White women, do better

On 8 November 202011 November 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Flagrantly Feminist, Politics and Policy, Pop Goes the Culture, Topics of Study4 Comments

[CW: gender binary, racism]

Preface: I’m not sure how many posts I’ll make analyzing the 2020 elections through various lenses. I have at least 2 such lenses rattling around my brain, but it may unfold into a longer series. We’ll see. I’ll just keep cross-linking this little family of posts together as it takes shape. So: watch this space for more.

Tuesday, 11/10/2020: Let’s call a thing a thing
Wednesday, 11/11/2020: What if voter suppression impacts voting trends?

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Here’s my first, unfiltered, thought upon seeing the demographic breakdown of Presidential votes by race and gender:

Good grief. America does not deserve the goodness that Black women do.

A medium shot of approximately 30 people at a protest. In front and in focus are four Black woman in a variety of clothes, hairstyles and skin tones. — Leading the way. Again.

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Winner winner cheesesteak dinner

On 7 November 20207 November 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Gratitudes and Thank Yous, Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture2 Comments

So the race has been declared: Joe Biden is our president elect and Kamala Harris is the vice president-elect.

Closeup of a young woman's hands holding a lit sparkler. — Thank Gaia!

Honestly, I’d been cautiously optimistic about this outcome since I first thought through the vote counting trend lines mid-Wednesday. Of course, I had no desire to jinx anything, which is why I didn’t say anything here about that prediction/expectation.

I did, however, share that assessment with a few select friends and co-workers—basically as a way of explaining why I was able to focus on work Wednesday and Thursday and wasn’t feeling undue stress about things.

(Ah the hubris!)

Once the call was finally made late this morning, a friend of mine asked on Facebook,

Did everyone else just unclench muscles they didn’t realize they were tensing?

Yup. #ItMe

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Adding things up

On 4 November 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture, Stuff about Stuff2 Comments

So the counting continues, as far as individual votes and electoral votes are concerned.

And I am all for that.

A red, white, and blue cartoon image of The Count character from Sesame Street, pointing to a sign that reads "Count Every Vote" — #CountEveryVote because #EveryVoteCounts

But I’m choosing to post about some other numbers I’m paying attention to tonight. (Cos it’s allll about the distraction.)

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Bedtime in limbo

On 3 November 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Flagrantly Feminist, Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture1 Comment

I watched the election results for a couple hours. Then I wandered off to enjoy some Graham Norton clips on Youtube, and now I’m toddling off to bed.

We’re exactly where I thought we’d be. We’re exactly where I’ve told everyone we’d be.*

A picture of a highway leading off into the distance. A large question mark is in the foreground of the photo, superimposed over the yellow lines of the road. — Outlook unclear

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Picture of Sherri, a Caucasian human, with a snarky smile pointing to herself with both thumbs.

Where has the time gone?

On 1 November 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Meta-Blogging, Pop Goes the Culture, The Voices in My Head2 Comments

Yeah, I was gonna do this whole COVID Diaries thing, wasn’t I? If you’re a writer who knows you’re living though history, it would be a good idea to capture some of that daily history along the way, am I right? ESPECIALLY if you’re a blogger who kinda specializes in doing lightweight socio-cultural analysis.

(Here’s the place where I’d usually hit the “read more” command to put the rest of this post behind the jump.* Of course, I can’t find that command in the new editor, nor can I find a way to get back to the classic editor. 2020, why you gotta do me like this? I am seriously gonna step away for a bit to regain my composure before continuing.)

Continue reading “Where has the time gone?” →

A Buffet for the Senses

On 23 April 202023 April 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Gratitudes and Thank Yous, Pop Goes the Culture1 Comment

I may have to buy a new calendar to keep track of all the cultural programming being offered in response to all the stay-at-home orders.

In all honesty, I am more likely to print out some free calendar templates for the next month or two. Any calendar I ordered would need to be shipped here over some indeterminate amount of time, and I needs to get myself sorted now.

(Too many choices!)

Continue reading “A Buffet for the Senses” →

Earth Day 50 During COVID-19

On 22 April 202022 April 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Life-Long Learning, Pop Goes the Culture, Topics of StudyLeave a comment

(Should that “During” in the post title be capitalized or not? For once, I’m gonna let it go without looking up the right answer.)

So, it’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. And it’s an interesting moment for Earth Day to be happening.

I mean, you’ve seen the before and after pictures right? BC and AL*?

The cessation of travel and commuting and non-essential manufacturing has caused a undeniable drop in air pollution during these COVID days.

And you may have seen the memes in response to this all:

Humanity is the real virus!

Or,

What kind of asshole are you to wish death and destruction for your species? Capitalism is the real virus!!**

I’m going to pointedly ignore the foolishness of rhetoric that is based on denying the actual objective reality of SARS-CoV-2‘s existence as an honest-to-goodness real-and-true virus. Instead, I’m sufficiently intrigued by the apparent environmental benefits of this pandemic that I wanted to do a little bit of noodling around that.

Continue reading “Earth Day 50 During COVID-19” →

Living in Hollywood Squares

On 27 March 202027 March 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture, Practicing in the Heart, The Voices in My Head3 Comments

So how many of us are seeing variations on this theme over and over again throughout the day?

(Honestly, I’m of a generation where my preferred metaphor would be The Hollywood Squares. But I couldn’t find an openly licensed picture from there, so the Bradys will have to suffice.)

Alternately, if you are of my generation, you might have a certain theme song running through your head whenever you log onto a now-ubiquitous teleconferencing software package.

Continue reading “Living in Hollywood Squares” →

The COVID Diaries

On 22 March 2020 By MezzoSherriIn Gratitudes and Thank Yous, Life-Long Learning, Memoir, Pop Goes the Culture2 Comments

Yeah, about 10 days ago, I said I was gonna have a lot to say about COVID-19 and then I got quiet instead.

Part of that was my general sense of it being fruitless to post. You see, two Fridays ago, I was feeling super-frustrated. I don’t pretend to be a huge expert or anything, but I know enough about epidemiology that I was already clocked in (right around the start of March) to understand how serious this all was.

But I wasn’t seeing a similar awareness in my surroundings—not at the local, regional, or national level.

So I was feeling increasingly tense and stressed and frustrated at my Cassandra-like status and I was in the mood for a big ol’ superiority rant. I was probably gonna link to every data scientist’s analysis I’d been reading* and yell and scream to the effect of: