#31 Lemon Cake and Libraries: Two Things That Should Never Be Defunded
give me all the sugar and all the books
Happy Wednesday,
I have two assignments for graduate school due in nine hours, so I have decided to fundamentally rearrange my kitchen, deep clean my fridge, mop my floors, put away my laundry, and list various items on my Buy Nothing Group. Productive procrastination pathways are my specialty, but I am in particularly rare form today — side-questing, perhaps, a bit too close to the sun.
I don’t have anything all that interesting to share with youse this week other than the recommendations I discuss below. Oh — I got a job! That’s pretty exciting. I’ll be starting as a Library Assistant at the Oakland Public Library once they confirm that I am not a felon by way of a thorough background check. (To be clear, I believe everyone deserves access to well-paying jobs).
The further along I get in my MLIS degree, the more interested I become in archives…which brings me right back around to my first love of history and journalism. Everything is a circle. Or…a spiral? In any case I am on the merry-go-round of recreational research these days and often find myself knee-deep in newspapers, census records, and personal correspondence from various eras of Irish history while I *should* be evaluating and redesigning websites for my actual course work. Or, you know, doing my laundry.
If you’re interested in the rabbit hole I’ve gone down as it relates to primary source accounts of The Troubles, check out my down-a-rabbit-hole piece below.
I've Been Reading About The Troubles Since January
This newsletter is a wee-bit different. I’ve been reading a lot about The Troubles so I have a lot of history/politics adjacent recommendations for my history-heads.
If you have a lot of personal, professional, or academic research projects for blogs, essays, exhibitions, films — literally whatever — I cannot recommend OneNote enough. I may be late to the game here, but oh boy is it incredible. I tried to use Google Drive (like I did for my last Masters) and it just does not, as my Uncle Khalil says “pass the mustard test.” The organization options are wack and the pages are not customizable enough — not to mention it’s tricky to attach audio, slides or any other media to your Google Docs. Zotero and OneNote are my new best friends, with DropBox being an honorable mention. Don’t get me wrong, I love Google Docs for casual or collaborative use (and their new tab feature is amazing), but more academic notetaking requires better software, so I am trying to learn the mysterious ways of Microsoft. To be clear, it is not *fun* but I do believe it is functional, and that’s all I can ask of a notetaking method.
Another bit of personal news: I am still on a quest to figure out what causes my seemingly life-long intermittent flare-ups of GI issues and after a recent and not-so-fun visit to the emergency room, I am doing lots of tests with new doctors. I hope one day someone researches the astronomically high numbers of women that experience debilitating pain located in their abdomen and finally prove to everyone that the cause is not anxiety and the pain is not normal. And then I hope there is a bazillion dollars in funding for research for treatment. To my fellow GI Janes: I see you. And I’m sorry for every battle you’ve weathered on that porcelain throne.
But alas, my anti-depressants seem to be holding strong which is the best vibe for Spring. I got my annual haircut and feel flouncy and free. It was, of course, too expensive, but it made me personally feel like a million bucks. I am feeling the renaissance energy of the season and, as such, am trying to shake off the heavy stagnancy of winter. Armed with Zyrtec and a dream, I am prioritizing more time in the sun and going on long walks through the gorgeous redwoods I am lucky enough to have only fifteen minutes away from my bed.
If you live somewhere where things are blooming GO LOOK AT THE FLOWERS. They take my entire breath away. Poppies! Lupines! Irises!
Ins for this season:
fresh fruit
garage sales
the library
sunscreen
reading outside
dermatology appointments
gynecology appointments
doctor’s appointments in general
redwoods, beaches, meadows
hosting dinner parties
socializing on weeknights
a new google calendar color scheme
drinking water
Outs for this season:
scrolling on my phone
responding to non-urgent messages urgently
retail therapy (garage sales don’t count)
streaming subscriptions
take-out food
This newsletter was mostly written in March / April, but some personal health / projects have gotten in the way of me posting. Which means…I am already working on another newsletter. Stay tuned!
XO,
M
⚽️ Oakland Roots / Oakland Soul Soccer Club
Oakland Coliseum / Merritt College
I grew up going to Warriors game at the Arena, and for my birthday this past year, my brother got us tickets to the last A’s game in the Oakland Coliseum. It’s been sad to see so many sports leave Oakland (RIP Raiders, RIP Warriors, RIP A’s), so it felt especially good to be back in the coliseum seeing a sport I’ve never seen adults play before! Maybe I’m a soccer girl now.
While the drama of the fate of the Oakland Coliseum continues, come out to support Oakland Roots SC in the meantime for cheap! Zach and I used code LIBRARY for the April 19th game and our tickets were totally free. (Shout out public libraries, please advocate for them as they are at risk of losing funding!) We hit up Ok’s Deli on the way and smuggled sandwiches in our jackets.
🌳 Lake Merritt Bonsai Garden
Closed on Mondays
Big ups to the volunteers who run the Lake Merritt Bonsai Garden. I went here this past week with my mom, and we bought adorable hats and walked around admiring the living art. The volunteer also let me choose a vintage bonsai conference pin, which was thrilling. Free classes on Sundays!
🎧 28ish Days Later (Science, Reproductive Health)
Since stopping hormonal birth control in December, I have become more interested in learning about my menstrual cycle. However, in the era of American Wellness, it is exceedingly difficult to sift through all of the conflicting information from researchers, doctors, and doulas. Produced in 2022, this is the best podcast about the menstrual cycle, period! It’s got a little bit of everything — science, history, storytelling — and it’s great for anyone who has or knows someone who has a period AKA everybody.
🎧Beautiful West Oakland, California - 99% Invisible (History/Design)
If you’re a longtime 99 PI listener, you know that the show explores “the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world,” but you may not know how entrenched the show is in the architecture and design of West Oakland. This episode was recommended to me by a fellow Hipline CREW Front Desk homie, Becca, whom you should also definitely hit up for a curly hair routine as summer approaches because ohmygod her hair is true evidence of magic. If you’re a Bay Area local, you may already know the history of how racist urban planning proposals used freeway construction to make charcuterie out of West Oakland and how containerization of the Port of Oakland impacted working class people, but even still, it’s worth a listen!
🎶 A LA SALA, Khruangbin
I’ll admit I’m really late to Khruangbin, but holy smokes do I love them. While doing a quick Trader Joe’s run, I was captivated by the music playing from the speakers at the Lake Merritt store — it was peaceful, but not sleepy, and felt more like a slow-paced foraging soundtrack rather than that of a bustling urban grocery shopping experience. I Shazam-ed it immediately and put the album on when I got home. I didn’t know it then, but a few hours later I’d be in the hospital. Because Zach is the best person in the world, he brought me headphones and snacks, and it was this album that I played on repeat. It was a scary night, but these tracks (and heavy painkillers) kept me calm and continue to be the soundtrack to my slow, sunny afternoons filled with grad school assignments and culinary herb propagation.
🎬 Adolescence (Mini Series, Crime)
Adolescence is getting a lot of buzz and rightfully so. It shows how young boys, raised in a culture of casual misogyny, can become radicalized to commit violence due to unfettered access to social media and “the manosphere” which push harmful, rigid definitions of masculinity with an unrelenting sense of urgency. What makes this series compelling from a cinematic perspective is that most of the scenes are filmed in one take, making the show seem more like theater than television. This also adds a disturbing sense of realism to the story, one in which every character seems to be g r a p p l i n g with something.
📢🗣️ PSA: Libraries and schools provide mobile hotspots for so so so many kids who otherwise wouldn’t have reliable access to internet and Congress is trying not only to impede the expansion of this program (which does not increase taxes or fees) but is trying to prevent it from ever happening in the future. Please call / email your reps and tell them to stand up for our libraries’ integral services to our communities! Below is a draft email I received from the iSchool at San Jose State University. It’s a quick way to participate in resistance!
For California
Sen. Schiff: 202-224-3841
https://www.schiff.senate.gov/contact/get-in-touch/
Sen Padilla: 202-224-3553
https://www.padilla.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/
ALA Draft Message to Senators:
Save E-Rate Internet Hot Spots: VOTE NO on S.J. RES. 7
Dear Senator:
NAME OF STATE LIBRARY/LOCAL LIBRARY urges you to vote "NO" on S.J .Res.7, a Congressional Review Act resolution Providing for Disapproval of a rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to "Addressing the Homework Gap Through the E-Rate Program."
This resolution would block E-Rate support for library hot spot lending programs and undermine a key means by which libraries serve communities large and small with short-term mobile supported and filtered internet access. ALA joined 31 other organizations in a letter opposing S.J. Res. 7, including Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, the School Superintendents Association, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Catholic Educational Association, National League of Cities, National PTA, National Rural Education Association, National School Boards Association, and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, among others.
The resolution would permanently kill the program, pulling funding in the middle of the funding year when 802 libraries and schools have already filed paperwork and signed contracts for 157,356 hotspots throughout the country. In STATE, X libraries and X schools applied for E-Rate hotspot funding. opportunity to say more about specific plans for hotspots at local level or challenges with signed contracts
All wi-fi hot spots funded by E-Rate must be filtered pursuant to federal law. Please vote no: otherwise, this resolution will replace opportunities for filtered internet at home with unfiltered commercial wi-fi at fast food restaurants or coffee shops.
Libraries have used hotspots going back 10 years, loaning the devices like books while also providing digital skills training. As outlined in this ALA Hot Spot Issue Brief, the programs support everything from veteran job-training programs, to access during emergencies, to homebound adults, or home schooling families. In developing the program, the Federal Communications Commission adopted strict cost controls; the program falls within the existing E-Rate spending cap; and is funded by the Universal Service Fund, requiring no appropriations. The CRA is also unnecessary: the FCC retains full authority to modify the program on a going-forward basis if needed.
Even in its first year, the hot spot program has been very popular across the country, including places like Bullitt County Kentucky, as Tara O'Hagan, Executive Director of the Bullitt County Public Library, and Cindy Hohl, ALA President, explained in the Pioneer News: Learning, livelihoods in jeopardy with federal resolutions.
We expect S.J. Res. 7 to be voted on the floor this week. PLEASE VOTE NO ON S.J.RES. 7.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Signature
📚 In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (Thriller) ★★★☆☆
Plot: A woman gets an email from the maid of honor of her ex-best friend inviting her to attend her hen-do (bachelorette weekend) in a remote cabin. There is murder.
Thoughts: Honestly, the most memorable part of this book is that it was British, not that it was thrilling. I remember liking it and actively wanting to pick it up and read it, but I think it was more that I like the way British people talk, less that I was compelled by the story. It fell into a lot of the silly tropes of like “why the hell would you do that?” and “people don’t behave this way?” that thriller authors so often indulge in.
📚 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Thriller) ★★★★☆
Plot: A kid goes missing at a summer camp in the Adirondacks in the 1970s like fifteen years after her brother went missing in those same woods. It goes back and forth in time and lots of different character POVs.
Thoughts: It’s half coming-of-age-at-summer-camp-in-the-70s and half 1950s Great Gatsby vibes. I thought the end was eh. The writing was pretty though.
📚 Sunrise on the Reaping (YA Dystopian Fiction) ★★★★☆
Plot: Haymitch Abernathy is 16 and is reaped for the Hunger Games in the 2nd Quarter Quell, which is a Hunger Games with different rules that make it a lot harder to survive (and increases viewership in the Capitol). We learn how the Haymitch we know and love in The Hunger Games survives the Capitol and why he becomes an alcoholic.
Thoughts: This may be a good time to point out that The Hunger Games isn’t some murky allegory, but that Suzanne Collins was quite transparent about its origins in American imperial myth-making. The most recent installment of the series, Sunrise on the Reaping, which came out this past March, specifically tackles the power of propaganda and suppression of dissent that takes place in governments creeping toward fascism (cut feeds of dissent at Coachella mirror cut feeds in the Capitol during the Chariot Rides). The idea for the series came to Collins while she was channel surfing in the early 2000s, seeing snippets of reality TV followed by images of the invasion of Iraq. I thought SOTR was a good propaganda story, though I did think there were a bit too many recycled ideas from TBOSAS and way too much of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. I thought the side characters carried this book, and I was not at all invested or interested in Haymitch’s love story. However, it serves its purpose as a YA book that exposes children to the role propaganda plays in war.
My book club read All Fours by Miranda July this past month. My friend Meg sent me this take from Tembe Denton-Hurst, which I appreciated. I really did not care for the book, but I love book club and think the conversations are always worthwhile!
It was Zach’s birthday two weeks ago, so I made him a birthday cake that was pretty different than last year’s indulgent Chocolate Church Cake. This year I used Preppy Kitchen’s Lemon Cake recipe with a lemon frosting and homemade Lemon Curd.
However, I caution you: Preppy Kitchen’s Lemon Curd recipe is bogus. It did not come together, and when my disaster led me to lemon curd reddit there were many other people in the comments lamenting the same recipe I was using. It was thin and runny and not great. Thankfully a cornstarch slurry saved it, but like, lemon curd shouldn’t need a slurry? Anyways. It was delicious, and I decorated it with edible flowers so that it could be springy and happy.
🎂Sohla El-Waylly - chef, cookbook author, and recipe developer
Sohla is a new chef for me. After finding her videos on food storage on Tiktok, I checked her cookbook Start Here out from the library. It’s really comprehensive and sort of feels like really pretty homework from a teacher that has really high expectations, so I haven’t actually attempted any of the recipes yet. But here is her Substack, which seems more accessible.
Shout outs to:
Zach for your help during a health emergency :) and for making delicious cocktails for my bookclub. You are so good at stuff.
All the bookclub ladies who came over on Monday. It felt so nice to host and eat treats together!
Hilary for our beach walks and for literally building a house in your backyard
Lea for your incredible performance as The March Hare in Alice in Wonderland
My dad & Tori for showing me some incredible music and making Zach’s birthday special
Lana for our long chats about everything from polyamory to Phoenician gods — you’re an incredible writer. Keep going.
Bob, my friend from writing class who workshopped a short story with me. You’ll never read this newsletter, but I appreciate you!
Leo who called me during the workday to help me troubleshoot Microsoft things. Even though we solved nothing, it felt nice to have a friend take the time to try to figure things out!
Tessa for your incredible chainmail and beautiful words about it. You will find a job that is better than the one you hate right now, I promise.
Sina for sending me snail mail. I have been avoiding my mailbox (you know) but your card made me smile. Thank you!
My mom for introducing me to so much protest music so young, talking to me about Biko as Peter Gabriel played. Happy Birthday! <3
Ms. Shica and Mr. Troy who showed me southern hospitality with smiles and hugs
JR who smokes the best ribs with homemade BBQ sauce in his front yard.
Everyone who participated in Zach’s birthday video (especially the people I’ve never met)
My PA named Hoan who seems to be taking my GI symptoms super seriously and Joe, the paramedic who believed my pain told me to advocate for myself in the hospital — y’all are real ones!
Colleen for your creativity and general good vibes — my Saturdays have become astronomically better since knowing you
Arina & Leo for our movie nights
Dev, Alicia and Sandy for our recipe club style dinners. I feel so spoiled after we hangout and eat such good food
The homie at the gas station who helped me acquire 2 gallons of gas after I ran out XD
Everyone I haven’t mentioned! I love you! Even if I don’t know you! <3
Ending Note:
Turn to your poets. Lean on one another. Be safe and love hard. <3 Free Palestine.
XO,
M