The greatest letter in the history of correspondence:

Jourdon Anderson, an ex- Tennessee slave, declines his former master’s invitation to return as a laborer on his plantation. 1865. [Via Digital History: African American Voices]

I wish my formative years had involved this heaping dose of inspiration, but sadly yesterday was the first time I’d read about Jourdan Anderson. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this and how amazing a lesson including this letter would’ve been in high school.

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As a child I would’ve been absolutely stoked to go to Legoland. In my head, it’s always been a place filled with so many primary colored bits and pieces that the sky is the limit — where you could build something that exceeded the constraints of your lesser Lego collection at home. Truly epic possibilities!

My father would’ve been the one to take me, had I gone. If we’d been faced with the choice of Physical Play and Girls Play, I would’ve set right off for Physical Play (looks like the Legos I had at home) and he would’ve grabbed me by that annoying handle part of the Osh Kosh B’gosh overalls and set me down in the Girls Play area. He would’ve said something like, “Your mother wouldn’t want you rough housing with a bunch of boys.” After all, that’s the connotation of “physical play”, no?  (Later that night I would’ve declared that day The Worst Day of My Life, to my army of stuffed animals, many of them pink.)

By setting up Girls Play as the contrast to Physical Play, they’re suggesting that girls need a safe, subdued alternative to stimulating boldly colored exciting adventure that requires construction hats. They’re also saying that all boys are rough-and-tumble and into the same thing. They don’t have to say “Boys Play”. It’s a given to many misguided parents. That’s why Santa brought me the pink bike with the streamers and the basket and crap tires, and my brother who didn’t even want a bike got the cool metallic blue off-road one that could take a beating. It’s why my best girlfriend couldn’t go fishing with us until they discovered the pink tackle box with the glittery neon pink rubber tadpole bait. It’s why my coworker’s husband wouldn’t let their toddler son wear a pale yellow sweatshirt someone had given him.

Boys and girls go to school together, and have recess together, and play kickball in gym. They read the same books in class,  do group projects together, play in the same orchestras, sing in the same chorus groups, build sets together for plays that boys and girls will perform together. And someday they will work together in Grownupland, so why in the world shouldn’t they play together in Legoland?

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M'Probable

(You try and find a head-on shot of Steven Novella before you go knockin’ my skillz. And if you do, send it to me, cuz it’s driving me crazy.)

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Terrifying childhood memories archived online.

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Tags: love it

One of my favorite faces x9.

Karloff, hogging Photo Booth.

Tags: syndicated

ALA | American Libraries – Milwaukee Group Seeks Fiery Alternative to Materials Challenge:

Cranky oldsters are sueing for the right to publically burn library books that the mere presence of in the library offends them to the tune of $30,000 per plaintiff in compensatory damages.

Francesca Lia Block’s Baby Be-Bop has also incited a rage so deep in their Good Christian hearts that they’re demanding the resignation of West Bend’s mayor for “allow[ing] this book to be viewed by the public.”

I’m sorry Ginny and Jim Maziarka of Milwaukee, but the fact that you’re senior citizens stuck on young adult fiction shows you were likely already mentally and emotionally damaged.

Don’t you have lawns to protect?

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Newborn clouded leopard cub, courtesy Zooborns.

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I’m skeptical of denialism | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine:

Phil clearly states a point I find myself making every time I have to explain our Drinking Skeptically group.

I really really like this:

Skepticism is a method that includes the demanding of evidence and critical analysis of it. That’s not what Moon hoax believers do; they make stuff up, they don’t look at all the evidence, they ignore evidence that goes against their claims. So they are not Moon landing skeptics, they are Moon landing deniers.

YES!

Tags: skeptical, syndicated

We live in amazing times!

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