Three Interesting Things x 2

I've been adjusting to a new schedule and just did not get as far as posting end of last week, so here we are with extra things. 

1. This story about digital collections at the Library of Congress told part in comic form is very cool.

2. Mo Farah talked a little more about his running career and his journey to find more about how he was trafficked.

3. This is an older story, but I had not even heard that some people should get different sized vaccine needles, so, if this is news to you, here you go.

4. This story looks at how a new licensing requirement in Hawai'i is impacting traditional birthing practices. 

5. I found this story about the proposal for warning labels on social media useful. 

6. Oh, and remember when media was full of teens doing fake baby experiments for health class?  Apparently, they actually increased teen pregnancy. 

The Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo Recommendations

The Ripped Bodice released their Summer Bingo Board, and I have some suggestions.  As is often the case, they have a few I think you just have to stumble over, or have an incredible memory for. And a few that are giving me angst because I know I've read something with that,but what was it?  But here we go. And yes, I did include myself as one of the suggestions.  

Love in a bookstore: The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

Bet/Pact to Find Love: Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter, The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve

Magical Academy: How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy

Title Includes a Name: Sammi Espinoza's Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Olympics: Aiming High by Tanya Chris

Pen pals: The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest

Time Travel: Throwback by Maurene Goo

Diners, Drive ins, and Dives: Shake It Up Mickey Chambers by Charish Reid

Duel: Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

Cover has an animal on it: Oh hi, my freebie short Cocker on the Porch fits this. 

Runaway Bride/Groom: Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa

Lighthouse:

Drag: 

Fish out of water: Wish Out of Water by Holley Trent

Motorcycles: Nowhere but Here by Katie McGarry

Astrology: Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods

Protagonist smells like home:

But Daddy I love him!: You Made a Fool Out of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Dragons: There are so many, but Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison is an option.

Amusement Park/Carnival: Zyla and Kai bu Kristina Forest

Cursed Love: Revelle by Lyssa Mia Smith

Grumpy/Sunshine: Fake it Til You Make It by Siera London. 

Lost Treasure: Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura, After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

Art Gallery:

Bias and Privelege

In going back to revisit some of the posts from around RWA's newsmaking, I realized I alluded to something about DEI programs. 

I do want to be clear. There are great DEI and DIBs and other programs. I have been in some. 

But some programs are a little sanded down. And so what can happen goes something like this. The program will talk about things like unconscious bias, how we all have it. It happens to everyone. 

And yes, unconscious bias does happen to everyone. We live in a racist and bigoted society. And so those things seep into everything. Being not racist and not bigoted takes work. 

But if you don't also discuss privilege and power structures, then its easy to walk away thinking oh, we're all a little bit racist, and so people can be racist about me too. And that's not true for everyone. 

I can be personally biased towards doctors who speak French, but that is not something that our whole society is designed to support. If I say I simply am more attracted to blondes, so much of our society is set up to reinforce that. 

And I can be a person of color and still be racist. I can be a woman and still be sexist. Our societal structures are designed to support all that.

So in a DEI training that just teaches we all have biases and should look out for them, well, it's not wrong. But that lesson on it's own does very little to help me unpack those biases. 

Tara Describes the Tony Nominated Plays and Musicals Badly

Technically these are one sentence descriptions, but, yeah, no claims to accuracy here.  This is done with love and appreciation for all the hard work that goes into making theater.  I only counted those nominated for best play, musical, or revival of one of those

. 

Jaja's African Hair Braiding - A day in the life of terrible immigration policies, and hair. 

Mary Jane - Being a mom is super hard. 

The Mother Play - Mothers are a lot. 

Stereophonic - Making art with other people is so great and also so hard and awful.

Hell's Kitchen - Not-quite-Alicia-Keys is coming of age. 

Illinoise - Campfire tales with dance. 

The Outsiders - In the 1960's it was hard being a parentless boy. 

Suffs - What if we let women vote, that would be cool.  I'm sure no one will oppose that.*

Water for Elephants - What if you really did run away to be with the circus.

An Enemy of the People - What if you tried to warn people of a deadly risk, and they got really mad. 

Appropriate - Sorting through a dead relative's things always leads to drama. 

Purlie Victorious:  A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch - A preacher has a plan to win back his inheritance from the plantation owner. 

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club - One needs a good place to relax and sing, when there are Nazis and political upheaval going on outside. 

Gutenberg! The Musical! - Two guys try to pitch a musical about Gutenberg. 

Merrily We Roll Along - Telling a story about friends breaking up backwards, so it seems happy.

The Who's Tommy - PTSD can sometimes result in excellent pinball skills.

*I know.  It's two sentences.  Oops.  My bad.   

Three Interesting Things

1. Some of the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting are graduating high school, and they talked about that. 

2. While it sounds a little like a sci-fi plot, they are airdropping special mosquitos in an attempt to help preserve some special birds in Hawai'i. 

3. A hotel fire alarm went off in Dublin, Ireland, and one of the hotel guests made a point to meet the fire fighters, a man named Henry Winkler. 

7 Things about Tricked by Love

1. Side characters in books are always fun because they can be like cue balls, bouncing off the other balls, and resetting the table.

2. Making them main characters is always a little tougher, because now they need internal thoughts and feelings. 

3. When I wrote Hot Bartender, and created Lillian (Zane's sister) and Xavier (Zane's friend and eventual co-worker), I had no additional plans for them.

4. But well, Lillian apparently had plans. So when in Troubled by Love, Lillian mentioned a secret relationship, I realized I had to write that.

5. As with my other books, this book stands on it's own. The only thing you will learn from reading Tricked by Love that is that the couples in Hot Bartender and Troubled by Love are still together. Also, timewise, Tricked starts before Troubled but ends after it. 

6. Is there a museum date in here? Yup. And food? Yup. And a reference to DC's dinosaur, aka dinosaur butt?  Also, yep.

7. Lillian doesn't date bartenders. Xavier doesn't do secret relationships. They are both about to break their rules.

Lillian's brother is a bartender, and the bartender circle in DC is too small for her to date within that pool. She meets a hot guy on the customer side of a bar and goes home with him. When she discovers he is a bartender too, she decides they never need to meet again. And that works, until he shows up to Thanksgiving dinner.

Xavier's family drama means he likes things clear and upfront. But he never forgot Lillian, and when they end up seated at the same dinner table, he decides he'll agree to just about anything for another chance with her.

Except secret relationships never stay secret for too long. When Lillian's brother and Xavier start looking into working together, Lillian and Xavier are either going to need to go public or end things.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VrcBza

Apple: https://apple.co/454n0nP

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3RdOgdQ

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/3X0PInw

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/mdwRYw

Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4aKZiy2

Three Interesting Things

1. As someone who has worked in benefits, I have a lot of thoughts about why hospital pricing transparency would be hard, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a great goal.  NPR talked to Fat Joe who has been working on this issue. 

2. In other healthcare news, there's a possible tooth regrowing drug that's about to go into testing. 

3. And it has come to my attention that a new cat color has been identified and named salty licorice. 

"Long Way Down" at Olney Theatre

Content notes: On stage death by implied gunshot, grief, frequent use of prop gun, including pointing at the audience.

I listened to a podcast about resilience after natural disasters where they interviewed mental health specialists who had gone to Puerto Rico and talked about meeting folks for whom this was like the third or fourth life disaster they had faced. 

It was an accidental choice on my part, I just picked next episode on my way to the theater, but in many ways it was apt. 

I listened to the audiobook of Jason Reynolds "Long Way Down" years ago. 

It was turned into a one man play that I never managed to get to. But the story of Will who hops in an elevator with a gun after his brother is murdered, intent on evening the score, only to encounter ghosts of his past - well a one man play made sense. 

The book is short, making use of prose and wordplay in creative ways. 

A musical did not seem as obvious a choice. But we all know I love a musical. 

For the musical, we get to spend more time with some of the characters. We get to know Sean, Will's brother, and his mom, quickly in the first song. So that when Sean is killed in the third song, it's heartbreaking, even though you knew it was coming. 

The set design was fantastic, using a whirling, twirling elevator cage that fills up with ghosts. 

There are lovely little details. During one flashback moment, when Will remembers talking about grief with his mom and his brother, his mom sings about not pushing grief away, while Sean dances and teases Will behind her. 

And Will's uncle wears a Washington Bullets hat. 

The songs cover a range of styles. 

This was a really fascinating show, that adapted the source material in an interesting way. 

For those who haven't engaged with the material before, the book, and this musical version fall into what I often call conversation plays. Which is to say, it's about the questions raised, not the answers. It's a great story, but the ending is intentionally open ended. (Two theater-goers at my showing spotted an actor leaving and tried to get him to give them the answer. The actor wisely, but kindly, refused.)

So, you may want to go with a friend so you can all talk about it after. 

Covid note: Olney Theatre does not have a mask requirement, but they do have MERV air filtration that runs prior to and during the show, per their website.