Annie Heffernan

Relatable Corvid

*students (it’s the end of the semester for me, too)

A “snow squirrel” sculpture on a snowy college quad. The squirrel is holding a singular maple leaf.

Michigan student have made a “snow squirrel” on the Diag (there will be no maligning the Rubenesque squirrels, thank you). They have also started a Reddit thread entitled “Mason Hall roach glamour shots.” Welcome to the end of the semester, folks.

I have had 6 MRIs. All took extensive documentation to get ok'ed by insurance and were for clear reasons (a back issue that turned out to be a broken femur and a pituitary adenoma). They do do preventive MRIs if you're at high risk for breast cancer, but full-body preventive MRIs are mostly a scam

I don't know if she's still doing it, but Sue Schweik (The Ugly Laws) is training to become a death doula. Regardless, I'm so excited for this book.

The *tiny afghan*.

YES.

Also: there are so many awesome mocktail brands and recipes (there are even dedicated NA stores, like The New Bar in SF). I've also become a huge fan of shrubs and this blackberry, lime, and star anise syrup from instagram: www.instagram.com/reel/DNZFFsd...

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Emma Thompson On Getting Paid To Be Funny, And Feeling “Intense Irritation” Over A.I.

(off to return scrivener to its former glory)

My feelings about this are best summed up by the good Dame Emma Thompson (video below). In short: MAKE IT STAHP.

My loup remains one of the best dinners I’ve had in recent memory (tied with Casavan in MTL). Need to head back to Philly to try Her Place.

Graphic from New York Times Cooking: How Joan Didion Did Thanksgiving. Features Joan Didion, a grown woman in pigtails, standing at a stove.

Perhaps no one I trust less for cooking advice.

author's pitch: how Eleanor Bumpurs became "more than my neighbor" Today's author's pitch comes from Professor LaShawn Harris. She is an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University. Her area of expertise includes twentieth century African American His...

new on @carceralhistory.bsky.social: distinguished historian @madameclair08.bsky.social pitches her new @beaconpress.bsky.social book, TELL HER STORY: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City
carceral-history.ghost.io/authors-pitc...

I'm sorry Ryan Lizza, Chris Clizza and Olivia Nuzzi thats too many z names for me to keep straight

In the Shadow of Commodification While capitalism is typically said to commodify everything, much of what makes up our world isn’t commodified at all. It instead appears as a free gift: a social form that describes the condition of…

Today, @alybatt.bsky.social kicks off a symposium on her book, *Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature*

The idea of the free gift, she argues, can give us a deeper understanding of the environmental problems that plague capitalism. It can also help us better understand capitalism itself.

Never forget that just a week ago, Ross Douthat and the NYTimes were asking if women ruined the workplace.

OMG this kicker in the Harvard Crimson article!!

College journalism kicks ass, again

Or at the very least a short.

On a Clipped Wing, Flamingo Escapes a British Zoo for a Life in France

"Frankie, a four-month-old Caribbean Flamingo whom Mr. Woolcock described as “aloof” and “quite a character,” left the zoo sometime around 8 a.m. on Nov. 2, when a staff member noticed she was missing from her flock."

spoiler: Frankie relocated to a beach in France 🦩

I really want to watch all of us strangers, but I’m not sure I’m ready to Ugly Cry *that much*. The clips alone…

Opinion | My Medicaid, My Life (Published 2017)

I assign this piece in my disability class alongside Harriet McBryde Johnson’s “The Disability Gulag” (another voice we lost too soon) and Fraser and Gordon’s “A Genealogy of Dependency.” It’s also a great segue into a discussion of worth, need, and the demands of inclusion.

Alice was so much more than her online/social media presence, though, so if you haven’t come across her broader work, I recommend check out her podcast, Disability Visibility, or her books (Year of the Tiger, Disability Visibility, and Disability Intimacy. Her voice will be very much missed.

I never met Alice Wong in person, but she was fierce, funny, and unapologetic voice within the disabled community—especially online. When I say I miss twitter I’m largely referring to the vibrant community of activists and intellectuals that made the site their home, with Alice as their lodestar

Yes, and often their deaths are attributed to their disabilities and not medical neglect, ableism, or financial hardship. That’s not to say that people don’t die of their conditions but I’m tired of reading obits that say something to the effect of “they died of Cerebral Palsy.”

‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’
—Alice Wong

They did say Portland was "war-ravaged"

Big Children of Men vibes:

youtu.be/wrALRx95mHs?...

also recommend blasting Rosalia’s Lux on repeat (Berghain, to be specific, but the entire album is excellent). It’s wonderfully cathartic

Excellent choice on your part. I did not heed the warnings

Somewhere between reading the UVA letter and the [redacted] NYT profile I decided that the remainder of today would be much better spent going to the grocery store and meal prepping for the weekend/week (thrilling, i know). BUT, if you have packable lunch recipes, pls. Send them my way.