THE silken texture of the marriage tie bears a daily strain of wrong and insult to which no other human relation can be subjected without lesion; and sometimes the strength that knits society together might appear to the eye of faltering faith the curse of those immediately bound by it. Two people by no means reckless of each other’s rights and feelings, but even tender of them for the most part, may tear at each other’s heart-strings in this sacred bond with perfect impunity; though if they were any other two they would not speak or look at each other again after the outrages they exchange. It is certainly a curious spectacle, and doubtless it ought to convince an observer of the divinity of the institution.

THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM

by
William Dean Howells

The Ukrainian Armed Forces released another great video:

The sunflowers at the end hint that Russians will rot in Ukrainian ground, fertilizing it with their corpses.

That’s how you do infowars.

I went to the global foods store yesterday because I wanted to get a box of Ukrainian chocolates for a really cool colleague in advising. There used to be shelves and shelves of Ukrainian products at the store. I even tweeted out a picture once and got retweeted by the Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture.

But yesterday it was really sad. No Ukrainian products. Even the word “Ukraine” above the aisle was removed, and an empty space glares at you where the word used to be. Everything on the shelves is Russian. This is very convenient for Russia. Invade a country, murder its people, and eliminate a competitor.

After rummaging around for 20 minutes, I did find a box of Ukrainian chocolates. I looked at the manufacturing date and it’s February 17, 2022. A week before the war.

The only reason I didn’t start crying right there in the aisle is that there was a Russian couple there and I didn’t want to give them the pleasure.

Of course, there’s no way I’ll now be able to relinquish this box of candy. I’ll have to get something different for the colleague because I can’t bear to see the last candy go.

I don’t know, folks, I tried giving every opportunity to the method used in American elementary schools to teach reading but I don’t think it works. I haven’t criticized it until now because I didn’t want to be rigid and decided to give it a chance.

For those who aren’t from here, the method is this. Instead of explaining to the children how letters come together to make words (m and a is mmmmaaaa, etc), teachers have them memorize batches of unrelated words called “sight words.” One week they memorize “make, go, and, to.” The next week they memorize “Monday, you, cat, five.” Problem is, by the time you get to batch 3, kids have forgotten batch 1.

They’ve been doing these “sight words” since preschool and I’m seeing zero results. I’m not worried for my kid who doesn’t need sight words because she already reads. But I’m really not surprised at the low literacy levels.

I don’t think anybody anywhere else teaches reading this way. Do they? Is there something I’m not getting?

If your loved one goes missing in the wilderness, the best data on potentially related cases comes from Bigfoot hunters, not the federal government.

Lisa Gardner, One Step to Far