Monday, June 30, 2025

Boston Globe Today

 

Daniel Flores-Martinez and Kenia Guerrero, a US citizen, have three children, including a 12-year-old daughter with multiple disabilities.Kenia Guerrero

Kenia Guerrero is co-owner of a painting business in Chelsea.

On Mother’s Day, May 11, my life fell apart. What should have been a day to celebrate family unity culminated in family separation at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chelsea.

That morning, my husband, Daniel Flores-Martinez, noticed suspicious cars parked down the street from our home, but we continued our daily activities. We prepared ourselves to head to church. My husband helped our three children get into the car, including our 12-year-old daughter, who lives with multiple disabilities. A few minutes after driving away, we saw flashing lights behind us. I pulled over.

Suddenly, the suspicious cars my husband had seen surrounded us. Masked, armed officers swarmed our vehicle from both sides. One of them asked for my identification, but he was clearly interested in my husband, not me. He insisted on knowing who my husband was.

I know my rights as a US citizen, and as the driver, I asked why they wanted to know about a passenger. I asked who they were and why our car had been stopped. But I received no answers. Within moments, one of the officers raised what looked like a weapon and used it to tap the glass of the passenger window, suddenly threatening to break it. I begged them not to use violence because my children were in the back seat.



Without any regard for our safety, they smashed the passenger-side window.

Glass shards flew into the car, even into the back seat, where our children were sitting. They screamed. We were all terrified. Within seconds, ICE officers physically reached inside the vehicle through the shattered window and unlocked the front passenger door. Then the officers opened the door and unbuckled Daniel’s seat belt. They forcefully yanked him out of the car. They slammed him face down onto the sidewalk, their knees pressed into his back, even though he never resisted. A bystander captured it all on video.



I ran out to see what was happening, but an officer restrained me. I pleaded with her, saying, “Aren’t you a mother?” But the officers did not stop. My children sobbed as the officers arrested Daniel, taking him away. No one ever told us who they were. No one showed a warrant. And just like that, Daniel was gone.

Now he has been deported. And we are left behind.

Daniel, an undocumented immigrant, was deported to Matamoros, Mexico — even though he has no ties there.

Daniel is a loving father and a devoted husband, and he helps run our small family painting business. He is the backbone of our home, community, and church. His sudden and violent removal has left our family in crisis — medically, emotionally, and economically.

Our daughter is disabled. She lives with epilepsy, hydrocephalus, and cerebral palsy. These conditions require constant medical care and hands-on support. She cannot dress or bathe without assistance. Daniel provided all this care unassumingly, with love and diligence, every single day.

Since he was taken, our daughter’s condition has worsened. Her mental health has deteriorated. She lacks motivation to attend school and has a hard time focusing in class. How can anyone blame her? Her father is gone.



I am doing my best, but I am now the sole caregiver to our children — our daughter and two sons, ages 14 and 3— and I am struggling.

Daniel’s deportation has devastated us. Lawyers for Civil Rights is providing us with free legal support, and La Colaborativa is helping us with vital community support during this crisis.

Our youngest son refuses to ride in the car, haunted by the memory of what happened. Our teenager has withdrawn from school and friends. We’ve lost our only source of income: The painting business Daniel and I built together. I cannot sleep. I cannot afford to keep up with our daughter’s care. I am holding everything together by a thread. Why would the government separate our family?

Because Daniel was undocumented, he was detained at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. We begged ICE to let us have one year to transition our daughter’s complex medical care from Boston Medical Center to cerebral palsy specialists in Mexico. Daniel committed to self-deportation at the end of that period. He asked only to stay long enough to ensure that our daughter’s care would not be interrupted in ways that could trigger further harm to her health, including seizures.

At every turn, we were ignored. No one listened to our plea, despite extensive medical evidence. No one considered the trauma to our children. No one thought about the danger to a disabled child who now must be medically relocated to Mexico as our family plans to reunite with Daniel.

Daniel posed no threat. He was not a flight risk. He had lived peacefully in our community for years. He was our provider. Our caregiver. Our everything.



Now he is gone. And we are unraveling.

This is not just an immigration issue. This is an issue of basic humanity. It is the brutal unraveling of a family. It is the abandonment of a disabled child. It is the erasure of the care, love, and labor that immigrant fathers like Daniel give every day — unseen, unrecognized, and, now, violently taken.

We are still here. We are still trying to survive.

Please remember Daniel Flores-Martinez’s name. And please remember what the federal government has done to our family.

This All Ends When Enough of Us Say NO!

 Image

Thailand

 Image

Hello Summer

My neighbor has no side mirrors or license plate on his vehicle. And he drives it on the highway 20 miles to work each day. I worry about him. He's a sweet kid with a lovely young family.

Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. Theodore Roosevelt

 Image

Makes me so PROUD!!!

 Image

"I've had so many rainbows in my clouds." "be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud," Maya Angelou?? I've had so many rainbows in my clouds maya angelou The quote "I've had so many rainbows in my clouds. I had a lot of clouds, but I have had so many rainbows" comes from Dr. Maya Angelou . This quote reflects her understanding and appreciation for the kindness and support received throughout her life, even during challenging times. The "clouds" symbolize difficulties and hardships, while the "rainbows" represent the people who brought her hope, help, and k a 19th-century African-American song that says, "When it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds".

"I've had so many rainbows in my clouds." "be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud," Maya Angelou The quote "I've had so many rainbows in my clouds. I had a lot of clouds, but I have had so many rainbows" comes from Dr. Maya Angelou . This quote reflects her understanding and appreciation for the kindness and support received throughout her life, even during challenging times. The "clouds" symbolize difficulties and hardships, while the "rainbows" represent the people who brought her hope, help, and kindness.  Dr. Angelou shared this quote during an interview on Oprah's Master Class. It was inspired by a 19th-century African-American song that says, "When it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds".  The quote highlights the importance of recognizing and appreciating the positive influences and support systems in our lives. It also encourages people to "prepare yourself so that you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud," meaning to be a source of help and encouragement for others, regardless of their background or beliefs.



I'm not picking up that hanky panky hanky, I said as we left the park.

Zadie Smith: Not everyone wants this conventional little life your rowing your boat toward. I like my river of fire...I am not afraid.

 

Photo of Zadie Smith

Mamdani on Trump calling him a communist: "I've already had to start get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since betrayed."

Mandani on meet the press

LOVE HIM!!!


 

Brooch Broach Vase Voz

Inspired

 https://headingprints.com/cdn/shop/files/animals-530635_1800x1800.jpg?v=1730000033*

https://headingprints.com/cdn/shop/files/animals-907950_1800x1800.jpg?v=1730000033 

Happiness is never grand. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me. Aldous Huxley

We live together, we act on, and react to one another; but always, and in all circumstances, we are by ourselves. Aldous Huxley

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley

It isn’t a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past. Aldous Huxley

If you don’t gamble, you’ll never win. Aldous Huxley

The more you know, the more you see. Aldous Huxley

A totally unmystical world would be a world totally blind and insane. Aldous Huxley

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood. Aldous Huxley

Emotion is the chief source of all becoming-conscious. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion. Jung

The search for truth is the most important work in the whole world-- and the most dangerous. Carl Jung

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion. Aldous Huxley

 Molly Jong-Fast

“WIRED PUBLISHED A shocking investigation this week based on records, including audio recordings, of hundreds of emergency calls from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. The calls—which include reports of incidents of staff sexual assaults, suicide attempts, and head injuries—indicate a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding.”
 
Abu Ghraib-level stuff to follow. This will become decidedly worse.
 

Sunday, June 29, 2025

“The strength of a person's spirit would then be measured by how much 'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. jung

Swimming in the Mill River with my Dog

 

STOP ICE DOT NET

 Image

1968 THE SWIMMER starring Burt Lancaster

 

The Night Editor: THE SWIMMER (1968)Movie of the day: The Swimmer (1968) | ladycultblog

Marilyn Munroe: When it's Hot Like this I keep my Undies in the Icebox

 https://x.com/i/status/1939295360247119944

Winter Swimmers in RI: Polar Bear Club

 https://watch.ripbs.org/video/going-cold-pej37k/

The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate

 Image

 Image

The Birds are Awake

I woke up at 1 AM. 2x a year I have a few nights where I do not sleep. This is one of them. I went to my studio and looked at the magnificent paintings of Julian Hatton. At about 4:20 the birds started waking up.

Seneca: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

Julian Hatton Painter


 

George Bilgere

 I get up in the morning and take the helm of the thousand-foot ore boat that is my life, guiding it oh-so-carefully through the canal, doing as little damage as possible, heading out slowly, slowly--but not slowly enough!--toward the great ocean.

For the artist all criticism is devastating, and no praise is sufficient. One might remind oneself that criticism comes from paid detractors, these, of necessity, talentless and otherwise unemployable. But our umbrage at criticism of our dog is not lessened by the critic’s profession as a breeder.

DAVID MAMET

Human Highway Neil Young from Oceanside Countryside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebu-5lQ2lwU&list=PLoxhF9wWTB53pX8IN7QSsCjusa4GVhh54

Love these! Why be flat when you can sparkle?

 I call it Emily beer.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Neil Young

 Razor Love

 Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I got to bet that your old man
Became fascinated with his own plan
Turned you loose, your mama too
There wasn't a thing that you could do
Oh-oh-oh-oh
But I got faith in you
It's a razor love that cuts clean through
Oh-oh-oh-oh
I got faith in you
It's a razor love that cuts clean through
Oh-oh-oh-oh
You really made my day
With the little things you say

[Chorus]
Looking through the window at a silhouette
Trying to find something I can't find yet
Imagination is my best friend
Got to look out for the greedy hand, greedy hand
Make a living like a rolling stone
On the road, there's no place like home
Silhouettes on the window

[Verse 2]
Who was it made your eyes flicker like that?
Tell me baby, how'd you get the knack?
You came to me with open arms
And I really took you down the track
Oh-oh-oh-oh
And all I've got for you
Is the kind of love that cuts clean through
Oh-oh-oh-oh
All I got for you is a razor love
It cuts clean through

Oh-oh-oh-oh
You really made my day
With the little things you say
 
[Chorus]
I'm looking through the window at a silhouette
Trying to find something I can't find yet
Imagination is my best friend
Got to look out for the greedy hand, greedy hand
Make a living like a rolling stone
On the road, there's no place like home
Silhouettes on the window

[Outro]
You really made my day
With the little things you say


---------- neil young----------

I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean
For a heart of gold
I've been in my mind
It's such a fine line
That keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old
Keeps me searching
For a heart of gold
And I'm getting old

Swam Outside in the Gray Drizzle

 It was glorious especially with the new backstroke flags.

"Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see." - Carl Jung

"In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends." - Okakura Kakuzo

Jane Converse

Listen

Stuck in their Development

 Image

Baba Ganoush!!

recipe 

https://cookieandkate.com/epic-baba-ganoush-recipe/

The Circus of Lost Dreams by Nin Andrews & Emily Lisker

    


Al Hirschfeld

  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Hirschfeld

"This Supreme Court is an existential threat to the rule of law." – Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Vonnegut

 Image

Rhode Island becomes fifth state to outlaw cat declawing: Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland have also banned declawing of cats statewide. Several major cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Denver, also prohibit the procedure. Virginia has also banned declawing with limited exceptions

The Rhode Island State House. (WLNE)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A bill outlawing the declawing of cats in the Ocean State passed into law on Thursday after it was approved by lawmakers on June 18.

Though the bill was not signed by Gov. Dan McKee, it will still take effect on Sept. 1.

The new law makes it illegal for any person to perform a declawing, also known as an onychectomy, which amputates the final done in each of an animal’s toes.

According to bill sponsors Melissa Murray (D-Woonsocket) and William O’Brien (D-North Providence), research shows the procedure has been shown to increase the risks for biting and aggression among house cats, and can also cause infection, nerve damage and back pain.

Any violators will face the revocation or suspension of their veterinary license.

The only exception to the law will be if the procedure is determined to be medically necessary to address any illness, infection, injury, disease or condition.

Rhode Island joins Washington, D.C. and four other states in enacting the ban.

‘Basically impossible to get them back’: Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime, say experts

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/27/russia-ukrainian-children-abduction-war-crime

Hello We LOVE YOU Gov Pritzker

 Image

Carl Jung: Seldom, or perhaps never, does a marriage develop into an individual relationship smoothly and without crises; there is no coming to consciousness without pain.

Jung

Image 

Claude Taylor: There’s a large violent gang on the loose across the U.S. They’re armed, masked and refuse to identify themselves. They are called ICE and they must be stopped.

Not an Easy Process

 https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/apply-for-citizenship

“Regardless of how you feel about the 14th Amendment—pick the amendment you like, the First, the Second, whatever it is—if we allow the president to dismantle the 14th by executive order, he can do it to any other amendment.” - Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell

Seneca

Image 

Petrichor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Soil and water being splashed by a raindrop

Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɪkɔːr/ PET-rih-kor)[1] is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word was coined by Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas[2] from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) 'rock' or πέτρος (pétros) 'stone' and ἰχώρ (ikhṓr), the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.

Neil Young - Complete Joel Bernstein Tapes 1976 Acoustic Soundboard Compilation

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE6QVwqPjJ0

Stuck in the Middle With You Song by Stealers Wheel ‧ 1972

Raynaud's Disease

Raynaud's (ray-NOSE) disease causes some areas of the body — such as fingers and toes — to feel numb and cold in response to cold temperatures or stress. In Raynaud's disease, smaller blood vessels that supply blood to the skin narrow. This limits blood flow to affected areas, which is called vasospasm.

Other names for this condition are:

  • Raynaud's phenomenon.
  • Raynaud syndrome.

Women are more likely than men to have Raynaud's disease. It seems to be more common in people who live in colder climates.

Treatment of Raynaud's disease depends on how bad it is and whether you have other health conditions. For most people, Raynaud's disease isn't disabling, but it can affect your quality of life.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Raynaud's disease include:

  • Cold fingers or toes.
  • Areas of skin that turn white then blue. Depending on your skin color, these color changes may be harder or easier to see.
  • Numb, prickly feeling or stinging pain upon warming or easing of stress.

During an attack of Raynaud's, affected areas of the skin usually first turn pale. Next, they often change color and feel cold and numb. When the skin warms and blood flow improves, the affected areas may change color again, throb, tingle or swell.

Raynaud's most commonly affects fingers and toes. But it also can affect other areas of the body, such as nose, lips, ears and even nipples. After warming up, the return of blood flow to the area can take 15 minutes.

Leo Tolstoy @LeoTollstoy · 14h People aren’t punished for their sins, they’re punished by their sins. This is the gravest and surest punishment.

Carl Jung Archive @QuoteJung · 3h The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Hopeful Finally!!!

 Image

Caligula

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula

Run for Something

Amanda Litman

Zohran Mamdani’s win has inspired over 3400 young people to raise their hands to run for office just since Tuesday. It’s now
@runforsomething’s biggest candidate recruitment moment since the election. A new generation of leaders is here.

Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography

 Laurie Woolever

Laurie Woolever profile image

About the author

I’m a writer and editor, and for nearly a decade, worked as the lieutenant to the late Anthony Bourdain. I’ve written for the New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach (RIP), Saveur, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and more.

I’ve been a private cook, nanny, caterer, writer, busgirl, recipe tester, farm hand, public speaker, video store clerk, and an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator. In 2016, HarperCollins published Appetites: A Cookbook, which I co-authored with Anthony Bourdain; our second collaboration, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, published in April 2021. Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, will publish in October 2021.

I co-host a food-focused podcast, Carbface for Radio, with Chris Thornton. I live and work in New York City.

 

“Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.” — Miles Davis

Seneca the Younger @SenecaQuote · 54m “Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, “Why is this so unbearable?” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.36

 People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people—a conversation with no one and yet with everyone. What could be stranger than the silence one encounters when addressing a question to a text? What could be more metaphysically puzzling than addressing an unseen audience, as every writer of books must do? And correcting oneself because one knows that an unknown reader will disapprove or misunderstand?

NEIL POSTMAN

Friday, June 27, 2025

“Just start by creating your day. Then create your life.” ― Prince, The Beautiful Ones

“The truth is, you are either here to enlighten or to discourage.” ― Prince

MUSIC IS THE ULTIMATE POWER 

LOVE IS SIMPLY THE MESSAGE

AND THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE !!!

Cool means being able to hang with yourself. All you have to ask yourself is 'Is there anybody I’m afraid of? Is there anybody who if I walked into a room and saw, I’d get nervous?' If not, then you're cool.
Prince

Half Birthday Homemade Hershey's Chocolate Cake with Candles on a float in Scituate RI


 

Smoot

 

Smoot
"364.4 smoots ± 1 ear" painted on the Harvard Bridge sidewalk in Cambridge, Massachusetts
General information
Named afterOliver R. Smoot
Conversions
1 smoot in ...... is equal to ...
   imperial/US units   ft 7 in
   SI units   1.702 m

The smoot /ˈsmt/ is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha by Oliver R. Smoot, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.[1]

Description

One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot's height at the time of the pledge, 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m). The bridge's length was measured to be 364.4 smoots (2,035 ft; 620.1 m) "± 1 εar" with the "±" showing measurement uncertainty and spelled with an epsilon to further indicate possible error in the measurement.[2][3] Over the years the "±" portion and "ε" spelling have been left out in many citations, including some markings at the site itself, but the "±" is recorded on a 50th-anniversary plaque at the end of the bridge.[4]

Arundhati Rioy


 

George Bernard Shaw Quotes


“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

“You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”
George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.”
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

“Youth is wasted on the young.”
George Bernard Shaw

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
George Bernard Shaw, Immaturity

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
George Bernard Shaw, BBC Radio presents Man and superman

“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
George Bernard Shaw 
 
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.”
George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw
“When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.”
George Bernard Shaw, Getting Married

“The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of Ibsenism

“Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!”
George Bernard Shaw

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”
George Bernard Shaw

“A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.”
George Bernard Shaw

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one."
— George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill)

"Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one."
— Churchill's response
George Bernard Shaw

“Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....”
George Bernard Shaw

“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”
George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
George Bernard Shaw

“A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.”
George Bernard Shaw

“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”
George Bernard Shaw, John Bull's Other Island

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
George Bernard Shaw

“After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.”
―   George Bernard Shaw

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Owning Yourself

 Image

A Puppet!

 Image

Tracy Chapman

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsF9cU_SnY8

Marcus Aurelius

 Image

Alex Padilla @AlexPadilla4CA · 18m The Supreme Court just cracked the door open for Trump’s dangerous push to end birthright citizenship. This isn’t just an attack on immigrant families—it’s an attack on the Constitution itself. Let’s be clear: ending birthright citizenship would gut the 14th Amendment and erase a core American value.

Carol Burnett

 https://www.youtube.com/live/E13aRIZO3tQ

Willie Handler: Food Within a Holocaust Family Can Have a Different Meaning (A Jew Lost in the Wilderness Jun 26, 2025)

https://williehandler.substack.com/p/food-within-a-holocaust-family-can

“It was not curiosity that killed the goose who laid the golden egg, but an insatiable greed that devoured common sense.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” ― Author-Poet Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

Make a silk purse of a sow's ear

Etymology  Coined by Stephen Gosson in 1579 in the book The Ephemerides of Phialo: Deuided Into Three Bookes p62v Verb  make a silk purse of a sow's ear (third-person singular simple present makes a silk purse of a sow's ear, present participle making a silk purse of a sow's ear, simple past and past participle made a silk purse of a sow's ear)    

  (idiomatic) To produce something refined, admirable, or valuable from something which is unrefined, unpleasant, or of little or no value.         1884, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 22, in The Armourer's Prentices:              "He always was an unmannerly cub," said Master Headley, as he read the letter. "Well, I've done my best to make a silk purse of a sow's ear!"          1997 May 23, Joanna Biddolph, “Mandelson has become PR’s new role model”, in PRWeek, UK, retrieved 16 Dec. 2009:              PR people can make a silk purse of a sow's ear.          2001 January 6, Penny Jackson, “House & Home: On your marks. Get set. Sell!”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 16 Dec. 2009:              A smart development can make a silk purse of a sow's ear, and the effect on older properties can be quite dramatic.  

Usage notes      Often expressed in the proverbial form: you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear.  Translations to produce something refined, from something which is unrefined      Chinese:          Mandarin: 化腐朽為神奇 / 化腐朽为神奇 (huà fǔxiǔ wéi shénqí)      Finnish: tehdä jotain hyödyllistä (+ elative)     German: aus Scheiße Geld machen (de) (profane)     Italian: cavare sangue da una rapa, cavar sangue da una rapa     Russian: сде́лать из дерьма́ конфе́тку pf (sdélatʹ iz derʹmá konfétku)  See also      put lipstick on a pig     polish a turd  

Idioms about Idiots: He Doesn't Know Shit from Shinola

 

  • Almost always used in negative constructions to describe someone's ignorance or stupidity, such as: He doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

Rep. Jamie Raskin True, it hits hard when you realize U.S. politicians want to impose the Taliban’s agenda: banning abortion rights & birth control, imposing official prayer & religious dogma in the schools, banning books considered offensive by the state & criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community.

1 Hippo!

 Image

Found in the Street


 

Prof. Feynman The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that's the most interesting: the part that doesn't go according to what you expected.

Love Potion Number Nine Song by The Searchers ‧ 1963: when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine

I took my troubles down to Madame RuthYou know that gypsy with the gold-capped toothShe's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and VineSellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine
I told her that I was a flop with chicsI've been this way since 1956She looked at my palm and she made a magic signShe said "What you need is Love Potion Number Nine"She bent down and turned around and gave me a winkShe said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"It smelled like turpentine, it looked like Indian inkI held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink
I didn't know if it was day or nightI started kissin' everything in sightBut when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and VineHe broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drinkI didn't know if it was day or nightI started kissin' everything in sightBut when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and VineHe broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number NineLove Potion Number NineLove Potion Number NineLove Potion Number Nine

Feynman

 Image

Prof. Feynman You do not find a happy life. You make it.

Pablo Neruda

 Image

Writing is selection. Just to start a piece of writing you have to choose one word and only one from more than a million in the language. Now keep going. What is your next word? Your next sentence, paragraph, section, chapter? Your next ball of fact. You select what goes in and you decide what stays out. At base you have only one criterion: If something interests you, it goes in—if not, it stays out. That’s a crude way to assess things, but it’s all you’ve got.

JOHN McPHEE

 

After a mostly dry Friday, next storm arrives, extending rainy streak to 16th weekend in Boston

Celebrated Roxbury restaurant may close after manager detained by ICE on Father’s Day

Cecelia Lizotte (left) with her daughter Ericka and her brother Paul Dama. Lizotte said her two daughters have been in tears ever since their uncle was detained by ICE on Father's Day.Cecelia Lizotte

The owner of a popular West African restaurant in Roxbury may suspend operations after its “beloved” manager was detained by immigration agents last week.

Paul Dama, who oversees operations at Suya Joint in Nubian Square, was driving to church in Brockton on Father’s Day, when he was pulled over and detained, according to Cecelia Lizotte, Dama’s sister and the restaurant’s chef and owner.

“At first, I thought it was like April Fool’s,” Lizotte said in an interview. “It’s like, I just woke up one day and my brother is nowhere to be found.”

Now, Lizotte said she’s thinking about closing the restaurant, at least temporarily, while she deals with her brother’s immigration case.

“I‘m running back and forth, trying to get the information that the [immigration] attorneys need, and then my establishment also needs me,” she said. “So I’m on the verge of either feeling defeated on a daily basis or just breaking down. ... It’s a lot for one person to navigate.“

Dama, 46, is being held in Dover, N.H., according to a public ICE database. Lizotte said a bond hearing scheduled for July 3 will determine whether he can walk free. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.



A fundraiser launched for Dama’s legal fees had raised nearly $20,000 as of Thursday afternoon.

“This sudden and painful event has shaken our family to the core, and we are currently navigating both emotional and legal challenges surrounding his detention,” the post reads. “Because of this, we are taking time to reflect and reassess what comes next for Suya Joint.”



“While we are not closing at this time, we are seriously considering what’s best for our team, our mission, and our family,” it continued.

Lizotte, who emigrated from Nigeria in 1999, opened the first Suya Joint restaurant in Roslindale in 2012 before moving to Roxbury four years later. The West African eatery is inspired by an establishment run by Lizotte’s grandmother, in her native village of Qua’an Pan.

The restaurant has been recognized as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award, as well as by Eater Boston and Boston Magazine.

Suya Joint recently opened a second location in Providence and employs 32 people across both locations, Lizotte said. Dama also sometimes works at the Rhode Island location.

Chef Cecelia Lizotte opened her second Suya Joint location in downtown Providence, focusing on Nigerian spices, stews, and fufu.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Dama immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 2019 to join his sister and her family. He has an ongoing asylum case and has authorization to work legally in the country, his sister said.

Aside from working as a manager, Dama also helps out in the kitchen.

“He’s a jack of all trades,” Lizotte said. “When Paul walks in to the establishment, if a printer is broken, he fixes it. ‘Oh, the sink is not going down.’ He finds a way to fix it.”

Dama is also trained as a social worker. Alongside his duties at the restaurant, he most recently worked at a care home, attending to five elderly men with developmental disabilities.

“He’s kind, intelligent, hard working, one of our best employees,” said Cathy Conrade, a social worker who worked with Dama until earlier this year. “I’ve been around so long, I’ve met lots of wonderful people, but he really stands out as one of the one of the best.”



Conrade said Dama and many immigrants like him come from highly qualified professional backgrounds, but settle for work in the US that is seen as menial and unglamorous.

Chef Cecelia Lizotte opened her second Suya Joint location in downtown Providence. The original Suya Joint is in Nubian Square.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

“They’ll take roles that, quite frankly, in our country, are devalued,” she said. “Dealing with human beings has not become an elevated position yet. So they will take work that other people won’t do, and do it well, and do three jobs all at the same time.”

Agnes Hodge, of Dorchester, described Dama as her adopted son. Hodge, 84, said in a phone interview she knew him from their time living in Nigeria. Dama acted as a caregiver for her in the US, helping Hodge buy groceries and other items — until he was abruptly detained.

Since then, she hasn’t been eating or sleeping — partly out of concern, and partly out of necessity, she said.

“Nobody else has come by,” Hodge said. “My life is on hold.”

Lizotte said the news of her brother’s detention was “really devastating” for the rest of the close-knit family.

“My daughter works at Shaw’s, and it’s almost like each time she has a five minute break, she’d call me in tears,” she said. “And I have to find a way to just be like, ‘Please be strong. I know you’re at work. I’m so sorry that I gave this type of news to you. But wipe your tears and pray and be hopeful.’”

Lizotte said her brother is scared because of the conditions, adding that several migrants in the same facility have been held there for months.



Dama faced two separate charges of operating under the influence last year, according to court records. On both instances, he was allegedly found asleep in his car, which was stopped on a public road with the engine running.

The charges were disposed after Dama paid $1,200 in fines, had his license temporarily suspended, and was placed on year-long probation through December 2025, per court records.

Despite his legal issues, several friends and family members submitted letters to support his immigration case.

Jeffrey Lizotte, Cecelia’s husband, said in a letter that Dama had been kidnapped and held for ransom in Nigeria before coming to the US. He added that his brother-in-law is college-educated, a practicing Catholic, and a fluent English speaker, whose moral character is “beyond reproach.” Dama’s misdemeanor offenses, he added, do ”not merit detainment and deportation, in my view.”

“I fully understand the need to keep our borders secure from those who wish to harm our people or destroy our culture,” he wrote. “But I can tell you in all sincerity that is not who Paul is. He is a good person who always puts the needs of others first. He does not deserve to be going through this harrowing experience.”

Massachusetts State Senator Liz Miranda, a Boston Democrat who represents Roxbury, also wrote a letter of support for Dama, as did Rhode Island State Representative David Morales, who described Dama as an “exemplary individual” who has “built a life for himself and his family.”

“Even with all the challenges he’s had to face, he’s continued being a positive member of our community,” Morales wrote. “Paul poses no threat to our community, and I’m concerned that he is currently detained at a detention facility in New Hampshire as if he does.”



Jeremiah Manion of the Globe Staff contributed reporting.