Link Roundup

[brigid]

The Velveteen Rabbit Was Always More Than A Children's Book
An essay about "The Velveteen Rabbit," its author Margery Williams Bianco, and children's literature.

Crows Perform Yet Another Skill Once Thought Distinctively Human
Look. We all just need to agree that corvids are as smart as humans but able to fly and more likely to pull pranks. This article discusses recursion, grammar, and patterns.

Why Prehistoric Herders Didn't Spit Out Their Watermelon Seeds
Interesting story about, of all things, watermelons. Specifically the domestication of watermelons and the biodiversity of watermelons. They started out bitter and full of seeds, valuable nutritious fat-rich seeds. This also serves as a reminder, although it's not mentioned here, that "hunters and gatherers" got most of their calories from the gathering part.

Do you know about the ICWA or Indian Child Welfare Act? One arm of genocide includes cultural genocide, suppressing a peoples' language, religion, foodways, customs, etc. It's why Indian Boarding Schools were created, to "kill the Indian to save the man." Native children were regularly removed from their homes and placed with absolute strangers, often people who were in no way vetted, removed from their family and their culture. The ICWA, passed in 1978, was meant to put a stop to that and ensure that Native children were placed with extended family where possible. Even with the ICWA, however, Native children are currently FOUR TIMES more likely to be placed in foster care than white kids are. Some non-Native couples are suing to overturn this law because they believe it's unfair and racist to prevent them from removing marginalized children from their families and communities, their culture and language.

Comments

[bzedan]

The Velveteen Rabbit article is so interesting! I had (still have?) the book as a child and when I was sick with what at the time was called “scarletina,” which I know know is just a diminutive for scarlet fever, I worried my toys would undergo the same treatment.

[brigid]

Aww!

God, I cannot believe you got scarlet fever. That's a complication of strep throat! I'm glad you're still here with us.

[bzedan]

I got sick like I was filling out a bingo card at that age. I had pneumonia at some point, even.

[brigid]

Yiiiiiikes.

I had strep and ear infections CONSTANTLY as a kid, and then bronchitis twice a year as an older kid/teen. Constant tonsillitis. But never scarlet fever or rheumatic fever or pneumonia (as far as I know).

[bzedan]

GOD I feel for you. I have had an ear infection ONCE and it was the worst thing ever. I’ll take my run of Victorian child illnesses over that.

[brigid]

Oh, they were constant, but... BUT... but not as bad as the recent one I had recently as an adult that LANDED ME IN THE HOSPITAL FOR FIVE DAYS OF IV ANTIBIOTICS.

[lassarina]

Oh, hey, someone else who had scarlet fever! (My mother literally looked at the pediatrician and said "Dr. A, that is Little House on the Prairie nonsense, be serious.")