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ICYMI: This Week’s Posts

Ye Olde Blogge has been exploring the demise of our democracy. Our first post looks at just how burned out we all are.

Are We Too Burned Out to #SaveOurDemocracy

The second post this week was about the changes that will take place should the #GOPDystopia actually come to be.

We’d Know If We Were Living in a Minority-Rule Autocracy, right? Maybe Not, If You’re White.

Another eventful week at Ye Olde Blogge has drawn to a close. There’s plenty to discuss and share and I do hope to hear about your week in the comments. Here’s some of what I remember happening this week:

• SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES. I can’t believe that the patron saint of blogging’s holy day came and went without being acknowledged on Ye Olde Blogge. Oh well. Maybe next year. Anywho, for those keeping track at home it is on 24 January.
• QUARANTINE. Ma Belle Femme’s quarantine ended unceremoniously on Friday with a negative rapid #COVID19 test. We spent an uncomfortable week isolating in rooms of the house and wearing masks when we had to be out and about in the house together. And alternating turns eating at the table. Our annoyance wasn’t helped when Zooming with students who we knew HAD #COVID19, family members were observed wandering the background maskless. Let’s hope their tests come out negative, too.
• EXPERIENCE WEEK. I can’t get over how much fun experience week was. Because of #COVID19, we had to do it all in and around Phnom Penh, but everything went off flawlessly. No bus was missing or late. All of the events were enjoyable and educational. On a personal note, I got to do it all with La Petite Fille. If I can organize the pictures in time, I’ll add a few. Great fun. Exhausting, but fun. Week Without Wall is one of the best parts of being a teacher.

Week’s Reading

Animal Stories

By now everyone probably realizes that Ye Olde Blogge is a sucker for animal stories. Here’s a couple including one from a newly discovered blog!!!

• DESCENDED FROM WOLVES. Apparently, there are genes that govern the size that a species can be, and it was a mutation to one of these genes that facilitated the evolution of modern domestic dogs from wolves. #ScienceFact: dogs have the greatest variation in size of any species on the planet.
• CAT VS DOG WARS. A new front in the ongoing cat vs. dog wars has opened up. Most of us assume that animals would prefer to eat the low-hanging fruit before getting to the food that they’d have to work for, but we’d be wrong. Unless you’re talking about cats. Cats are freeloaders; they eat the easy food first. Most animals, including dogs, are contrafreeloaders, they prefer to earn their food. Go figure. (Companion Animal Psychology)

From the Bloggosphere

• MITIGATION seems to be all the rage these days. We’re mitigating the pandemic, the damage to our democracy, and Tally is mitigating the damage of falling off of her eating routine diet thing. Knowing that it is not all or nothing — The What the Hell Effect — is encouraging to those of us also working on maintaining lifestyle changes. (Chatty Introvert)
• 5G CONSPIRACIES are real? Using electronic devices really can take your flight out of the sky. Admittedly, I’ve been too busy to follow the 5G and imperiled airlines story very closely, so I was grateful for this rundown with the India angle thrown in as a bonus. (Insightful Geopolitics)
• NORMALIZING MENTAL HEALTH is something that we can all contribute to. Deanna reminds us that it is much better to address mental health issues head on and straighforwardly because, how did she put it? pretending depression doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. (Cynical Mother)
• THE BEAUTY OF SNOW is Usfman‘s topic of his post bring a little joy of the white stuff to those of us locked in the tropics where there is only two seasons rainy and hot and dry and hot. I love the suggestion to surf the EarthCam Network for places experiencing snow to get your fix in. (Snippets of a Traveling Mind)
• GRATITUDE is one of our most important emotions. We need to be reminded that there is far more in our life to be grateful for than there is to bitch about. (Introvert Awakenings)
• BRUISE WILLIS gets his introduction to the world complete with shaggy dog story, pictures, and gifs. Well worth the visit just for the gratitude you might feel for it not happening to you! (Mrs. Completely)

Ye Olde Blogge’s Friends

To continue the gratitude theme from the last couple of entries, we’ll through a few clicks to our friends who’ve thrown a few clicks back at us. Be sure to visit these blogs when and where you can. You’ll be glad you did.

• THE MYTH OF POWER: Bobcabkings continues his uncanny habit of giving us the best quotes to describe our troubled times. This one’s all about the myth that bites you in the ass. (Of Cabbages and Kings).
• YOU KNOW WHO ELSE WORE PANTS SUITS, so it’s no wonder Minnie Mouse’s change to the Hillary power suit is making waves over at Fox News and the MAGAverse. (Mock Paper Scissors)
• HELD BACK AND BOUND. A meme is worth a thousand sarcasms, right? Proving the old adage correct is a meme Ten Bears posted about the etiology of the word religion. Well worth thinking about. (Homeless on the High Desert)
• WE DON’T DESERVE THESE LINKS, EITHER! Burr has provided us with another morning’s delightful reading of things we missed on the Interwebs. Check out his links and the insights of this elderly netizen. (Fair and Unbalanced)
• GRADES = ABORTIONS? One of the best things about mining other people’s blogs is finding the stories you missed. Scottie relates an outrageous story about a judge relating the right to abortion to an applicant’s high school grades. What excuse would he’ve made had she been an A student? (Scottie’s Playtime)
• COMING TO A TEXTBOOK NEAR YOU all the white supremacy, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, anti-democratic views, and the Big Lie, well at least if you’re in Texas. Jon Perr, is curating Mike’s Blog Round Up this week, so check it out, too!(Crooks and Liars)
• THE ADVENTURES OF STUPID PEOPLE is Infidel’s collection of memes, tweets, and pictures of things that, well, seemed like a good idea at the time, I’m sure, well, at least to someone. (Infidel 753)

HUzzah!
Jack

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Image Attribution

That’s my photo of the sun bear eating snacks that we prepared. You can use that photo if you like. Really. He’s cute, right?