martinimade

• The Biltmore is one of my favorite places. This exhibit sweetens the deal.
• #fontsundays
• Women's War on body hair. 
• Oddly cathartic.
• I can't figure out if this would be the best game to play right now or the worst.
• Yoga for facebook. 
• More than 1000 words.
• If you can take the time, this New Yorker story is a fascinating read -- and explains a little bit about how we got to where we are.
• Most of these albums would be heavy metal.
• I'm on board with most of these. (I have quibbles about 39 (Samantha Bee) and 40 (totes John Stewart).)

"Where does she find the energy, y'all? She is trying to single-handedly strap this country to her back and carry it to safety. And, no, she doesn't care if the country wants to go or not. Rep. Waters is that Auntie who attacks your face with a wet wipe at every cookout and has a ninja-like ability to whip a comb out and run it through your hair before you can ever protest. She is not trying to have you out in these streets looking a fool and embarrassing her, America! You need to straighten up and act like you have some good sense before she calls your mother on you."

-- R. Eric Thomas on Maxine Waters.

• Huh. Do they know that when they are voting for people who want to undo them?
• Erik Assadourian can go fuck himself.
• Big fan of fancy cheese.
• Even though I know it's wrong, I kind of want a backyard fox family.
• Paper organs.
• Library hand.
• No norm is still a norm.
• Short answer: no. 
• Something to think about re: men.
• In case you've forgotten -- and it really wasn't that long ago.
• If you listen to nothing else, listen to the interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat at the end. It's haunting. (related.)
• I LOL'd. 

I love reading anything about gigantic animate blobs of molten iron who secretly long to be concert pianists. It’s not a particularly well-populated genre, but in particular I’d mention, “Grog, Who Loved Chopin,” as well as the somewhat derivative “Clom, Big Fan of Mozart.”

-- George Saunders (whose work I love) in the New York Times.

It's just been a week of me, me, me. Sorry about that.

Still, the latest Dry Martini is up over at Another Mother Runner. In this one, I'm not so much "dry" as "frozen."

Over on Mason Dixon Knitting, a brief visit with Veronik Avery, whose designs I've long admired.

• I have long wanted to dive into one of Michael Whelan's paintings and never come out. 
• I'm ready to go back.
• Shows like this are the reason why I love 99 percent invisible. Also: road trip!
• I find pictures of Jupiter soothing and amazing and befuddling. There's just so much we don't know, you know?
• The power of pink (yarn). I might have picked up a skein from Jen ...
• I want to go there.
• One of my high school teachers used an old car brake assembly. 
• The island where they woo with handknitted socks. 
• If only I had $3000+ lying around....

So as not to bury the lede: I GOT TO TALK TO NPR'S TAMARA KEITH! She was in the basement of the White House. NBD. 

This AMR podcast was great fun to record. See if you can figure out what an NPR reporter, a dairy farmer, a midwife, and an ER nurse all have in common....

....

You. Are. Exhausting.

You. And your bullshit.

You, the Senators and Churches.

You, the old men holding the law hostage to your whims.

Blind Justice?

Nah. That bitch sees fine.

Puts the blindfold on herself now.

Stockholm Syndrome, you know.

Happens after a while.

Shrug. Step. Repeat.

Jazz hands.

....

-- Libba Bray, Womanifesto. Read the whole thing. Feel the anger rise within you. Channel it into action.

• I volunteer as a tribute. (Related.)
• Why we need to run the experiment. We didn't know what we thought we knew.
• Never discount the idea that they are idiots.
• FYI.
• A different sort of FYI.
• China girls.
• Oh, art.
• I get the urge to go back to how things once were -- but time doesn't work like that, no matter how angry you are. Adapt.