Category: Uncategorized
Rikers – Quotes from Oral History
TAMI LEE, retired correction officer, 1989 to 2020: I never smiled for thirty years. I never smiled at that job one time. Sometimes I’d have to think about it—like, “Smile.” I didn’t want to smile so they could think I was playing with them because I was not playing with them.
CASIMIRO TORRES, detained various stints, 1980s to 2000s: I had a girl one time, I used to go to this twenty-four-hour store after I came out of prison, late at night, and after a few times she started calling me Smiley. I said, “Why do you call me that?” And she said, “Because you’ve never smiled.” And it had never occurred to me that I hadn’t smiled in years and years. I had my prison face on wherever I went. It’s something that clings to you, like the smell of shit. You have to really wash it off.
ANNA GRISTINA, detained 2012: I was in the bullpen, waiting at the processing area. There was a woman. These girls were going, “She needs to get to the doctor. She’s shaking on the floor.” A couple minutes later, everyone is screaming. The guards, they are having their lunch. This sergeant with braids, she says, “Shut the fuck up! Mind your own business!”
We were looking and we saw this woman from across the pen, froth coming out of her mouth. She’s having a seizure. She’s vomiting foam. The guard says, “Mind your business. You’re in enough trouble. Keep your mouth shut.” We came back from a lawyer visit, and they had taken her out on a gurney, dead. The guards had denied her medical, and she died. I don’t know her name or her age.
She [the woman who died] had covers over her body when they took her out. She had been screaming for hours for help. She had been half the day in the holding pen with no water, no nothing, having seizures. I’ll never forget the feeling of telling my lawyers a woman died in there and they shrugged their shoulders.
JERRY DEAN, detained 1987, 2003: The last day I was leaving Rikers when I was sixteen, I sat in the corner, they drive me upstate [to the Goshen Secure Center], and I remember somebody said, when you leave Rikers, don’t ever look back, don’t look back in the car or the bus, or else you’ll come back. So I didn’t want to look back.
Rikers: An Oral History
Graham Rayman, Reuven Blau
The Burden of Someone Else’s Dream
When we lived in England my days had a familiar rhythm. Each morning, my mother flung open the curtains in my room, and I tugged my school jumper over my head and pulled on my skirt before tumbling downstairs to eat cereal with my younger brother Jon. After school, we’d play on the swing in our garden, or crouch at the far end of the stream to watch dragonflies hovering above the gold-green surface.
I was used to this rhythm; I liked it and thought it would never change. Until one morning over breakfast, my father announced that we were going to sail around the world.
I paused, a spoonful of cornflakes halfway to my mouth.
“We’re going to follow Captain Cook,” Dad said. “After all, we share the captain’s surname, so who better to do it?” He picked up his cigarette and leaned back in his seat.
“Are you joking?” I asked.
Next to me, Jon watched Dad, his lips parted.
“Not at all,” said my father, puffing out a cloud of smoke. “I’m deadly serious.”
“But why?”
“Well, someone needs to mark the 200th anniversary of Cook’s third voyage, don’t they?” he said, raising his eyebrows at my mother.
“Of course they do, Gordon,” said Mum, returning his smile.
‘Dad said: We’re going to follow Captain Cook’: how an endless round-the-world voyage stole my childhood
In 1976, Suzanne Heywood’s father decided to take the family on a three-year sailing ‘adventure’ – and then just kept going. It was a journey into fear, isolation and danger …
This is an excerpt from the book:
Wavewalker: Breaking Free
by Suzanne Heywood
Simple and Basic Honey Whole Wheat Bread
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
DIRECTIONS:
Knead the dough until it’s smooth and just slightly tacky, about 8 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Deflate the dough and shape it to fit a greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. Let it rise, covered, until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Bake the bread in a preheated 375°F oven for 35 minutes.
RIP – Pele
RIP to a true legend. Pelé’s exploits leading the amazing 1970 Brazil World Cup team–his last–are among my earliest memories. My condolences to Brazilians everywhere and to his countless fans around the world. https://t.co/yEqVqVKpBL
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 29, 2022
Man Saves Owl
Declining a Bad Business Proposition
Hidden Gem Subreddits
Snow in Madrid
Madrid paralyzed after historic storm with reports of 60cm+ of snow from r/europe
Looks groovy.
Three Types of Yes
I’ll let you in on a secret. There are actually three kinds of “Yes”: Counterfeit, Confirmation, and Commitment.
A counterfeit “yes” is one in which your counterpart plans on saying “no” but either feels “yes” is an easier escape route or just wants to disingenuously keep the conversation going to obtain more information or some other kind of edge.
A confirmation “yes” is generally innocent, a reflexive response to a black-or-white question; it’s sometimes used to lay a trap but mostly it’s just simple affirmation with no promise of action.
And a commitment “yes” is the real deal; it’s a true agreement that leads to action, a “yes” at the table that ends with a signature on the contract. The commitment “yes” is what you want, but the three types sound almost the same so you have to learn how to recognize which one is being used.
Voss, Chris; Raz, Tahl. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
Really Random Facts
What is most "why the f*** do you know that" fact? from AskReddit
HushUK
If you shake/jangle your keys at a moth, it will do a backflip (it’s a defence mechanism)
PityLeFool
The last person who died building the hoover dam was the son of the first person who died building it.
ele-lan
MLB umpires are required to wear black underwear in case their pants split during a game.
celestialdragonlord
Fidel Castro loved dairy so much that he invested in trying to breed a cow that could survive in the climate of Cuba and still produce a lot of milk. He failed over and over for years until one day a cow that was exactly to his specifications. She produced obscene, record breaking amounts of milk even for a regular cow and could live in Cuba’s sweltering climate. There were regular updates on her health in the Cuban national newspaper and he loved her so much that when she died he erected a huge marble statue of her in her honor.
PmMeRevolutionPlans
Ubre Blanca was her name
ugagradlady
Many deaths in the Middle Ages resulted from pigs wandering into peasant homes and eating babies out of their cradles.
ifuckedpongkrell
julius caesar’s soldiers used sing a marching song about how much caesar liked it up the ass
Minerx_Thomas_YT
Hedgehogs shit when they run fast therefore if sonic the hedgehog was real he would shite himself to death
WhyY_196
Male hedgehogs masturbate for pleasure and you have to be careful picking them up because sometimes they have semen on their feet. It’s something you have to look out for when you’re a hedgehog owner like myself.
AsphaltSommersaults
you can neutralize the smell of a rotting corpse by covering it with the ashes of a common camp fire! any wood ash should work, friends.
DGatsby
Saddam Hussein wrote a romance novel.
Guantanamo Mixtape
Here follows a sample of the songs played again and again at maximum volume to break the will of enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay and other US detention centers around the world. In the context of harsh interrogation with no legal recourse or hope of freedom, these songs and others like them became the soundtrack of Hell for those subjected to them.
Christina Aguilera, “Dirrty”
Barney and Friends, “I Love You Song”
Deicide, “Fuck Your God”
Drowning Pool, “Bodies”
Eminem, “Kim”
Marilyn Manson, “The Beautiful People”
The “Meow Mix” Theme
Nine Inch Nails, “Somewhat Damaged”
Queen, “We Are the Champions”
Britney Spears, “. . . Baby One More Time”
Bruce, Scott G.
The Penguin Book of Hell
US – Iraq relations – April 2000
A decade after Operation Desert Storm, the US is still at war with Iraq. It’s the longest air war in American history. Nearly 12,000 missions last year alone were flown against 300 Iraqi targets. It’s the economic sanctions, though, that are causing the worst collateral damage in Iraq.
After eight years of embargo, Iraq’s currency has lost 98% of its value, and there’s a total break down in health care, education, and basic social services. Even food and water are hard to come by, and UNICEF reports that sanctions cost the lives of 200 children each day, and as many adults.
Two of the highest UN officials in charge of administering the sanctions have resigned in protest. Even Scott Ritter, the maverick arms inspector, calls US policy toward Iraq “morally bankrupt,” pointing out that it has only helped make Saddam Hussein stronger and Iraq’s civil society weaker.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
from April 2000, Connection Archives
Confluence Park
Fall is here.
