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Pa’s Smile

The first and only time I bought dry ice, the grocery store clerk asked if I was going camping. “No,” I muttered, then managed to stop myself from saying it was for a body. The ice really was to lay my father’s corpse on. An air force colonel who was skeptical of organized religion, my father, who we call Pa, wasn’t sure the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of leaving the dead undisturbed for three days was necessary. But, as he said after being diagnosed with late stage lung cancer, “I’ve gotten so much from Buddhism for good living, I’m not going to pass up their tips for good dying.”

Jamail Yogis reflects on his father's last wishes and final days.
posted by Lexica at 4:10 PM PST - 8 comments

The logo of the LA 2028 Olympics was unveiled today: a black “LA28” with 26 different versions of the “A” from people including gymnast Gabby Douglas, soccer player Alex Morgan, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, and actress Reese Witherspoon, with more expected in future.
posted by adrianhon at 3:09 PM PST - 42 comments

Four scifi/fantasy stories published this year about the strange and ordinary things (our) bodies (might) do or be: "AirBody" by Sameem Siddiqui, "The Bee Thing" by Maggie Damken, "The Longest Season in the Garden of the Tea-Fish" by Jo Miles, and "Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse" by Rae Carson. All are also available as audio/podcasts. [more inside]
posted by brainwane at 12:31 PM PST - 7 comments

We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.
posted by Roach at 12:28 PM PST - 217 comments

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and correspondent from the NY Times Michael S. Schmidt writes in his new book, "in the hours leading up to Trump's trip to [Walter Reed] hospital [last November], word went out in the West Wing for the vice president to be on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.” Don Winslow has claimed, based on three anonymous sources, that Trump had a series of mini-strokes. Today, Trump claims on Twitter that it's all Fake News. Needless to say, it's starting to be reported on from the left and right. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
posted by Chickenring at 11:16 AM PST - 55 comments

The Violent Contradiction of California’s Reliance on Incarcerated Firefighters: The state is dependent on workers it deems disposable and essential at the same time. [more inside]
posted by Ouverture at 11:11 AM PST - 30 comments

Dolly Jones, the First Recorded Female Jazz Trumpeter. 1938, a young woman stands playing in the centre of the screen, confident and beautiful. In a long white dress, cinched at the waist, she walks around the dance floor as if she owns it and the camera pans to the audience looking on admiringly. The orchestra keeps pace with her as her fingers fly over the keys. It is a masterful performance. And one that has been almost entirely forgotten. Indeed, even in the history of female jazz, this performance is rarely mentioned, yet it was groundbreaking at the time.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:01 AM PST - 4 comments

Kelly is back! and has moved on from shoes to the new hot topic of this day and age... Masks! (Previously)
posted by Captain_Science at 8:01 AM PST - 14 comments

The Eco-Yogi Slumlords of Brooklyn. Gennaro Brooks-Church and Loretta Gendville were the poster couple for the Brooklyn boom, building a mini-empire ecologically-sound architecture, yoga classes, maternity ware. They were also exploiting their labour force while keeping tenants in overcrowded, under-maintained buildings. [SL New York Magazine] [more inside]
posted by Gin and Broadband at 6:35 AM PST - 26 comments