Jen > Recent Status Updates

Battlestar Galactica's, "So say we all," comes from the funeral speech by Father Clemens for Fred Hampton. Fascinating.

Fact: Bullets make larger holes on exit than on entrance.

Barbituates! Ha! Called it!

The boldness on those police to make claims that can be gainsaid by evidence. Wow.

When someone sleeps through that much commotion, all I can think is that they are somehow very drugged.

While the title gave away this development, the abrupness of it abruptly happened. Sorry for the vagueness, but I don't want to spoiler.

So we have our narrator meeting Fred H. Our narrator talks about how he becomes a civil rights lawyer. A few wives are involved in making a documentary about Fred. Fred gets arreated, tried, and convicted for stealing ice cream, does some lockup, and then is released pending appeal. Lots of police brutality in keeping with #BLM footage of the now. And as the chapter ends, Fred is arranging to buy the Panther HQ bldg.

I have great news! I'm the one who asked the library to purchase this book. And I'm the only one I thought would ever read it. But there's someone who isn't me that now has put this book on hold which means I have to return it to the library. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that there is someone else who likes this book. I will check the book out after they are done with it and resume reading. Yay library!

And now we have learned the history of the Skeksis and the Mystics as told at the end of the Dark Crystal movie, but in more detail than I ever was able to discern from the movie. I'm glad to have read it here.

Chapter End // That was a fascinating chapter about navigating city sidewalks if blind, the purpose of a cane, the unexpected audio utility of awnings and rain, and neuroplasticity. Unfortunately, the book is due back to the library so once again I shall return it, mark that this is the furthest I have yet read, and put it on hold to read once again at a later date. Stay tuned.

Chapter End // An interesting chapter in that it was a mashup of two different walks with two different companions in two different locations. Honestly, I could read a whole book about human observations done by the physical therapist.

Chapter End // Dr. King didn't have the results in Chicago that he hoped and Fred got arrested and put on the FBI watch list just because he wanted to encourage supporters of a public pool to attend town council meetings.

Back to the life story of our author who did his summer internship helping promote civil rights in Georgia and then falling in love with a woman working in a Fred Hampton documentary. The course is set.

Chapter End // Fred as a high school kid got stuff done. He helped others get jobs and started a summer jobs program where he lived, petitioned hard for a municipal swimming pool, and started a youth chapter of the NAACP.

I haven't had the honor of visiting Bryant Park (yet) but I do agree with Whyte as one of the things that makes me like of dislike a major urban metropolis is the availability of free, public seating.

All this talk about nonverbal cue reading so that we don't bump other people when crossing a street against an oncoming crowd has me wondering about neurodivergent folks and how well they would fare in NYC, specifically those on the Autism spectrum. Anyone weigh in?

I am already tremendously more hooked. I love public spaces both privately owned (POPS) and publically owned. I love them so much so that even though I have a home with a balcony, I am reading and typing this status update from a blanket laid out in a little park (called Trunip Patch Park, Hillsborough, NC).

And thus ends the "there are wild animals in your city" chapter that couldn't hold my attention so much so that I dozed off while reading this chapter three times.

Neophobic -- adjective for a being wary of new things

Thigmotaxic -- adjective used for an animal that likes to walk along walls, touching something as it goes

And now that we are done reading that story of the author's life ...

I am also Jewish. I was also raised in the South. I also got the "Jews have horns" line. Seems common.

So far this reads like a random set of disjointed memories with an overall subject theme but no real narrative structure. At least the chapters are short.

The author presumes that the reader knows what COINTELPRO is. I do not. And I haven't the wherewithal to fall down that research rabbit hole right now.

Welcome to my read-along of this book for the March (belated Black History Month) Movie Book Club where we will be watching Judas and the Black Messiah. I'll note that I've already seen the movie so it will be a movie rewatch for me. I have until March 30th to get my read on. Checked the digital copy of the book out from the Broward County Overdrive Library while my hard copy of the book is in the mail to me.

Firstly, I have got the book back from the library. Secondly, this book is a treasure trove of vocabulary building. Thirdly: crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk).

EPILOGUE END /// Okay, now I know what happened to Bess. And everyone else. Glad Harryo's marriage worked our and sorry for Caroline St. James's for being a disaster. All in all, Georgiana does seem quite fascinating and I am glad to have read this book.

CHAPTER 24 END /// Georgiana has more kidney stones. People are disappointed in love with their first cousins. And lots of death. Also, the Whigs are back in power. I wonder what happens to Bess.

CHAPTER 23 END /// No one wants to marry Harryo, Addington is no longer in charge of the government, and someone drew a cartoon of Georgiana holding a fan.

CHAPTER 22 END /// The Duke of Bedford stopped talking to Georgina and then later dies and now she is free of her debt to him. Bess goes to France and then comes back home again. Little G is preggers. And that is about all that happens.