Sunday Reads (on Tuesday) | 1

Instead of sharing links elsewhere on the interwebs I thought I’d revive something I used to do on here and that is to share weekly (or monthly) various things I found interesting and read on the internet. And of course this was supposed to be a Sunday thing, for when people were having morning coffee and could take time to read, but this is the second weekend in a row that I’ve not been able to get the thing published so it’s going out on a Tuesday instead! Please feel free to share links you’ve enjoyed, too!

Tulsi Gabbard Holds the Knife by Timothy Snyder – on one of the more egregious (and there are many) Trump picks for his cabinet.

Either Gabbard was catastrophically uninformed about the most basic elements of the theater of war she was visiting, or she was consciously spreading disinformation. Those are the two possibilities. The first is disqualifying; the second is worse.

A sky full of stars by Steve Edwards

But this is American history. Now that my son is taking it (and now that I’m paying attention, as I should have the first time around,) I see it for what it is: a bloodbath. Enslavement. Genocide. Stunning corruption. Religious zealotry. The insane hunger for power and domination, over other human beings and also the land. A whole continent used and abused, axed to splinters, a million bison skulls piled high on the prairies.

The Wonderful River of Oz by Boyce Upholt in Bitter Southerner

A wilderness is defined, officially, as a place absent of people. “The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it,” Wallace Stegner wrote. It remains important “simply as an idea.” Blevins points out that the Arkansas hillbilly has served a similar purpose. Theirs was always a life halfway mythical, one that us moderns liked to pretend we could one day slip into — an “idea of wildness in humanity,” as he put it. Blevins thinks the Buffalo National River would never have been formed had the nation not become so entranced with the Ozarkian hillbilly.

Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Endangered Species Act Protection for Monarch Butterfly; Urges Increased Public Engagement to Help Save the Species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing protection for one of the nation’s most beloved species — the monarch butterfly — and is encouraging the public to be part of its recovery. The Service is seeking public input on a proposal to list the species as threatened with species-specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Public comments will be accepted on the proposal until March 12, 2025. The Service will then evaluate the comments and any additional information on the species and determine whether to list the monarch butterfly.

I wrote a little bit about the monarch listing here: https://ontexasnature.substack.com/p/royalty-of-the-skies

December: Reading from our piles via Abra McAndrew

But reading as though books have an expiration date can turn a feast into a fast. Most of the best I read this year had 10, 20, 40 or 50-ish years of readership before I caught up with them. Though maybe not yet classics, they have lingered in my curiosity and the collective imagination long after the official book media has moved on. They’re books collected at random, while practicing what the internet tells me the Japanese call tsundoku: the habit of buying books and piling them up to read later.

Posting Less via Anne Helen Peterson

Being seen is largely impossible online. It involves more vulnerability and significantly more reward. It requires unedited time, a tolerance for awkwardness, profound patience, and presence. There is no algorithm to trick. There’s no way to lurk. It seems obvious to the point of ridiculousness, but it’s true: to be seen, you have to be willing to make yourself a very different sort of visible.

11 Things I had to learn about my female body “the hard way” (tell me I’m not the only one?) via Micah Larsen

The silence around menopause is fascinating to me, because it’s something that half the world’s population will most likely experience in their lifetimes. But when I mention it — and I often mention it — it usually causes an abrupt end to a conversation. Unless I’m with other peri/menopausal gals, and then they totally get it.

And lastly, this great video from Hank Green about bots!