Leads (Thursday, February 27, 2025) (Patreon)

Why, hello again. Thursdays seem as good a day for these posts as any.

Work has been interesting this week. Correctional officers in New York State are still staging a strike that their union has explicitly not approved. The National Guard has been in the picture for a couple days. Folks in my profession are hearing rumors about what's happening inside these prisons that the state government has strenuously denied. Phone calls from loved ones of inmates lead me to believe that some ugly shit is happening behind the scenes. We'll see where things land.

Privately, things have been up and down. Janet and I celebrated our anniversary this week. Two years may not be a long time to those of you who've been married for decades, but conversely, two years with the gentlest person who's ever lived contains more joy than half a century with anyone else.

Let's see. I need something to get my abusive landlord off my mind. It's cold in the basement where I live, and my landlord doesn't seem to think fixing our broken dryer is a priority (as a result, my clothes have been hanging up for nearly two days and they're still damp). It's freezing here at night, and during the day. So here's what's got my attention this week:

I haven't finished Mom's book about The Sandman yet (I'm always floored by how many words non-journalist writers like to write), but so far it's some of her best media criticism in years.

Reading David Bentley Hart's translation of The New Testament is (pardon the expression) a revelation. I can't count how many times I've read Hart's rendering of a line I've read hundreds of times and gone "wait, THAT'S what it says?"