She is such a bright star! I hope she’s inspiring others to join the fight. One more update:
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from the Department of Yes And:
Loving AOC’s work, work ethic, and her perspective.
Hoping more and more allies join her efforts and her team.
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That comment thread is about as toxic as you’d expect, with most of the toxic things being along the lines of, “They’re (AOC and Beto) politicizing a disaster for their personal gain, that’s why.”
To which my favorite response is:
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Yeah, as so often happens… the thread goes toxic, even amid the insightful comments. I know I’ve been doomscrolling for months but have you really checked out the quality of the doom lately? 
I am encouraged when I notice people thinking and acting outside of themselves and their [self-]interests.
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Looks like a group of promising candidates will be making a bid for the seat. I’m hoping whoever wins will succeed in pushing back against the latest GOP tricks.
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I don’t know that this is an either/or. Obviously, not a local and just looking in from the outside, I would hope Fetterman would appeal to Black and suburban voters, and that Kenyatta could appeal to the white, working class. That would be my hope, anyway. Both would be stronger on their own turf, clearly, but my dream candidate should appeal in both arenas.
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Article
In the spirit of “Jeopardy!” we offer you this clue: These garments belonged to host Alex Trebek before his son, Matthew Trebek, donated them to formerly incarcerated men.
Correct response: What are 300 neckties, 58 dress shirts, 25 polo shirts, 15 belts, 14 suits and nine sports coats?
Congratulations if you got it right.
There were also some sweaters, shoes and a couple of coats in a shipment of well-tailored menswear that arrived at the Doe Fund program in New York City in mid-January.
Matthew Trebek said he was happy his father’s clothes could be put to good use. Alex Trebek was the famed quizmaster and host of “Jeopardy!” for 37 years, until he died of pancreatic cancer at age 80 in Los Angeles last year.
“I loved the idea of guys getting a second chance to go on interviews and feel presentable in my dad’s clothes,” Matthew Trebek said. “My dad had a large wardrobe for ‘Jeopardy!’ because they taped five shows a day, two days a week. It all just kind of clicked.”
Most of the suits and shirts in Alex Trebek’s wardrobe were distributed to men seeking employment, and the bulk of the neckties will be handed out to program participants when they start new jobs, said Harriet McDonald, president of the Doe Fund.
The nonprofit, which started in 1985, provides housing, job counseling, training and work opportunities for about 800 men with histories of homelessness, substance abuse and incarceration.
McDonald said the clothes have been “a real confidence booster” for the men in the program.
“Our guys are over the moon to wear something that was worn on television by Alex Trebek,” she said.
Matthew Trebek, 30, decided to donate his dad’s wardrobe to the Doe Fund’s workforce reentry program because he knew the clothing would be put to better use than sitting in his own closet.
“The suits don’t fit me — I’m much taller than my dad was,” said Trebek, a restaurateur who lives in New York. “On most days, I wear jeans and a T-shirt, maybe a black hoodie. I probably wear a suit only five times a year.”
“Jeopardy!” costumer Steven Zimbelman helped him pack up the wardrobe late last year and ship it across the country last month, he said.
At the Doe Fund, residents are put through mock interviews so they are prepared when they get calls about job opportunities, McDonald said. The nonprofit’s three facilities in New York hire former inmates at $15 an hour to help clean city streets, she said.
“We want to help them get back on their feet and get their dignity back,” she said. “We want to help reunite them with their children and get back into the workforce. Breaking the cycle of prison and poverty is really important.”
About 28,000 men have gone through the reentry program, McDonald said.
Among them is George Tucker, 55, who has lived in Doe Fund housing since he was released from prison last March, he said. Now he works in the center’s kitchen as a cook and hopes to pursue a culinary career.
He was elated, he said, when he was given two of Trebek’s suits — one in charcoal gray and one in deep purple — with shirts and neckties to match. He couldn’t get over that they actually fit him.
Tucker said that when he was incarcerated, he sometimes watched “Jeopardy!” in the commons area.
“Alex Trebek was a sharp-dressed man, and now I’m wearing his suits? Amazing,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’m hoping to better my life, and looking presentable in the workplace is a step in the right direction.”
Matthew Trebek said that is exactly what he hoped to hear.
“It’s a good feeling, to know the suits are in the right hands,” he said. “It’s great if it helps them to rebuild their lives.”
Trebek owns three restaurants with his business partner in Harlem, and he often invited men in the Doe Fund’s culinary program to eat a free meal and train with his cooks before the covid-19 pandemic hit New York, he said.
“At some point, we’d like to go back to doing that,” he said. “It’s all about giving somebody a second chance. I know my dad would have loved that.”
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Ask Lucia DeClerck how she has lived to be 105, and she is quick with an answer.
“Prayer. Prayer. Prayer,” she offers. “One step at a time. No junk food.”
But surviving the coronavirus, she said, also may have had something to do with another staple: the nine gin-soaked golden raisins she has eaten each morning for most of her life.
“Fill a jar,” she explained. “Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days.”
Her children and grandchildren recall the ritual as just one of DeClerck’s endearing lifelong habits, like drinking aloe juice straight from the container and brushing her teeth with baking soda. (That worked, too: She did not have a cavity until she was 99, relatives said.)
“We would just think, ‘Grandma, what are you doing? You’re crazy,’” said her 53-year-old granddaughter, Shawn Laws O’Neil, of Los Angeles. “Now the laugh is on us. She has beaten everything that’s come her way.”
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I love that she eats the gin soaked raisins for breakfast! I want to be a cross between this woman and the nonagenarian who rode his horse chariot to get his COVID vaccine when I grow up.
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The first state to end cash bail. May it be quickly joined by others.
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I spend some time every few months mending clothing that gets tossed in the fix-it [laundry] basket. That pile never seems to go away, just shrink or grow. And now, I read this article on a newly-discovered compagna who has been working this mission in Italy. I am so pleased.
In Japan, there is sashiko as a long tradition… a good explainer here if you’ve got stuff to mend:
See also:
and
(half-apologies for re-posting)
(will post a pic of my mended merino wool socks soon)
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This is really nice!
I’ve been noticing for ages now that I don’t see kids with visibly mended clothing anymore. When I was a kid, we always had a bunch of iron-on patches on hand for our clothes (mostly pants). One favorite pair of pants when I was 8 or 9 ended up being probably 2/3 denim, 1/3 canvas patches by the time I outgrew them.
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And yet now, people buy pre-ripped jeans as a fashion statement. The pairs of ripped jeans that I have got that way naturally over years.
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You and your friends/coworkers gotta leave the country?
Transportation not really available?
Near any railroad tracks?
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