Pix and Amy, insent and THANK YOU!

oh my god, ita. really?

My other favorite tino moment from the past two days is, after I said she wasn't an expert and I questioned her and parsed her sentences down to point out that just circling verbs doesn't work because "use" is not really the skill we want to teach she said, "You know what I mean."

I said, "No. And if a student gave me evidence in an essay but didn't do any explanation/justification but merely said, 'you know what I mean' I'd fail them."

So all morning the catchphrase became "You know what I mean."

Clearly, tino and his ilk have multiplied.

Now I've got to figure out if there is a relatively cheap fix (buffing? wax? Rub charcoal into it now and then-car is black) that will just minimize it so it doesn't stand out so much (because I'm not spending $$s on a paintjob for this- it runs from the headlight to across the back door) or if I'll go the route of just letting my car be so filthy I can't tell.

(And the worst part is, I can't put it past the feral kids from 2 houses across the street. I call them feral for a reason. We not-parents of the neighborhood try to model good behavior and don't hesitate to stop them from doing stupid shit and for the most part, they pay attention when you call 'em on it, but they have shit-ass parents. And they're all 10 and under. All eleventy of them. I told them they couldn't touch my yard or come on my property unless I asked them, and they've abided by that. But you have to tell them what is acceptable because clearly no one else has. I'm pretty much certain that C, the eldest, is going to end up dead or in prison because no one told him not to. Gah.)

Backflung, Kat.

I'm reading the Ta-Nehisi Coates' piece in the Atlantic. I assume it is stirring controversy somewhere, but it's so well reasoned and meticulously constructed.

I just opened that to read this evening, but I think it's going to wait till morning. My brain is tired.

I just finished the first section - I feel like I need to take it slow and not allow myself to skim a single paragraph, and keep Word open so I can take notes on all the books I need to hunt down for further reading.

What is most interesting, having just finished the entire article, is how his argument isn't just about slavery bad, but he so carefully explains the dots of economic subjugation that have been a result of carefully constructed 20th century policy.

It is uncomfortable to read.

It was uncomfortable, and I oddly read it while taking the bus through a neighborhood that I presume was redlined