One Year On

Just real quick: We didn't take a hiatus, we didn't abandon the plan or even the website. We tried a thing. We took a lap around the track with that new thing (that "lap around the track" took the year we mentioned in the title). Anyway, sometimes a thing doesn't work. In our case, the thing didn't work.

So, hi! We're back.

We've heard from so many of you since Wednesday. We are right here with you, wondering what a girl's gotta do to break the hardest highest glass ceiling in the land and how it is we've put a convicted felon and serial sexual abuser into that office instead. We stand in solidarity with everyone who feels marginalized and afraid and vulnerable. We are here to share what we know and admit to all that we don't know and to walk alongside you as we build stronger coalitions to carry us into whatever this future might hold.

We've decided to repurpose our Quarantine Kits from the pandemic into something else. Since it is a transformation-in-progress (like so many things rn), we don't have a name for them just yet. Totally taking recommendations. In the meantime, here's our first pass at encapsulated activism to get us all started and right side up.

Ways to Take Action

We know that before this election--long before, unfortunately; for as long as there has been cyberspace, really--women were less safe online than their male counterparts (more on that here, here, here). So before we get into direct action, mutual aid, etc, we want you to take a minute to survey the scene and keep yourself safe for the days ahead.

1. Get thee to Signal. Do it now. We're not great explainers of tech things, so here is an expert explanation about how and why and what.

2. Check your online presence and lock it down. Need help? BlockParty is an excellent (and affordable) tool. Do the free scan if you want to see it in action.

3. If you'd like to keep as low a profile as possible, sign up (and pay, it sure ain't free, but it sure is worth it) and use a service like DeleteMe. They'll play whack-a-mole--so you don't have to!--with all the online name and address and family and relations information you didn't even know were out in the interwebz telling the world all about you. In this brave new world, one governed by stochastic terror, making at it so people can't find you--at least not as easily--will help keep you safe.

ps--Lots of other things you might consider:

• Browsers: Firefox has more privacy settings

• Search engines: Duck Duck Go for legit private searches

• VPN: A better way to be online, here's an explainer

• Opt out of google street view

Essays and Poems

1. Everyone, everywhere is sharing Maggie Smith's Good Bones. We think you'd probably just enjoy coming upon that excellent poem for this moment tucked into this staggeringly, heartbreakingly beautiful essay from Alexandra Petri: Oh, so we have to keep doing this forever. This is the essay that prompted a writer we know to exclaim, "This is awesome. Makes me think about resubscribing. ... But then fucking Bezos."

2. Just before the election, we were walking on a sunny Sunday with the aforementioned writer and saw a kingfisher. "That's my everything is going to be all right bird," she said. We went straight to our favorite by Gerard Manley Hopkins: As kingfishers catch fire. And, in spite of the election outcome, we stand by that. The task is the same as it always was: to live in community, to take care of each other.

3. Jericho Brown packed St. John's Church last Sunday to preach about raising the dead. A prescient and timely sermon. Don't know this Pulitzer Prize winner, MacArthur Genius, Book Award finalist? "Beauty abounds in Jericho Brown’s Pulitzer Prize winning collection, despite the evil that pollutes the everyday. The Tradition questions why and how we’ve become accustomed to terror: in the bedroom, the classroom, the workplace, and the movie theater."

   
   

Duplex _ The Poetry Foundation

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The Talmud tells us "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

TV Episodes (sometimes seasons, shows, movies, podcasts; today episodes)

1. The Good Place S3 E11 "Chidi Sees the Time-Knife"

2. Superstore S1 E1 "Pilot"

3. New Girl S1 E2 "Kryptonite"

   
   

Recipes

Olive Oil Cake

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1. Olive oil cake (for reals, this is *excellent* and even though it is a little fussy, it is pretty easy). Quick note: We suggest one of two approaches. Either use a 9" round like the recipe calls for and sprinkle the sugar on top before baking for the crackling top -or- split it evenly into two lovely 8" cake rounds and don't use the sugar, use the frosting.

   1. Oh, hey, side note: Never cross a picket line. (Like, never.) The original for this recipe came from the NYT Cooking--which is behind the Tech Guild picket line--so even if we had a subscription, we would not be linking to it. (Read more about their yearslong effort to negotiate a new contract--the reason for the strike--here. Also remember that Wordle and the other games are behind the picket line; try this instead.) In the meantime, the good news is, we got to pretend to be Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen (our absolute fav for recipes and tips) and modified a recipe to make it our own.

2. Chocolate frosting (for our variation of the olive oil cake)

   1. Take your food processor or magic bullet or hand mixer or fork and smash up until smooth: 1/2 stick of softened butter, 3/4 stick of softened cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1/2 to 3/4 cup of powdered sugar, 2 oz of bakers chocolate melted and cooled.

3. Chicken, white bean & chard soup (healthy comfort food)

   1. Here's a recipe for stock!

      
      

Unsolicited opinions

1. You are not obligated to complete the work.

2. But neither are you free to abandon it.

3. LFG.