Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? It feels strange here because we’re having an unusual heat wave for this area — it will be 96 degrees in Argentan today. I grew up in St. George, Utah, a town that hits over 100 degrees for 3 or 4 months of the year, so 96 isn’t a record breaker or anything, but it’s pretty much the hottest it’s ever been either time we’ve lived in France.
This area is not really built for this kind of heat — no A/C, no sprinklers, etc. — so we’re keeping our shutters closed during the day to keep out the hot air, and we’re hanging out on the first floor of our rental, which is much cooler than the 3rd floor. We’ll be eating sandwiches for dinner so we don’t heat up the kitchen with the stove or oven, and we’re keeping cans of Evian Mist nearby when we need a quick cooling off (these misters are much more affordable here and sold pretty much everywhere).
Yesterday in the evening, Ben Blair took two of the kids to check out a nearby lake, and tonight, we might track down a swimming hole on the Orne River. How about you? How is your weekend shaping up?
I’ve got a really good list of links this week. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:
–A posthumous oped by John Lewis. May he rest in peace.
–William Haymon just turned 16. He’s spent the last 527 days of his life (since he was 14) incarcerated in an adult jail in rural Lexington, Mississippi — without ever being formally charged with a crime.
-Women can have a little power, as a treat.
-The poison of male incivility.
–Black women have been told to ‘wait their turn’ throughout history.
-What ghost-designing for Martha Stewart taught this creative about leadership.
–“In the United States, European men contributed three times more to the modern-day gene pool of people of African descent than European women did. In the British Caribbean, they contributed 25 times more.” In case that’s not clear, they’re talking about rape. So much rape.
-The ideal age for a first cell phone.
-Do you have any favorite water shoes to recommend? We need to get some and I think these look comfy.
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
-I keep thinking about this.
-Have you ever written something on the internet using a man’s name? I did once. It’s fascinating to see how people respond differently.
-Thread on the deliberate attempts to destroy the national postal service.
-A thread about how to kindly say no.
-I hear from so many people who feel they have lost their parents to right-wing conspiracy theories. It’s painful.
-I can’t believe how often I have to bring this same thing up during discussions about gun control.
-Such a cool commercial.
-Want to feel incredibly angry in 23 seconds? Watch this clip.
-Wait. What????
-I love whenever Art Activist Barbie shows up in my social media feeds. Click here to read her signs.
I hope you have a really good weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
