April Fool’s Dump
Since this is the day after April Fool’s Day, when I was in no mood for joking, it’s fine for me to co-opt the phrase April Fool’s Dump as my title. It’s 10:36 on the second of April and I should be doing some grading. E-learning in Qatar mostly has amounted to me recording myself reading something or sharing my opinions about a text and then posting it to Google Classroom. I then create a sheet that says “tell me one thing I said during the five minute video, and sign your name.” That’s how I am taking attendance in the time of Covid-19. My tenth graders are writing comparative essays about the Hawaiian Leper Colonies (Isolation, forced social distancing) and my 9th graders are writing memoirs about an important moment in their lives (reflection, focusing on silver linings). Eliot is sleeping, the air conditioning in whirrrring and I have a Zoom meeting in 20 minutes to discuss what to do when students aren’t doing work. Let’s see how much I can share with you before then. Off to the links…
Quick: do you have a favorite Reese Witherspoon role? Is it Tracy Flick? Perhaps you’re more an Elle Woods fan? Maybe you’re new to the Reese-train and like her work as Madeline Martha Mackenzie? I think I am a Melanie Smooter-kind-of-guy but that’s because I like movies about men who are really into glass blowing and sculptures. Reese has made a resurgence in years past and she’s done it mostly by betting on herself. After a string of big roles in the late 90s and early 2000s (see: Sweet Home Alabama), Reese’s career trajectory had flattened the curve by the time the 2010s came along. She divorced Ryan Phillippe in 2007 and in 2010, she married the co-head of talent at CAA. She probably could have retired from acting that point, but Reese, an avid reader, decided if she wasn’t getting the roles she wanted, she had to make them. Apparently a voracious reader, Reese started buying the rights to books she loves and turning those books into films and tv roles. She started a media company called “Hello Sunshine” which has a number of projects set to be released in 2020 (including Legally Blonde 3?) Here is a long form story about Reese. It focuses a lot on books, and driving around Nashville, and paints her to be a good hang.
When I was in Kiev in 2013, my friend and I spent a good amount of time looking for Chicken Kiev. Most of the restaurants that we went to did not have it on the menu and this was very disappointing. We did finally find it one night in a small basement restaurant where 14 Ukrainian women were making dumplings and having a bachelorette party and it did not disappoint. Along the same lines, and you’ll see where I am going here in a moment, I used to ask my classes: Which came first—> Orange: the fruit or the color. Did we call it an orange because of it’s color, or did we call the color that because of the fruit?* This is all to say, sometimes we take for granted why things are called what they are. If you are like me, and have ever been in search of French Fries in Paris, trying to drink a Long Island ice tea in Oyster bay, or just tried to eat turkey in Turkey, here is an explainer on how some foods got their names. (*The fruit got its name first.)
In spite of the quarantining and social distancing in place, Leen and I have watched a lot less tv than I think we thought we would all things considered. We got around to watching Tiger King on Netflix this week and I will spare you from reading any of the news you’ve already seen about the show. Instead, let me take you to 2007, long before any of you knew who Joe Exotic was to this profile of Carole Baskins from the Tampa Bay Times. Things were already pretty fishy with her 13 years ago, and the Times was on the case. I think it’s worth noting that Carole’s second husband is a semiretired banker with an MBA from Harvard who really took the big cat park and turned it into a money-making venture for his wife and him. This is a good read for anyone who wants to fall back into the Tiger King world but doesn’t exactly want to deal with the stink. Good, measured profile journalism about a controversial figure.
I lived with a Med Student for awhile before I moved to Qatar but the only medical advice he would ever give me was “drink some water” as though water was the cure-all for everything. As a result, I would routinely end up WebMD’ing my symptoms to ascertain whether or not it was something I needed to worry about. Most medical coverage in Qatar is free or heavily subsidized by the government. We have access to private hospitals here as well, so I’ve had a shoulder surgery done privately and Leen had Eliot in a private hospital, but for the most part, when in need, we just pop into one of the public clinics or hospitals to get treated with what ails us (Covid-19 not included). This intro offers me an opportunity to point out two things: 1) did you know that WebMD had new stories now? 2) Blue light glasses seem like garbage pseudo-science. Last fall I had weird eye pains so I went to an eye clinic in Qatar where I was told I had dry Meibomian glands. Apparently this is pretty common for people living in dry dusty areas who are looking at screens a lot. The doctor wanted me to try some french procedure of rubbing gel into my eyes three different times to re-stimulate the glands. My cousin, an eye doctor, told me I could just gently massage my eye, no weird french gel needed. When my friend sent me this story about Blue Light glasses, I couldn’t help but think that these things sounded like the french gel. A solution to a problem that probably isn’t necessary. Blue light glasses are a $27 million-dollar industry but the FDA won’t get involved, and the both the American and British associations of Optometrists and Ophthalmologists say that there’s no reason to wear the glasses. My suggestion for your tired eyes? Drink some water. Read the WebMD piece here.
In the interest of time, and to summarize my general feelings towards the year 2020 so far: here is a list of 25 euphemisms for farting.
That’s all I have folks. Below you’ll find a few pictures and a music video I liked.
Eliot has now woken! And it’s time to get my day started!
Sam, in Kiev. Fall 2013
