1. For the past five years (I think?), I’ve been on the Board of Directors for our local public television station. What I’ve proven really good at so far is people-watching during the meetings. About six months ago, the station hired a new general manager, and she’s great — bringing energy and vision to an institution that has to evolve if it is to survive. One thing she wanted to do in her first months was meet with each member of the Board, to feel us out about our thoughts on and relationships with public television. Because I’m skulky and elusive, it was only today that we finally met. Fortunately, having just laughed out loud last night about the welcome incongruity of seeing Run the Jewels on Austin City Limits, I had a great opener for her about how much I enjoyed hearing the line “I’m a bag of dicks” broadcast by her station. Then, applying restraint, I stopped myself from further talk about foul-mouthed rappers on sedate airwaves — even though I feel certain she would have enjoyed some conversation about Big Mike’s statement necklaces — lest I get carried away and start parsing the RtJ line that goes “Got suspended for bullyin’ a bully/When I go back to class I’ma punch him in his shit again.”
2. I knew our meeting this afternoon was going well when we crept towards the three-hour mark, during which time she had twice declared “I can’t believe I’m telling you all this stuff.” That’s really all I need for a meeting to be successful, really. TELL ME MORE ABOUT HOW HER DOES THAT AND HIM DOESN’T WANT TO.
3. This article makes good points about the inequalities that crop up when real prices are charged for growing and raising non-industrial food: “Clean Food: If You Want to Save the World, Get Over Yourself”. Byron and I both work with populations that struggle with healthy eating due to unaffordable prices. While I have long maintained that it is possible to eat good food on a limited income, a big part of doing that that is education: a bag of lentils might be cheap and able to feed a family of four for a couple nights, but if someone has never eaten lentils and has no idea how to prepare them, then the point is moot. Or “mute,” as a colleague at a previous workplace used to say. I do think there’s a place in our society for a program that shops and cooks with low-income families interested in eating better.
4. Yesterday, when we were driving to Y, Byron looked out the window, saw something, and then noted, “So I guess the next era we’re moving into will be one where we don’t see plastic bags hanging from trees, blowing in the wind, but rather one where we see reusable tote bags caught in the branches.”
5. Speaking of the awesomeness of Byron, he recently finished a cross-stitch of a favorite game: Boggle. He did a shake of the game board and then stitched it as it landed. Raise your hand if you see a T-W-A-T!
Typing time: 12:40
Editing time: 3:23, a large portion of it spent trying to figure out why WordPress says “unaffordable” is mispelled
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