Reading List, Labor Day Edition: Thinkpieces For Days.
My dearests! Happiest of Fridays - I hope that whatever you are up to for this Labor Day weekend that you take care of yourself, get some rest, and pour one out for the trade unions and labor movements that made it so we can all play hooky from work and inch back from the lake in holiday traffic one day in September. And on a side note, the current Department of Labor page on the History of Labor Day does not mention organized labor until three sections in, and even then the term “union” is only used in proper group names and a single mention of “union officials.” Now, as I am not apt to peruse the DoL page on a daily basis - I’m more of a DoT lurker myself - this may have been the phrasing used by the department under Obama, so don’t please don’t yell at me about bias, because yes of course I am biased, you're subscribed to this email and you still open it, it's a bias party, and please just let me have my coffee already.
Oh hey there, don’t forget to buy your tickets to see me get on stage and say some words at next Tuesday’s Odd Salon at Public Works in San Francisco.
ANYHOO, I plan on tending to the roses, drinking an insane amount of Spindrift blackberry sparkling water, and meditating on not yelling at the internet. Here’s what I’ve loaded up on my Kindle:
The Cut: Off With Her Head - New York Magazine’s Yashar Ali speaks to Kathy Griffin about the 23 days since that really stupid / WTF photo brought the wrath of the Trumpers on her. I may have thought the photo was stupid, inappropriate and, worse, not that artistically interesting, but I sure AF agree with her here: “President Trump just pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was essentially running a concentration camp in the Arizona desert… He said there are some good Nazis, and he’s kicking out young adults who were brought here as kids by their parents, and I’m the one who has to continue to apologize?”
BuzzFeed: Can Cannabis And Christ Coexist? These Devout Southern Christians Think So. I mean, the dude did "walk" on "water," so GO ON...
The Washington Post: Why are so many white men so angry? Sums up the perceived lack of advantage that has been skirted around since the election, though I disagree with some of the solutions the author posits in the conclusion.
Quillette: Centrism: A Moderate Manifesto. This one comes to us from the Missive Mum Bureau, and I imagine I’ll find myself nodding vigorously throughout.
Wall Street Journal: The Cost of Workplace Rudeness - again, I foresee vigorous nodding.
Poynter: How the Houston Chronicle is covering the city's historic disaster. From the story, a quote from a reporter on the scene “No, reporters aren't evil and they don't hate America. They feel an incredibly strong sense of obligation and responsibility and a calling to go out there and cover stories like this.”
And finally, from The Week: Trump's narcissism is poisoning America.
Any non-fiction book recommendations? I'll take 'em here :)
Toodles, dearests. I’ll see you on Tuesday.