canadian competitor Delaney Irving, despite finishing unconscious and only learning of her victory in the medical enclosure), Abby won this year by the strategy of "...to go into the race and hurl myself down the hill and continue rolling." NYT: The race involves no sign-up form or waivers. GloucesterLive: The highest injury toll ever recorded was in 1997 when 33 contestants had to be treated. (there have actually been no fatalities or decapitations in recent times) Some footage and interviews, and pictures. Previously: 2018, 2013, 2010, 2009, 2003.
When things break
As art, as practical application, as metaphor, the delicate and profound craft of beautifully repairing beloved items resonates both aesthetically and emotionally. In a different sort of celebration and honoring of the broken thing, artist Helena Hafemann captures the moment of its would-be demise and spins it into a moment of beauty.
Must see TV, except for fine art
In your opinion, what are the things most worth seeing at the musee d'orsay and the Louvre? What made an impression on you? What took your breath away?
When I say 'worth seeing' I don't mean 'see it so I can say I saw it, did you know the Mona Lisa is there???'
I'm looking for 'this took my breath away'.
I am a woman who needs A Plan.
Can you help me make one?
Thinly disguised neurosis within.
My hosts were nice people. They showed us extraordinary hospitality
Kate Wagner (a cycling journalist best known for her blog McMansion Hell) takes a trip to the Austin Grand Prix for Road and Track magazine as a guest of INEOS F1 team. A subeditor chose the pull quote “If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race. The kind of money I saw will haunt me forever.”. Shortly after, an editor chose to pull the article entirely.
Chili Filter: how to reduce the tomato-y taste
Made some chili using almost identical ingredients to previous batch that tasted much better, but this more recent time I did use 1 extra can of crushed tomatoes. It's certainly edible, but it is very tomato forward. Wondering what can be added now, post-cooking, to chill out that tomato taste.
Identify this woodwind quintet
In the late 1990s, my woodwind quintet played a piece that began with a unison melody similar to this: https://trinket.io/music/1f5e3682c8 Can you identify the composer or title? I don't think it was a newer composition, and it may have been published in a book of quintets.
If you're good at organizing, organize me!
My house is always too cluttered for my own taste. Most of it is not even decorative clutter, but just things we leave around because they don't have a home or need to be used soon and should not be forgotten about. It's really affecting my mental health, though. Can you help me find a better system?
Botticelli does Dante
An early graphic novel.
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (1445–1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He is perhaps best known (now) for creating one of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Birth of Venus", but strangely, it was some of his long-lost unfinished drawings that struck the imagination of the Pre-Raphaelites of Victorian England who championed him and revived his reputation.
T-shirt Me
I am looking for a very specific style of t-shirt, from your neck of the woods...but keeping it real.
To think of fanzines is to think of our younger, stumblebum selves
Zines, at their most glorious, are indifferent to dignity, reckless in the statements they reel off, determined to make a virtue of their limited resources. Back in 1978, the editors of a book called Copyart likened the photocopier to a “magical machine,” something that produced the “unplanned” and “unexpected.” All the magic in Copy Machine Manifestos is from another time, another country. from Copy Machine Manifestos
Films similiar to The Thin Man series with Powell and Loy?
Hi all, I am a huge admirer of The Thin Man series with William Powell and Mryna Loy and I love detective films and tv shows as well. I am wondering are there any similar films or series that are kind of like The Thin Man? They both had wonderful chemistry on screen as well.
How did you fix all the things you didn't like about yourself?
I'm going through a lot, and one of the things that my therapist has encouraged me to do is write down all the things I notice about myself that I don't like. I'm amassing quite the list! But one therapy session a week isn't a great way to address all of them, and I'm sure some of you have dealt with similar so… any hints?
ideas for modern day calling cards
Just for fun: I'm thinking of having a few cards printed up distinct from my business card, mostly just name and number and I suppose email though perhaps email is as antiquated as calling cards. Things jut to hand to someone I meet and want to keep up with or make music with or what you will. Wondering what would be an amusing bit of text that would feel in character with a calling card. Ideas?
Dublin & Edinburgh for 10 days?
I'm thinking of going from the East Coast to Dublin then Edinburgh from mid- to late October. Would 10 days be enough for both cities? I've never been to either. I could go as long as 12 days.
What to do in San Diego?
My parents and I are going to San Diego for a week in mid-November. What should we definitely not miss while we're there?
What's your favorite 5-ingredient (or less!) go-to winter recipe?
Bonus if it freezes well.
Bonus if it re-heats well.
Bonus if it doesn't include olives.
Soup or main meal, doesn't matter.
An automated Mac-centric way to create "photo-booth-strips" from images
Super-basic Photo Booth: I have a camera on a tripod with an intervalometer, so that when a button is pressed on the intervalometer, a certain number (ex: 4) of photos are taken, each a couple of seconds apart. What I would like, is a painless way to automate the creation of "photo strips" from these photos on my Mac.
Seeking more weirdo’s hoards of treasures
My absolute favorite genre of museum/attraction is ”eccentric rich person’s oddly sorted collection of items related to their special interest(s).” I just spent part of today at the Mercer Museum and had an amazing time. What other museums, historic homes, or other attractions anywhere in the world might scratch a similar itch?