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I got 1 job, 2 job, 3 when I need them
I got 5 roommates in this one studio, but I never really see them
And we all came America trying to get a lap dance from Lady Freedom
But now Lady Liberty is acting like Hilary Banks with a pre-nup
Man, I was brave, sailing on graves
Don’t think I didn’t notice those tombstones disguised as waves
I’m no dummy, here is something funny, you can be an immigrant without risking your lives
Or crossing these borders with thrifty supplies
All you got to do is see the world with new eyes
Immigrants, we get the job done
[…]
I been scoping ya dudes, ya’ll ain’t been working like I do
I’ll outwork you, it hurts you
You claim I’m stealing jobs though
Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo
But there ain’t a paper trail when you living in the shadows
We’re America’s ghost writers, the credit’s only borrowed
It’s a matter of time before the checks all come
But…
[…]
The credit is only borrowed
It’s America’s ghost writers
[…]
Ay yo aye, immigrants we don’t like that
Na they don’t play British empire strikes back
They beating us like 808’s and high hats
At our own game of invasion, but this ain’t Iraq
Who these fugees what did they do for me
But contribute new dreams
Taxes and tools, swagger and food to eat
Cool, they flee war zones, but the problem ain’t ours
Even if our bombs landed on them like the Mayflower
Buckingham Palace or Capitol Hill
Blood of my ancestors had that all built
It’s the ink you print on your dollar bill, oil you spill
Thin red line on the flag you hoist when you kill
But still we just say “look how far I come”
Hindustan, Pakistan, to London
To a galaxy far from their ignorance
Cos-
Immigrants, we get the job done
—Lin Manuel-Miranda, Residente, Riz MC and Snow Tha Product
—from “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)”
glabrous /GLAY-brəs/. adjective. Hairless, smooth. Most often used to refer to skin or leaves. From Latin glaber (hairless, bald).
“This abundance of terms is often cited as a virtue. And yet a critic could equally argue that English is an untidy and acquisitive language, cluttered with a plethora of needless words. After all, do we really need fictile as a synonym for moldable, glabrous for hairless, sternutation for sneezing?” (Bill Bryson)
“Glabrous, which is the loveliest of all hair-related adjectives, means having no hair (on a given part) at all. Please note that glabrous means more baby’s-bottom-hairless than bald or shaved, though if you wanted to describe a bald person in an ironically fancy way you could talk about his glabrous dome or something.” (David Foster Wallace)
“…the neophyte attorneys were easily distinguishable from the parasite poets. The attorneys were glabrous, ambitious, social, and grave, the poets mendacious, flagrantly seedy, thinly optimistic, and (worst of all) poetic.” (Cynthia Ozick)
“A hirsute show of manliness ruffled along his forearms and from the collar of his shirt, reminding me of my own relative hairlessness, my chest (and stomach and buttocks) as streamlined and glabrous as a Ken doll.” (Viet Thanh Nguyen)
Over the past seven years, Rainbow Pack (founded by a 10-year-old!) has given 20,000 backpacks of school supplies to elementary school students in need. They would like to double that total in 2018. And for $10, you can help! → Rainbow Pack 2018
Remember when The New York Times tried to get hip with those neato grunge cats? → When Grunge Was Fake News
Combining, kind of, two things I love: coffee and paper. → G . F Smith launches new paper made from disposable coffee cups. See also: Kona Paper: Paper Made from Repurposed Coffee Bean Bag Fiber || EcoPaper’s Coffee Paper.
Celebrating the “humour & creativity of Tourettes” by not just dispelling myths but sharing nearly 650 pages of funny, shocking, surreal tics, searchable by keyword and theme. → tourettes hero
Seriously high-quality art history materials for your learning pleasure! → Smarthistory
A free book about artificial intelligence and the future that is both fascinating and readable. → Frankenstein’s Legacy: Four Conversations About Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and the Modern World
I had no idea the idea was even a thing. → Why Sign-Language Gloves Don’t Help Deaf People. And while I’m at it, here’s another Atlantic article about a previously unknown (to me) thing, this time in Japan: How to Hire Fake Friends and Family
The Allusionist delves into some powerful stories of snail mail relationships. → “Open Me” Part 1 and Part 2
Featuring funny, literal animals, not Louis C.K. Behold! → The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Gallery.
Today in 1954, Ellis Island—gateway to the United States for more than 12 million immigrants—closes. From 1892–1924, Ellis Island was the focal point of what is claimed to be the largest human migration in modern history. Apparently, Ellis Island name changes were mostly mythical (or accidental), but the sometimes terrifying health inspections, including occasional eugenic screening, were not. See also: the jigsaw puzzle that could determine a would-be immigrant’s fate || the searcahable passenger lists of more than 51 million immigrants, passengers, and crew members who came through Ellis Island and the Port of New York || Selected Images of Ellis Island and Immigration, ca. 1880–1920 || Ellis Island Photographs from the Collection of William Williams, Commissioner of Immigration, 1902–1913 || Immigrant Number One, the story—and mystery—of the first person to arrive at Ellis Island || Ellis Island Oral Histories
“When Marion Gurfein wrote to her husband Joe during his tours of duty in World War II and Korea, she sent him something more than letters. She created a mock newspaper, The Goofein Journal, which she hand-lettered on card stock. The Journal contained banner headlines, illustrations, photos and ‘news’ stories recording family events and a ‘social column’ which kept track of their friends’ whereabouts.” The site includes images, interviews and more.
► A Chameleon Tongue Crushing Crickets in Slow Motion (20,000 fps). Side note: chameleon tongues can be up to 1.5x the length of their body…and the accelerator muscles that drive the tongue are essentially sphincters. See also: ► Chameleon Tongue Attack in Slow Motion - Earth Unplugged || If a chameleon tongue was a car, it could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1/100th of a second
Reader B.: “Another fine word horde. Thank you.” — Aggressive enough to be a horde, eh?"
Reader A.: “Oh dear. I guess I mispronounced victuals until this very day. Even though I’ve seen and heard the correct pronunciation, I never made the connection. Thanks! ¶ ► ‘I Have A Message For You’ is a beautiful documentary, and I was also struck by how the animation in it sort of matched the video clip of the Fahrenheit 451 firebook. ¶ Thanks as always for an interesting start to the week!” — I didn’t make the connection between the style of the two videos!
Reader L. issues a correction: “Quick note! Humbled and honored to have Anguish Languish make the grade, but I think you are attributing to me copy from wikipedia. Sorry if my note didn’t make clear where link ended and reference material began. My bad!!!”
Reader G. too: “Clan of the Cave Bear doesn’t really have erotic scenes, unless you count the rape scenes. I think you mean Valley of the Horses, which has so many you can just let the books pages fall open to them.” — Sadly, no, I really meant Clan. Even the young me, who was clueless regarding the violence, knew the book was terribly written (and, to my knowledge, my mom didn’t have any others)!
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