I’m so sorry we didn’t learn, George.

Were not at chancellor yet

Norman Gary Finkelstein, for those asking.

So, I'm trans. And several years ago, I was at my great grandfather's funeral. 17, newly on T, barely out to anyone other than my close friends and family. And I'm standing there at the refreshment's table, surrounded by strangers and members of my family's church, when George walks up to me.

This man is ancient, bent like a finger and frail. Tufts of white hair surround his wrinkled face. Like always, he's wearing thick glasses, massive hearing aids, and his veteran's hat. George was my first introduction to the concept of war, when he told me as a child why he was missing two fingers on his hand. He's been a fixture at church since I can remember. I've only ever seen him at there or in uniform at parades, the rest of his time spent in a nursing home somewhere. He picks up a deviled egg and says, in his quiet voice,

"You know, before your grandfather died, he told me that now he had 3 grandsons."

I'm frozen in place. I don't know what to say to that, if I should say anything at all. This is not a conversation I expected to have, especially not with this man. But he continues.

"I didn't know what he meant! So he explained it to me."

And I can imagine it. My great grandfather, uninformed and opinionated but supportive, explaining to his friend the news he barely understood himself over after-service coffee and cookies. His eldest grandchild was now a boy.

"And, you know, I didn't know what to think."

Here, George looks me up and down. This 90-something year old war veteran, who knew me mostly as the little girl playing in the church kitchen with his wife, processing what my great grandfather had really meant. It feels like a long pause, even thought it probably passed in a second.

"But you look good. So, eh!"

And then he smiled, shrugged, and walked away without another word. If I was fine, if I was happier, then that's all that mattered.

George passed away this week, at the age of 99. This memory has been bouncing around in my head for a while, but I wasn't sure if or how I should share it. It was a conversation that meant very little, but also meant the world. It was scary, and funny, and the moment when I realized that sometimes the people you least expect will accept you. Sometimes, even if they don't fully understand, even if they barely know you, someone will choose to support you. And that will always matter.

I hope you're happy and that you treasure this memory

RECALL POST! huge listeria outbreak in the US & canada that has been ongoing for YEARS, with dozens of foods recalled!

posted february 10, 2024

fucking hell. what the fuck. CLICK THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION, INCLUDING SPECIFIC PRODUCTS. there will be more updates. this recall is ongoing and more products are being recalled by the day.

"The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and local partners, are investigating illnesses in a multi-year, multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked to queso fresco and cotija cheeses manufactured by Rizo Lopez Foods, Inc., of Modesto, California.

This outbreak includes cases dating back to 2014 and is currently ongoing."

DATING BACK TO -> 2014 <-

listeriosis, the infection caused by listeria, can become very serious, and can cause death, miscarriage, and lifelong disability. most infections are not severe. listeria typically makes you sick within 2 weeks of exposure, but it can take as long as 3 months after being exposed to get sick. listeria is the third leading cause of foodborne illness deaths in the united states, and there have been confirmed deaths from this outbreak.

rizo-lopez foods supplies dairy ingredients to dozens of different brands making dozens of different types of foods across the entire country.

recalled products include:

Bright Farms, Campesino, Casa Cardenas, Dole, Don Francisco, Don Pancho, Dos Ranchitos, El Huache, Food City, Fresh Express, H-E-B, La Ordena, Marketside, President’s Choice, Ready Pac Bistro, Rio Grande, Rizo Bros, Rojos, San Carlos, Santa Maria, Tio Francisco, Trader Joe’s, 365 Whole Foods Market.

and freshly made food from various stores. for a good chunk of these products, all prior expiration dates are being recalled. many of these foods have been potentially contaminated for years.

directions from the CDC:

"Listeria is especially harmful to people who are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or have weakened immune systems. This is because Listeria is more likely to spread beyond their gut to other parts of their body, resulting in a severe condition known as invasive listeriosis."

you can check the ongoing list of recalled products as well as more information about the outbreak in the US through the FDA link or the CDC link.

for canada: the canadian recalls link to the US FDA + CDC investigation for more detailed information, but you can keep track of rizo-lopez recalls in canada here.

check your fridge, check your freezer, check your emails and voicemails for recall notifications, check in on others, clean contaminated surfaces thoroughly, and stay safe. do NOT fuck with listeria!

this outbreak and associated recalls affect food commonly eaten during the superbowl! which is tomorrow! please check the links for the recall list if you plan on eating or serving anything dairy, or if you know anyone throwing a party!

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajioon

May Allāh grant them Jannat ul Firdaws. Aameen

This is so sad. And it makes me so angry that this is still happening.

To any fic writers who worry they are wasting their time... I read a fic for a relatively small and inactive fandom about three years ago. And there was one specific scene where a character watched another dancing like an idiot to a beyonce song and it was so sweet and loving that even now years later I have that song on one of my spotify playlist so every once in a while it will play and remind me of that fic, and every time it does I smile and feel a little happier.

The stats on a fic will never really tell you if your writing touched someone. There's no numerical way to show you what impact you made. Maybe you are wasting time, or maybe you are writing something that someone will remember for a long time, something that will never fail to make them smile.

I'm sorry, professor, I consider publishing your course a day late, having a mandatory live zoom meeting during business hours to stay enrolled for an asynchronous class, and requiring students to use a $60 ***pdf*** that you wrote as their textbook to be exceptionally unprofessional and since I've still got 14 days to get a refund I'm totally not paying $150 to take your class.

Also, for all the newbie professors out there: a syllabus is not just a greeting and a list of assignments. If you haven't given your students AT LEAST your office hours, your late work policy, and your preferred method of being contacted, then you have not given your students a syllabus it's just sparkling announcements.

But really. Sir. SIR. You teach Speech 100. This is one of the most basic classes with like, 20 of the most widely available accepted textbooks and you want me to pay sixty dollars for a pdf of a book that you rewrite every semester so that there are no previous editions?

Buddy this is interpersonal communication, not introductory rhetoric. Why is one of your *four* total assignments about Socrates?

Maybe it's the fact that I've taken Spch 100 interpersonal communication three times already, maybe it's the fact that I grew up with somebody who taught Spch 100 interpersonal communication from 1981 to 2018, but buddy what the fuck are you doing?

"Some of our lectures will only be available for 24 hours so it is up to you to stay on top of it."

Friend, you are teaching an asynchronous online 100-level class at a community college during a pandemic. Get off your high horse, a third of your students are probably parents. There is no reason whatsoever to limit access to course materials to 24 hours unless you are doing it to be a controlling asshole.

Also YOU published your class a day and a half late! You don't get to publish your class late with an incomplete syllabus and tell students to "stay on top of it." Especially not since that means that people have two fewer days to buy your PDF textbook and only one full day to prepare for your mandatory 1pm on a Tuesday zoom meeting!

Why do you require me to have access to a printer for an online class? Oh yeah it's because you expect me to print out and draw on sections of your $60 ebook.

SIR. No thank you.

Kids, new students: this is a level of bullshit and disorganization from a professor that you do not have to put up with. This is a neatly ordered series of red flags that say "this professor is going to be absolutely unbearable."

Also *any* humanities class where your whole grade is 4 assignments should get serious side-eye. You should be able to pass most 100 level humanities classes by just turning in weekly assignments. 4 assignments means that by the time you figure out how the professor grades you're probably close to halfway through the class. Look for classes that require weekly participation as a major chunk of the grade because that way, even if you fuck up a project in a major way, just showing up can save your ass.

Me the first time I was in college: this isn't fair, but I guess these are the hoops I gotta jump through.

Me now: absolutely not. I am too old, too experienced, and my ass is too fat to fit through that hoop. Kid, you are an ADJUNCT, what the hell do you think you're doing?

One of the stated goals of the first assignment isn't "assess understanding of the subject" or "introduce basic concepts" it is "prove access to course materials, such as the textbook."

Friend. You are supposed to have global learning outcomes for your students. If your goal is "teach students how to pass MY" class and not "teach students the basics of interpersonal communication" you are a bad teacher.

Okay everyone get out your bingo cards because the professor just managed to get his class halfway updated and here's what I've found:

And just for shits and giggles, the first assignment is due one month into the semester so you'll have no idea what his grading style is until well past the add/drop date and that assignment is the only one that requires the $60 pdf textbook that he wrote. This is HIS description of that assignment:

Buddy.

No.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Also the midterm and final were scheduled for a one-hour slot on weekdays in spite of, again, being an asynchronous course.

So I've already dropped it (good riddance) but I probably WILL contact the dean and say "hey so I signed up for this asynchronous course because I am a returning student with a full-time job and your professor decided on his own that he was going to schedule 1pm zoom times and 1pm exams for all his async students, which is probably going to cause problems for other students who are enrolled because I'd guess that at least some of them have classes that are SCHEDULED for T/TH 1pm class meetings oh and also just FYI your boy was 28 hours late on publishing his class and didn't get his syllabus up until 34 hours after he was supposed to so I'm not really sure his time management skills are up to teaching async classes and ADDITIONALLY he noted that he would only make the lecture materials available for 24 hours and then did not list when those lectures were scheduled in his syllabus so it would be very easy for busy students to miss lectures because he didn't schedule them but also won't be leaving the materials available. So. You know. Someone should probably check on that."

His score on ratemyprofessor is 1.8 and even the two people who gave him a 4 say "I failed the final because he hadn't taught us any of that information or put any of those fields of study on his final exam study guide."

Also, new students, you must learn the proper way to complain to the dean.

Every department has That One Fucking Asshole who everyone wants to see gone but students tend to complain about personalities or "why is my speech teacher assigning an economic ethics paper published by a conservative think-tank funded by the Waltons" and that is not how it's done. The administration may agree that he's an asshole, but "he's an asshole" isn't a good enough reason not to renew someone's contract and go through the time and effort to bring in a new hire.

So you get them on bureaucratic shit. "Published his course late," "did not provide office hours," "did not provide a way to communicate and did not respond to calls, emails, or canvas messages," "set required meeting times for asynchronous courses" - THIS is the shit that the administration can pin a professor to the wall on because it isn't student said vs. Professor said.

Like, look, you are important and your feelings and thoughts matter, but the administration knows there will always be someone who is offended about something innocuous who doesn't know how school works and they're not going to write up a professor because of how a student thinks the class should be run. But they WILL write up and add observations for a professor who doesn't run a classroom the way that the school policy says a class should be run.

It's getting to be school time again, and some of you will have garbage professors.

You're paying for this, do not accept this kind of behavior. Read and re-read the last part from @ms-demeanor because complaining effectively is key to stopping this bullshit.

If you are stuck with a professor that is administering thier class well but being hostile, belittling students, not making reasonable accommodations or otherwise being a jackass, write down specific incidents (what was said to who where and when, if possible, take screenshots or make recordings of class), and look up your school's nondiscrimination policies, classroom safety standards and inclusivity goals. It's way more effective to say "on September 3rd professor last name said "(fucking nonsense here)" to student Y, which is a clear violation of classroom safety rule (Cite specific rule) and stated inclusivity goal "(goal here)" and I want to know what administrative actions I can expect to see while you handle this." Than it is to say "hey prof lastname's been really mean/a bigot in class"

The admin almost certainly wants to fire this asshole too. Give them the legal ammo they need.

You can also record your classes. When you ask a question, begin the question with "Professor Whatevertheirnameis" so that it is obvious who is answering the question and what their voice sounds like so if they are being hostile and unprofessional, you have a recording that they cannot dispute and that it isn't a "the student interpreted what I said wrong" issue.

You can also video record the classes. There's nothing better than putting a clip up of a professor being a total shithead on the school's Facebook page to light a fire under the admin's ass in fixing the problem before prospective students and parents see that stuff.

Stories like this make me lose my mind. Yes, please, for the love of God, call people on their shit.

C A L L P E O P L E O N T H E I R S H I T.

If your teacher is doing this to you and you hate it they are doing it to others and they hate it too. The teacher's colleagues who take the time and effort to do things right hate it. The teacher's colleagues who see good students give up on their education or run out of the money to keep pursuing their education H H A A A T T E it. They are incensed. They want to meet said teacher in a dark space and commit acts of violence, but they don't like the thought of prison, so here we are.

Get your sleuthing shoes on and take notes about every little thing this asshole does and skewer them with the facts. Your heroism is needed.

Also: if you complain and they don't cook anything. Complain to the higher level. I had a math teacher like this who would stare at the female students and just made my life hell my last semester. And I complained. And they did nothing. And I admit the reason I didn't follow through was because I was moving. But if you're not, you should follow up and make sure they're checking on your douchy professors. This guy belittled me and refused to make exceptions for my disabilities. They're NOT ALLOWED to do that.

Can we just repeat that a few more times, 

“The comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.”

“The comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.”

bolded is important