Cowboy Who?

“I was just being a punk back then,” says Josué Del Fresco, reflecting on his young art school dropout days. “Dada, anti-art, just anti-everything.” 

The artist, dressed in a colorful button-up shirt with spoons on it, the hair at his temples dyed a shocking yellow, recently turned thirty. In his solo show, DA ¡¡ BIG !! NADA, at Charles Adams Gallery in Lubbock, he says he’s looking back on his twenties, fulfilling ideas he’s had stored away in notebooks over the years and reminiscing about the “old times.” The ambitious and stylistically diverse work — from oversized sculptures of everyday objects to small painted sketches on paper — is naïve in sensibility, yet polished in execution and display. Taken all together, DA ¡¡ BIG !! NADA showcases an artist with vision and zeal, a strong sense of personal iconography, an experimental drive, and irrepressible humor. It’s not nothing, that’s for sure.

“I grew up in the Guadalupe area across the tracks over there,” Del Fresco tells me, gesturing towards the North Lubbock neighborhood a stone’s throw from the downtown arts district. His youth was spent riding bikes, skating, and playing basketball. “[I] used to have hoop dreams,” he confesses. He was always good at art, he remembers, getting conscripted for group projects and asked to draw things for people in school. “I remember drawing people’s names and just doing stuff, little tags and whatnot,” he says. But he only really got into art after high school, getting an associate’s degree from South Plains College, and, later, taking classes at Texas Tech, where the academic setting grated on him.

His breakout exhibition took place in 2017 at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, under the name Josué Galvan. Long-time LHUCA curator “Linda Cullum gave me a show in the John Lott gallery,” he recalls. “She gave me a shot. She found me.” Working with Charles Adams Gallery owner Zach Morris in the frame shop and installing exhibitions in the gallery provided another opportunity for a big solo show. 

Del Fresco goes by a handful of different names, attributing the works in his current show to various personae, such as Josué Galvan, Yösh Steelbonez, Boney Gumball, Ritchie Dagger, Ritchie Del, and others. “It’s just names you acquire,” he says. “Back in the early days, I wanted to be like Picasso, and have one name. I didn’t want to use my real name.”

One large painting features the name “BONEY” in old-school bubble-style lettering outlined in black paint over silver, sprayed on faux brick texture. “That’s really the city of Lubbock right here,” he says. “That’s the skyline.” In the corner, Del Fresco includes a “shadow man,” in homage to 80s New York street art legend Richard Hambleton.

The references are everywhere to be found. “I’m really, into the ‘80s,” he says, rattling off icons and influences like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Beat Street. One of his favorite pieces in the show, a wooden pallet painted like city buildings with a light bulb built in, he titled after the Basquiat movie Downtown ‘81. The dynamic spirit of ‘70s-‘80s-era New York inspires him: “during those times, everybody’s experimenting, everybody’s coming out, everybody’s together,” he says.

Lubbock’s underground scene likewise inspires Del Fresco. One canvas, Wronside, depicts the frenetic energy of a show at the eponymous house venue, with twisting, distorted figures outlined in bold black strokes, moshing in the pit, while a frontman shouts through a megaphone. Del Fresco includes a self-portrait in the lower right corner, with green skin, sunglasses, and a big grin. “That’s me, a fly on the wall,” he says.

In Charles Adams Gallery, Del Fresco arranged paintings across all of the movable walls, which he painted with streaks of blue to resemble glaciers. Using every available inch, the center of the gallery is stocked with mixed media sculptures, among them a very realistic giant purple hairbrush, replete with green hair between the bristles. It’s hard to imagine, but he made all these objects in his bedroom studio. “My room is way too small. Everything’s way too big,” he laughs. “It was hard to get this big old brush out of the door.”

His use of materials—drywall mud, spray texture, house paint, repurposed objects—derives from his experiences working with his dad remodeling houses. For one piece, he created a chunky sol-shaped wall piece with a convex security mirror in the center. “I knew I wanted a mirror in the show. Because, you know, people love to take pictures,” he says, referring to the selfie-loving crowds at Lubbock’s First Friday Art Trail.

At the opening of DA ¡¡ BIG !! NADA, Del Fresco offered visitors the chance to leave feedback cards in a suggestion box. “Funky, I like,” he says, reading one of the cards out loud. “The biggest nada,” said another one.

“Some people say everything’s so different, but it all works,” remarks Del Fresco of his work. “It’s all cohesive. It all goes together somehow.” I ask him what, if anything, he learned from his twenties, what lessons he would be carrying forward. He thinks about this for a time. “I feel like I don’t got it figured out. More patience, I guess,” he says eventually. “Sometimes I just go head in… Sort of feel like I rush into stuff.”

What’s next for Josué Del Fresco, then, following the success of this solo show? I ask. “Man, I want to fall off the Earth, go to my home planet,” he laughs. He had just gotten back from Marfa, where Chinati Weekend had left a big impression. “It inspired me,” he says. “I want to see more art.” First on the list? “Denver. Go see Blucifer,” he says, referring to Blue Mustang, the blue rearing bronco at the Denver airport, the legendary final and fatal artwork of Luis Jiménez, another art idol of his.

He also wants to continue focusing on his own work, hoping to find a studio “and really go at it.” He reflects on what he loves about making art: “That’s the freedom about it, having a crazy thought and just going for it. And make it big.”

The post Boney Goes Big: An Interview with Josué Del Fresco appeared first on Glasstire.

Note: the following is part of Glasstire’s series of short videos, Five-Minute Tours, for which commercial galleries, museums, nonprofits, and artist-run spaces across the state of Texas send us video walk-throughs of their current exhibitions. Let’s get your show in front of an audience.

See other Five-Minute Tours here.

Phillip Pyle II: So Far So Good at Houston Museum of African American Culture. Dates: through October 12, 2024.

The post Five-Minute Tours: Phillip Pyle II at Houston Museum of African American Culture appeared first on Glasstire.

These are the first cases under a law prohibiting doctors from providing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to help minors transition.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

Can you help me deal with the amount of crying at work I’m dealing with at the moment?

I manage a mid-size team of people who are all very caring and empathetic, and are through and through a great team.

Every morning we have a meeting set up for the day. I’m finding more and more often that I have to deal with someone becoming overcome with tears at this meeting. My team all have their struggles, with health, family, bereavement, and plenty of other genuine personal problems. I find that some members of the team more than others will come to the meeting already in tears, or will become tearful if asked how they are. The meeting will then be focused on that person and their issue until I can, as tactfully and kindly as possible, try to steer us back on course. I’ll follow up with them afterwards to make sure they know I will support them in any way I can by adjusting their workload, giving them flexibility, etc. I get a lot of feedback from my team to say that I am a supportive manager.

But I’m really starting to struggle with this. I make it clear to my team they don’t need to have cameras on for the meeting, and they can message me ahead of time if they are struggling and don’t feel up to the meeting. I know that life these days is HARD and I’ve had my share of difficulties in recent years. But I do feel that this morning meeting is becoming a support group at times. I’m worried that members of staff who I know to have a lot going on in their personal lives, but don’t bring it up in the meeting, feel like they now have to shoulder someone else’s emotions. It is draining for me as well; I am only human.

Is there a nice way to tell repeat criers that they need to maybe skip the meeting if they feel like crying? Should I even do that? I think some of the team really rely on work connections to support them as they don’t have a great network of family and friends.

How do I deal with this? And how can I keep my sanity when I am getting all these emotions dumped on me, even when I’m having a tough time myself?

I wrote back and asked, “Are these daily meetings strictly necessary? That’s a lot of meetings and I’d look at whether they need to be happening that frequently as a first step!”

The organization very much expects us to do this every morning. The meeting can take as little as 15 minutes if we don’t have too much chat. It should just be a quick check-in to capture figures and flag any issues, but can and does get derailed.

First and foremost unless you find the meetings truly useful, see if you can cut down on how often you have them. If you don’t have the authority to do that, can you talk to whoever needs to okay it and explain that not only are they unhelpful but they’re becoming actively derailing?

But if that’s not an option — or if the meetings really do serve a useful purpose — then a few things:

1. Try making the calls audio-only. Not just “you don’t need to have your camera on,” but “we are going to leave cameras off for our meetings this week and see how that goes.” With cameras off, there will be fewer openings for “Jane, you look upset, is everything okay?” and a higher chance of staying focused on the meeting’s agenda.

2. Openly articulate the challenge to your team: “We have a team of empathetic people who care a lot about each other, and many of us have struggles going on outside of work. I love that we support each other, but we’re having trouble getting through our morning meeting agendas. I’m going to ask that we stay focused on work items at these meetings, but if you’re not in a head space to do that on any particular day, please message me that you’re skipping the meeting and we’ll connect later instead.”

3. After laying the groundwork that way, resolve to be more task-focused in the meetings. You probably feel it would be callous to ignore that someone seems upset, but it’s really okay to say, “Unfortunately we’ve got to figure out XYZ right now, but Jane, if you need to drop off this call, you can — and we can talk later if there’s anything you need from me in regard to workload or anything else” … and then move the conversation back to work items. (Similarly, if asking how people are is what tends to bring this out, try skipping that and just say, “Good morning, everyone! We’ve got a lot to cover so I’m going to jump straight in…”)

I suspect that if you try the above for a few weeks, you’ll be able to reset the meeting norms.

- Thank you, Bonnie Bees, for making this video possible: https://www.cgpgrey.com/bonnie

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## Bonnie Bees:

💚 The Wall of 1,000 Thanks: https://www.cgpgrey.com/wall-of-thanks

🎩🐤🎩 And the 100 Top Chickens:

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In brief: As the amount of moisture in our atmosphere increases, we’ll see higher humidity and improving rain chances from today through early next week. It won’t feel like November outside, that’s for sure. As for Halloween, we’ll see daytime showers on Thursday, but I’m hopeful that there will be some clearing by the early evening hours when the kiddos are out and about.

Big picture

With the robust southerly winds we’ve seen over the last couple of days, plenty of moisture has returned to our atmosphere. We’ve already felt that with rising humidity levels, and the sticky air will be with us until at least next Monday or Tuesday as a southerly flow prevails. However, this fertile atmosphere will also set out a welcome mat for a (very) weak front that will sag into the area over the next couple of days.

This environment will support the region’s first widespread, and meaningful rainfall in nearly two months. One should not expect complete relief from the drought-like conditions that have developed over Houston; however any rainfall at this point will be very much appreciated by our region’s flora and fauna. I’m hopeful that most of Houston and surrounding areas will get about 1 inch of rain.

Wednesday

As we look at the radar this morning, for the first time in what seems like forever there is a decent amount of offshore activity. Over the next couple of hours we will see the development of showers on shore. This activity will be fairly scattered, and favor the eastern half of the area. Rain chances are about 50 percent, and we cannot rule out a few thunderstorms. Skies, otherwise, will be partly sunny with high temperatures in the mid-80s. Winds will blow from the south, with some gusts up to 20 mph or a bit higher. Low temperatures tonight will be muggy, in the mid-70s for most locations.

All Hallows’ Eve

Expect another humid, partly sunny day with highs in the mid-80s. Rain coverage will probably be greater on Thursday than Wednesday, with the potential for some thunderstorms during the afternoon hours. We expect to see a diminution in shower activity as evening comes on, but there may be some lingering showers near sunset (6:35 pm CT) as darkness comes on. Our advice? If it’s raining when you want to go trick-or-treating, just wait a bit as shower activity should subside. It will be plenty humid outside during the evening hours, with overnight lows eventually dropping into the mid-70s.

Friday

A day a lot like Thursday, albeit possibly with slightly less shower coverage.

Saturday and Sunday

The weekend will bring partly sunny skies, highs in the mid-80s, and plenty of humidity. With the state of the atmosphere I’d expect a decent chance of showers each day, although it’s difficult to say whether that’s closer to a 1-in-3 or 2-in-3 chance for most of Houston. In any case, just know there’s a chance that any outdoor plans may be briefly disrupted by a passing shower.

Next week

Monday and Tuesday should see a continuation of this sticky pattern with scattered rain showers. Beyond that it’s possible we may see a weak front on Tuesday or Wednesday to bring a bit of drier air, followed by a stronger front next week to really cool us down in a meaningful way. Until there’s meaningful agreement in the models I don’t want to make any promises.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Should managers have to train professionals on basic computer skills?

We have an ongoing debate in my office – is a manager responsible for training an employee on non-essential but generally required skills? For example, my partner and I provide our new attorneys training in how our office operates, the applicable legal fields we cover, legal updates, and generally how to be an attorney. We always provide very detailed training on how to be an attorney in our office and our nuanced procedures.

Where we have a difference of opinion on training is on essential technologies that an attorney needs to use but are not attorney-related. For example, Microsoft Office, Zoom, Teams, using a digital calendar, etc. Not any technology related to our field, but just ones the general office-working population uses these days. This also includes basic tasks related to them like setting up your computer to turn on a camera, hiding a line in Excel, or troubleshooting a printer paper jam.

I refuse to teach new attorneys these technologies as they are basic to any working environment, and they have a vast amount of schooling where they should have likely learned most of it. However, my partner is adamant that we should be providing them training and walking them through these basic things. If they have tried troubleshooting and still have questions, I will answer. I do not apply this same expectation to our support staff who have not had as much schooling or office experience. Is it reasonable to expect high level employees to figure these things out on their own? (I will also note that my frustration also comes from the fact that it is only ever men younger than me who must be walked through these tasks.)

A lot of people don’t learn that stuff in college, depending on what they’re studying. But it’s reasonable to ask them to try googling the answer first — most of what you described is very google-able by anyone with a bit of resourcefulness  — and to tell them to only come to you if they’re still having trouble after that. And if someone has a lot of questions in a particular area, get them set up with formal training (purchased by your office, but not run by you personally) in whatever the program is.

I’m not blind to the gender component of this, though, and that does make it grate more. I’m curious whether your partner is male and, if so, whether you find these younger men go to him with questions at the same rate as they come to you. If not, and instead they’re specifically coming to the woman for admin help, that’s an issue.

2. My coworker asked to borrow money

A coworker, who I interact with occasionally for work-related issues, unexpectedly asked to borrow money. The amount was not substantial (about 25% of the minimum monthly wage here), but I felt uncomfortable with the request since we are not close and have only professional interactions. We work in IT and our salaries are way above the minimum.

He reached out to me via a video call and asked for the loan, promising to repay me by the next paycheck in two weeks. I declined, explaining that I don’t lend money to anyone, whether friends or family. He was understanding and we made some small talk before ending the call.

Should I raise this with my manager or HR? Or should I just brush it aside for now and do it just in case he asks for money again?

Someone you only occasionally interact with set up a video call specifically to ask to borrow money? And they wanted 25% of the monthly minimum wage (which in the U.S. which would be at least a few hundred dollars)? That’s awfully bold.

I’d normally say that no, you don’t need to raise it with anyone — you declined, and he seems fine with that — but it’s such an odd request to make of someone who he doesn’t know well that I’m concerned you’re not the first or the only one he’s asking, and your manager might want to be aware. You don’t have to raise it, but if you do you could frame it as, “Since I don’t know him well, I wondered if I’m not the only one he’s asking and didn’t know if you’d want to be aware of that if so.”

3. Is it weird to change into pajamas as soon as I get home?

I teach middle school social studies and I have to be at work most days by 7 am. I love my students and my work, but by the end of the day, I’m exhausted. I usually get home by 4 pm and the first thing I do is put on my pajamas.

My husband works in senior management for a Fortune 500 company. He usually gets home well after I do, and he gets annoyed sometimes to get home and find me wearing pajamas. He sees it as a sign that I’m refusing to do anything else that day. He changes out of his suit into more casual clothes, but he doesn’t dress down to the point that he wouldn’t want to answer the door or run to the store. I’m curious if it’s truly unusual to put on pajamas as soon as you get home from work. What do your readers think?

This isn’t really a work question, but it’s an interesting one! I do think it’s somewhat unusual — which doesn’t mean it’s not understandable. I did have a roommate who did exactly this when we were all about 20, and it definitely read as … well, an unusual amount of homebody-ness, especially at that age. I can imagine your husband feeling like it’s condemning him a bit to that same level of homebody-ness … and like you’re sort of giving up on anything more interesting happening that day. Is there a compromise where you change into comfy lounge clothes but not actual pajamas until it’s closer to bedtime?

Alternately, if you want to have some fun with this, tomorrow you could be in club wear when he comes home and see how he reacts to that.

4. Should I tell my employer why I won’t come to the Christmas party?

I work as a professor’s student assistant in the department I also study in. (It’s minimum wage for about 5 hours a week). A few other students who work in similar positions and I were once again invited to join the department’s Christmas celebration as we are technically employees of the department.

Unlike the years before where it was just a small get-together where we had to bring our own food (which none of the professors attended), this time it’s supposed to be in a restaurant, but the invitation states outright that we have to pay for our meal ourselves.
While I can probably pay for a single meal out, it’s not without some pain, and I definitely would not have chosen a restaurant in this price class for myself. I know the same goes for the other students.

I could just politely decline, but would there be any merit in mentioning why I won’t attend? I don’t want to stir up trouble but I’m also disappointed that our professors, who are all very well tenured, are seemingly oblivious to the gap between our financial resources. The professor I work for has been gracious in the past, paying my part of the check when I joined meals during work-related outings, but I don’t want to rely on his personal kindness.

Yes, mention it! It doesn’t have to be in a “lodge a complaint” type way — it can just be, “Unfortunately it’s out of my budget.” Encourage any peers who feel the same as you to be candid about it too. It’s useful feedback.

If you do want to make more of a point about it, that would be okay too. In that case you could say, “I know the plans are already set for this year, but in case it’s helpful for know for next year, that price range is rough for us student workers to swing.”

5. Is it OK to return to my old team?

I left a role at Great Company for a new job for more money. It turned out to be a huge mistake; I HATED the new job. I asked my old boss if I could return after half a year. (We had a great working relationship.) Although there were no openings on Great Boss’s team as they had filled my role already, they recommended me for a different role back at Great Company, under a different manager. I’ve been back almost a year now, and Great Boss just let me know there is an opening on their team and asked if I’d like to return. I would love to work under Great Boss again. Current Boss is great, but I liked my previous team more and I miss Great Boss. I’m worried how this will be perceived, as I left Great Team at Great Company, then came back to Great Company, and now am potentially leaving Current Team. Is this unprofessional? I never should have left to begin with!

This isn’t unprofessional at all! You’ve been back a year, another position is opening up that you’re interested in, and you’re throwing your hat in the ring. There’s nothing wrong with that.

I suspect you’re worried about seeming flaky, like you’re jumping around too much and should have stayed where you were originally, but this kind of thing happens. People leave and try out new things and sometimes find their way back to where they started (and it doesn’t sound like this would even be the same role as your original one, although that would be okay too). You can be happy in your current job and with your current boss and still see that a move would fit you even better. (If you keep doing it annually, that could start to look weird after a certain point, but you’re not at that point.)

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I find myself in a truly bizarre situation. I attended a work conference overnight this weekend with almost all of my colleagues. We’re attorneys at a pretty large “small” law firm.

At the end of the conference day, we all had dinner together. My close colleague, Jenna, and I arrived to dinner before the rest of our colleagues. I ordered a mocktail.

During dinner, another colleague pulled an “I’ll have what she’s having” and ordered my drink. I did not notice this. When it arrived without alcohol, she was apparently surprised. This led, for reasons I can’t fathom, to my colleagues (all around my age, almost all women, all also associates) apparently deciding I must be pregnant. My colleagues were all VERY drunk.

When we left dinner, one of the colleagues, Sara, asked me outright if this was true. I asked her why she would think that and explained that I wasn’t drinking because I was going to a big party tomorrow, and drinking two nights in a row is just too much for me.

Another colleague, Rose, cornered me and said that she heard I was pregnant. I asked where she heard something like that, and she proceeded to tell me all the associates was talking about it, she heard I was “trying,” and she thought it better to go straight to the source than just speculate. Rose has been very open about her own fertility issues, so I found her questions absolutely shocking. I told her that if I have something to announce, she’d hear about it. I repeated to her that I was going to a party tomorrow and didn’t want to drink two nights in a row. Sara, standing nearby, said, “You don’t have to explain yourself.” Which … apparently is not the case!

Rose proceeded to remind me that if our boss found out by way of gossip, he would be livid. Great.

Rose and another associate, Amanda, then offered to get a round of drinks. Knowing I was under so much scrutiny, I asked them to get me a glass of sparkling wine. Rose returned with the wine, announced to the group that now I could “prove” I wasn’t pregnant, and proceeded to watch me drink with Amanda. I drank about half the glass, before saying I was heading to bed since it was after 11 pm.

I came late to the next morning’s first panel. Jenna told me that the group was still speculating, said I didn’t drink enough (!), and must indeed be pregnant. I told Rose off at the end of the panel and said I was uncomfortable, that was rude, and not to speculate about my health again.

Here’s the thing. I AM pregnant. It is still early, I’m not ready to share, and even my own family doesn’t know yet! I don’t even know if this baby is healthy and developing normally yet. Our boss is kind of paranoid. If he hears this gossip, it will undoubtedly have negative consequences for me. I’m terrified and wildly uncomfortable.

We don’t have HR. I have no idea what to do. Confront each of these colleagues individually for the incredibly inappropriate behavior? Announce early to head off gossip? I can think of one partner at the firm I trust enough to speak with about this. What in the world do I do?

WTF! Your colleagues were wildly out of line.

Not only is it rude and invasive to speculate on whether someone is pregnant, let alone confront them to ask them about it (and no, Rose, it’s not better to “go straight to the source”), but it’s also ridiculous to assume someone is pregnant just because they’re not drinking. There are a ton of reasons someone might not be drinking on any given occasion: your own reason of not wanting to drink two nights in a row, or they’re on a medicine that prevents it, or they’re trying to drink less, or they’re driving later, or they didn’t eat a lot today and don’t want to drink on an empty stomach, or they prefer not to lower their inhibitions at work events, or they just don’t feel like it.

It’s bizarre that your coworkers care so much. Even if they see drinking together as an enjoyable bonding ritual at work conferences, it’s extremely weird to be so put off that someone else doesn’t feel like it — and I wonder if you not drinking made them feel defensive about how much they were all drinking, given that you described them as “VERY drunk.” Some people get like that.

I hate that you felt like you had to order a drink just to make them stop hassling you. If you could go back and do it over, I’d say to tell them that they were out of line, that there are a zillion reasons someone might not be drinking, and that the topic had become tiresome and so you were heading out.

As for what to do now, you definitely don’t need to announce your pregnancy earlier than you otherwise would! They’re not entitled to that information, and there’s no reason you’d need to burden yourself with that just to head off gossip.

Normally I’d say that one option is to let them gossip if they want to and just decide you don’t care. But you’re concerned about consequences if it gets back to your boss, so that might not feel feasible. (More on that in a minute.) Personally, I’d like to see you lay into each of the involved coworkers about this, given how very offensive it is. Sample language: “There can be a ton of reasons someone’s not drinking, not just pregnancy. Many of those reasons are personal and private, and pushing people to share them in a work context is pretty horrible. I also don’t appreciate you speculating about whether I could be pregnant — and I hope you’ll think about how that would land with someone struggling with infertility. If someone is pregnant and ready to share, they will share it. Please give me and others the courtesy and respect of shutting this down.”

Separately: what’s up with a pregnancy “undoubtedly having negative consequences” for you with your boss? That’s not okay (and it’s illegal if your employer has 15 or more employees), and you’re going to need a plan for dealing with that at whatever point you do announce, if that comes. If your boss is truly hostile to pregnancy and you think he’s likely to illegally discriminate against you, it’s not a bad idea for that plan to include touching base with an employment lawyer.

The newlyweds’ ceremony included a memorial table for Michelle’s grandmother who recently died upon hearing about the couple’s interracial union. 

The post Michelle Donohoe and Felipe Rojas appeared first on The Onion.

Actor Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance at his own lookalike contest in Lower Manhattan, an event that drew hundreds of contestants, though Chalamet himself did not participate. What do you think?

The post Timothée Chalamet Crashes Own Lookalike Contest appeared first on The Onion.

MEHLVILLE, MO—Crossing her state’s eastern border into Illinois to find a more distant fire station, Missouri resident Eileen Fayette reportedly opted to surrender her baby in a Safe Haven Baby Box a couple towns over Wednesday so that it wouldn’t be able to crawl back. “I heard somewhere that as long as your scent is in the air, babies can find their way home from almost anywhere,” said the 22-year-old new mother, explaining that she didn’t want her infant crawling the 30 miles back to her house using its inherent sensitivity to the earth’s electromagnetic fields. “I placed a blindfold over her during the trip so that she couldn’t use any landmarks to navigate either. Hopefully, crossing the Mississippi will disorient her powerful homing abilities so that she stays put this time. You have to go a long way to override an infant’s heightened senses.” At press time, Fayette reported finding her daughter back in her crib the following morning.

The post Baby Left In Drop Box Couple Towns Over So It Can’t Crawl Back appeared first on The Onion.

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

Because Her Policies, Character, and Leadership Ethos
Align with My Core Values as a Veteran

In 2008, I was stationed at what was then known as Fort Hood, Texas, and I watched on TV as Barack Obama was elected president. It was a profound moment for me personally, as I realized that if “a skinny kid with a funny name” could be elected president of this country, then there was hope after all for me, and for my son, who was months old at the time. I deployed to Iraq less than a year later.

The military instills values like integrity, discipline, and good judgment. Harris’s track record, from her time as a prosecutor to her surgical questioning in Senate hearings, and as vice president, reflects a tenacious commitment to justice and truth. She stands for principles over political expediency.

As an army veteran who served in Iraq, having firsthand experience with the consequences of foreign policy decisions, I appreciate Harris’s approach to international relations. She understands the ramifications of military intervention and the importance of diplomacy to resolve potential conflicts. American troops deserve a commander in chief who will not unnecessarily put them in harm’s way.

I’m voting for Kamala Harris because her policies, character, and leadership ethos align with my core values as a veteran. Harris isn’t merely a politician; she’s a visionary leader committed to honoring veterans’ sacrifices through actionable policies. Her stance on veterans’ issues, foreign policy, and justice isn’t just political rhetoric—it’s a pledge to advance a nation where the voices of everyday Americans not only are heard but are instrumental in shaping policy. She embodies the pursuit of peace, justice, and equality, making her not just a choice but the only choice for those who’ve served. And, like President Obama was for my son, I know she will be a great role model for my daughters.

Naveed Shah currently serves as political director of CommonDefense.us.

Read more essays (with new ones added every day) at 270reasons.com.

The arguments here represent the opinion of the authors and not necessarily those of the McSweeney’s Literary Arts Fund.

The Canadian singer tells concert-goers of his sexuality: it's "a beautifully complex thing".

A candidate running against the judge accused him of emailing his students at Texas State to vote for him. State law prohibits using public resources for political advertising.

Mary Howard-Elley is the 10th U.S. citizen identified by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat whose registration was canceled after her citizenship was questioned. Her saga shows how tough it can be for eligible voters to get reinstated.

The newspaper owner's comments follow the reported loss of subscribers and editorial staff resignations.

Headlines

• Tropical development odds are close to 50/50 in the Caribbean over the next week.
• Initially, if anything develops, it is unlikely to move a whole lot, rather just sitting over the Caribbean.
• Eventually, we may see a slow west or west-northwest movement.
• Interests from Central America through the Caribbean should monitor updates on this.

Apologies for the lack of post yesterday, but I was preoccupied with some other things most of the day. Let’s get into things this morning.

Eyes on the western or central Caribbean

Development odds are officially up to about 40 percent now in the Caribbean over the next week, as it appears we will enter a somewhat more active period in the tropics for November. The first thing I think we can say with some confidence this week is that this is not going to be a quick process. If this develops into an organized tropical system, it will take its time. The most likely outcome is that whatever forms here is likely to kind of fester for several days before trying to develop. We can sort of see the beginnings of stuff over the Caribbean this morning.

We’ve got nascent thunderstorms all around the periphery of the Caribbean right now. But over time, we will probably see more thunderstorms focus themselves in the central or western Caribbean. This is what could fester its way into development this weekend or early next week.

What will probably end up happening is over the next week or so, we see this begin to pop up and fester in the Caribbean. Heading into the late weekend, high pressure over Florida and the Gulf and a second high pressure system just east of the islands will impart opposite movement on the disturbance, which basically cancels out. The steering currents shift to near zero. In other words, what starts to develop in the Caribbean will be unlikely to move a whole lot initially.

Over time, high pressure in the Gulf will probably stay in place, while high pressure east of the islands weakens. This may allow for a very slow northwest or west movement within the Caribbean next week. Exactly what this means is somewhat unclear at this point but we have several days to watch this. I don’t believe we will see any marked organization of anything until at least Sunday or Monday. For now at least, I would not be too worried about this in the United States, but interests from Central America across the Caribbean should be checking back in with their sources every day or two for updates on this. We will obviously keep watching.

More to come tomorrow.

Beyond this area, there is not a whole lot to focus on at this point.

In brief: Houston really needs some rain, and in the next several days it is finally going to fall over the region. This post explains when, and how much. Beyond that, Houston’s humidity levels will remain elevated for several days, leading to sticky conditions. We still expect a nice fall front during the second half of next week.

Rainfall needed

Nearly all of the Houston region has fallen into a moderate drought in recent weeks, and we’re starting to see a severe drought for some locations to the northwest of the metro area. These conditions have been created by an exceptionally dry September and October, and much of our region has received no rain in more than five weeks, and very little in the last eight weeks. This dry weather has coincided with a period of mostly hot and sunny days, leading to very dry soils.

We have needed rainfall and finally, over the next several days, we are going to get some rain as a weak front sags into Houston, stalls, and disturbs the atmosphere. The forecast models have trended a little bit wetter over the last day, so we now expect most of the region to pick up 1 to 2 inches of precipitation through the weekend. This won’t completely end our drought, but a little November rain goes a long way with shorter days and cooler weather on the horizon.

Tuesday

Rain is unlikely today, but conditions will help set up a wetter second half of the week. We’ll see partly to mostly sunny skies, with high temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s. Southeasterly winds will blow at 10 to 20 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph, and this will herald increasing atmospheric moisture levels. A few coastal showers will be possible later today or tonight, but overall rain chances remain low. Temperatures tonight will only fall into the mid-70s for most of Houston, with higher humidity levels.

Wednesday and Thursday

These days should bring the most elevated rain chances, with much of Houston seeing a better than 50-50 likelihood of precipitation. Showers on Wednesday are likely to start during the mid- to late morning hours and chances will remain high through most of Thursday. To be clear, these are unlikely to be strong storms that lead to flooding, but should typically be more moderate showers. But we may well see some thunderstorms embedded in the showers. Highs both days will be in the low- to mid-80s.

If you’re concerned about Halloween weather, most of our available modeling indicates that rain showers should taper off somewhat by Thursday afternoon or evening. We’ll have a better handle on this in tomorrow’s forecast, where there is more high-resolution guidance available. But for now, I’d anticipate cloudy conditions on Thursday evening, with temperatures in the upper 70s and plenty of humidity.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Partly sunny skies, trending toward mostly sunny, will prevail through the weekend. Look for high temperatures, generally, in the low- to mid-80s. We’ll definitely see the possibility of showers each day, although chances for most locations will be 50 percent or less. Humidity levels remain high throughout the weekend, so nights will stay sticky.

Next week

This pattern continues into the first half of next week, with highs in the 80s, and at least some low-end rain chances. At some point I expect to see a fairly robust cold front, but whether that’s on Wednesday or Thursday I don’t yet have confidence. However, I have to tell you, if we could get a combination of healthy rain showers this week, and a very much fall-like front next week, I’d be feeling pretty good about our weather here in Houston.

Frida Kahlo wears a cow-print jacket, holding a large bottle of Cinzano vermouth. Her hair is cropped short, a la pixie. She is looking straight at you. This is a Frida outside of time, a figure we know made her mark on the early twentieth century, but in the lens of Lucienne Bloch, feels less like an elusive giant of art history and more like a friend of today, who is stylish and biting and when told to bring whatever to the party, brought the vermouth. Frida with Cinzano Bottle (1935) is not a contrived intimacy; it is a portrait of Frida by her friend Lucienne, who knew Frida in her home and her marriage and in correspondence that lasted decades. The photography in PDNB’s Portraits of Frida by Lucienne Bloch and Nickolas Muray challenges our perception of an artist who we have come to know through the insularity of her self-portraits and the infamy of her public persona. At PDNB, we are offered a new quiet closeness to Frida Kahlo through the lens of a friend and the lens of a lover, who offer us images of Frida in hotel rooms and border crossings and among the makings of her own life (her work, her studio, her beloved pet deer). 

The show opens with three photos that encapsulate Frida’s evolving life in the 1930s. In Frida Winking (1933, Bloch), a black-and-white of Frida at age 26, playfully throwing a wink to the camera; a bell extends before her, another layer in the crowded frame. In a portrait from a few years earlier, she sits casually, her posture assured, a cigarette suspended from her fingertips (Frida at the Barbizon, Plaza Hotel, 1931, Bloch). Behind her hangs one of her early portraits, which she matches in a white shirt and beaded necklace, seemingly in a cosplay of self. Her expression rests on the precipice of a smile. Between these two works is Muray’s Frida with Picasso Earrings (1939) a color study of hands: one lightly clutching her neck, and two dangling from her ears, a gift from Pablo Picasso. 

PDNB disregards chronology in its arrangement, or even a delineation between Muray and Bloch by section. Rather, Frida’s life is presented to us with time and observers folding in on itself. At twenty-six, thirty-three, twenty-four; Bloch, Muray, friend, lover; youth and the storied Barbizon; a moment of play following years of personal loss; closing the decade following exhibitions in New York and Paris: the juxtaposition of Muray’s work against Bloch’s two photos of the early thirties provides clues as to Frida’s personal and professional evolution in those eight years. When Kahlo first moved to the United States in 1930, her identity as an artist was obscured by the status of her new husband, renowned muralist Diego Rivera. As the decade unfolded, Frida’s stake in the art world became more solidified as she put to canvas the turbulence of her health and her relationship with Rivera. 

We have been given many representations of Frida during these years, often from Frida herself in her paintings depicting anguish from miscarriage (Henry Ford Hospital, 1932), infertility (Frida and the Abortion, 1932), chronic pain (The Broken Column, 1944), her divorce from Diego (The Two Fridas, 1939). Diego also slips Frida into his work but obscured as a representation of the masses, disguised as an activist in his Ministry of Education Mural (1928) and his History of Mexico mural at the National Palace. While Portraits of Frida does anchor the show with some of Muray’s iconic Frida portraits – Frida on White Bench, New York (1939), Frida Kahlo with Magenta Rebozo, New York (1939), Frida with Granizo (1939) – the exhibition is more interested in Frida’s unexamined moments. 

Portraits of Frida is revelatory in its tenderness. Frida’s youth and her playfulness are almost unnerving, as if we have been given unfettered access to the in-betweens of her life. Bloch and Muray have their own approaches to framing Frida. Bloch catches Frida in the midst of her life: in an embrace with Diego, chewing on her necklace, sitting on a radiator at the New Workers School. Bloch’s photos feel palpably uncontrived, evoking the sometimes-gentle sometimes-harsh rhythms of one’s twenties, of Frida’s twenties, which were filled with many moves across North America and romantic betrayals and dalliances and work and politics and loss. Muray’s portraits are stylized and saturated and see Frida centered in a well-postured confidence. There is a mature sensuality and a disinterested gaze that seems almost a challenge to the viewer. In Muray’s portraits, Frida is often holding herself.

What is the crux of these intimacies? The persona of Frida Kahlo is entrenched in many histories, both from her decades alive during the Mexican Revolution and WWII, as a wife of an artistic great and then as a great artist herself, and in the many years following her death in which her visage and work have become an inspiration and an emblem upon which to project feminist ideals. What PDNB provides in Portraits is a new witnessing of Frida, apart from her torrid relationship with Diego, apart from her own paintings which employ surrealist modes to unpack pain and pleasure and self, apart from tomes by art historians which attempt to condense a lifetime into a few hundred pages. Bloch and Muray give us Frida as friend: a smaller but perhaps deeper moniker than icon. 

We have many witnesses to our lives: the most documented is often the witnessing by our partners and ourselves. One of Frida’s most moving accomplishments as an artist was the sharpness with which she witnessed herself. She did not flinch at depicting the emotional and physical scars she accrued and did not shy away from the grotesque realities of her life, of all life. Frida saw herself inside-out, her organs outside the body, her veins connecting her to the earth. She saw herself cracked open by pain and sitting alongside gods and idols and surrounded by innocents and not-so-innocents. So much of our understanding of Frida is from her lifelong commitment to self-examination through portraiture. Her surrealist style, her dark humor, and her uninhibited range of subject matter have lingered. 

To be portrayed by oneself with a sense of intentionality, and then to have the act of portraiture enacted by another, by the flash of a lens could perhaps feel reductive. But Bloch and Muray’s portraits are not flippant flashes of Frida, as they were not just photographers but witnesses to Frida’s life. Bloch listened to Frida’s wails from the next room as she miscarried in Detroit. They watched an eclipse together (Frida voicing what so many of us are afraid to say when it comes to the fanfare of eclipses: this is it?). She accompanied Frida on a cross-continent journey from Detroit to Mexico City at the news of Frida’s mother’s impending death. At one point, the two were stuck at the border waiting for a connecting bus that would take them into Mexico. The sentiment of feeling suspended on one of history’s most contentious borders is depicted in Frida’s Self-Portrait on the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States (1932), detailing the anthropological and industrial histories of the two nations with Frida in the center, in a pink ruffled dress, long fingerless gloves, and a cigarette. Bloch also captures Frida at the Border (1932), and here the concerns of the border are less entrenched and more immediate: a daughter waits impatiently for her connection to her dying mother. Bloch bore witness to the fraught realities of Frida’s young adulthood, as her roommate and confidant. At PDNB, Bloch’s portraits ground a fabled woman in reality, in something contemporary; this friend in a toxic relationship, who is the life of the party, who is politically passionate and stirs the pot and is trying to build something for herself and who cradles vermouth. For Lucienne Bloch, this friend was Frida Kahlo. 

Of Frida’s many affairs, Muray was perhaps her most meaningful, one that lasted on and off for ten years, one which left heartbreak and art in its wake. Between romance, there was friendship, letters, and loans; they maintained a friendship despite their romantic entanglements, a friendship that was no doubt colored by those entanglements. As Frida’s marriage to Diego unraveled and re-raveled, correspondence with Muray is transparent and vulnerable and perhaps a tinge manipulative (“Don’t go to Coney Island, specially to the Half Moon, with her”). In 1939, Muray captured Frida in what would become one of the most iconic photos of her of all time: Frida on White Bench. In it, she is enveloped by all things soft, draped in fabrics and backgrounded, foregrounded, adorned with florals. The next year, Frida sent Muray a portrait of herself wearing a necklace of thorns – Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940); she is flanked by a monkey and a crouching black cat. Frida never lost sight of her edges. More than Bloch’s black-and-whites, Muray’s portraits resemble Frida’s paintings in their framing and color composition. But where Frida’s works engage with the psychological resonances of nature, her trinkets, and her pets, Muray’s lens provides a more sentimental filter to these interests. In her lover’s lens, Frida is bemused, impatient, and precious. Muray’s view of Frida as an entrancing figure is palpable in his portraits; even in Frida Painting “Me and My Parrots” (1941), Muray can’t take his eyes off of her. 

How are we seen, no, how are we revealed? Who does the revealing? Much of Kahlo’s legacy has deep roots in pain, but in the portraits by Bloch and Muray, we are given the privilege of sides of Frida’s identity aside from her pain (or perhaps co-habitants of her pain). A Frida with humor, with vices (beyond Diego) – a casual Frida is found within the portraits of PDNB.

Recent exhibitions of Frida lean into the spectacle of her work and personal expression, and this certainly has its place. Frida was extremely intentional about the aesthetic modes she imbued into her home, her wardrobe, and her work. But PDNB offers a pared-down experience of Frida: something subtle and no less alive. Here we see a Frida less defined by her pain, or her relationship with Diego and her demons, and what flourishes is the part of her that pulses within her work: her wit, her frankness, and the endless examination of the individual. 

 

Portraits of Frida by Lucienne Bloch and Nickolas Muray is on view at PDNB through November 9.

The post “Portraits of Frida by Lucienne Bloch and Nickolas Muray” at PDNB, Dallas appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Can I opt out of AI assistants in meetings?

In large Zoom meetings, I’ve noticed a coworker using an AI assistant to transcribe and take notes. While I understand the desire to use these kinds of tools on an ease and accessibility level, everything about AI, from privacy to environmental, squicks me out beyond belief. I’ve yet to speak during these calls, but I wonder if there’s any standing for me or another coworker to ask these tools not be used?

Your coworker may not even know the AI is there. Some AI tools, once turned on for one use, will start attending and transcribing meetings without being specifically requested each time (see this letter for an example).

At this point, any employer that hasn’t already communicated a clear policy about the use of AI in meetings and other work needs to, so you could raise the issue on your team or within your organization and ask for a clear policy on when AI use is and isn’t okay, and point out the potential security risks if the data from meetings is stored outside your company. Assuming this is an outside AI tool and not something proprietary to your company, in many organizations using it this way would be considered a security risk.

2. Hate group bumper sticker in the company parking lot

One of my employees has a large sticker from an anti-government extremist group on his truck. I want to ask him to either remove the sticker or park his truck somewhere that is not in the company parking lot (we serve a lot of government entities, and these folks tried to kidnap the governor!). My HR team is telling me that I can’t do this because it violates the employee’s freedom of speech, but do I seriously have to let him advertise his hate group at our place of business?

“Freedom of speech,” as a legal concept, applies to the government not being able to restrict speech, not to private employers having rules about what is and isn’t okay to be displayed on their property. From a purely legal standpoint, a private employer absolutely has the right to tell an employee that they can’t display an offensive sticker in their parking lot.

Whether or not your company will allow you to do that is a different question. If your company isn’t willing to back you up, or tells you directly that they’re not willing to prohibit offensive stickers in their lot, they’re allowed to take that stance. They don’t have to take that stance (so HR is wrong if they’re implying their hands are tied), but they can choose to. But you might have better luck escalating this to someone who isn’t HR.

3. Potlucks with food-restricted coworkers

My government workplace holds potluck and other food-related events a few times a year. It’s nothing big, but those who attend like them. There are a few folks who don’t attend because they have food restrictions (gluten-free, vegan, etc.). It’s fine if folks don’t want to attend, but I don’t want anyone to feel excluded! Some others bring their own food or just come to sit with us. The last time we had a potluck, I searched for a recipe online for a vegan, gluten-free dish to share. I made sure to let folks know that I made a special dish so they felt included. It was a new challenge for me, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

My colleagues who host the event say they would love to have people with food sensitivities bring dishes that meet their dietary needs to share as well. We have enough people with different preferences that there should be some variety if a few of them bring something to share. Should the burden be on those with dietary restrictions to bring a dish that meets their needs? Is it helpful for the rest of us to bring dishes with others’ needs in mind? I don’t want people to feel pressured to attend because I made a specific dish; I just want them to feel included. We also print out recipes to share and to let folks know what ingredients are in each dish.

This varies by person. Some people with food restrictions will be delighted someone went out of their way to provide something they can eat. Others may be wary about eating it (ask any vegetarian who’s ever heard a dish described as “vegetarian” only to find out it contained chicken broth); they’re not willing to risk someone got the details of their restrictions exactly right. Some may be happy to bring their own dish so they’re assured there will be something there they can eat; others are happier opting out altogether because they don’t want to discuss their diet at all, or simply don’t like potlucks. All of which is to say: there’s no one right answer here. The only way to know for sure is to talk to your colleagues and ask what they’d most like.

All that said, you sound thoughtful and kind, and I’m sure your food-restricted coworkers appreciate you thinking about them!

4. My coworkers talk about me like a pet

I’m an introverted and quiet person and I rarely participate in non-work conversations with my coworkers. I’m not rude — I participate when I’m directly addressed. I just usually keep to myself otherwise. My coworkers definitely know me as the quiet one, but nobody’s ever complained.

My issue is this: sometimes, when my coworkers are chatting near me, they’ll speak for me in a way I can only explain as the way people will talk about their pets, attributing reactions and opinions to them as a way to comment on the situation. “Fluffy says, ‘Fish? I love fish!’” That kind of thing. They’ll be complaining about something and then say, “Ha, Morgan thinks I’m crazy” or “Morgan’s over there like ‘you guys don’t know what you’re talking about.’” And I’m not involved in the conversation at all, let alone thinking or reacting the way they say.

I don’t really know how to respond when this happens. Should I correct them? They’re not talking to me, just around me. I don’t want to create a fuss if this is normal and they’re just joking around, but I find it uncomfortable to have opinions on something I wasn’t even paying attention to attributed to me.

I think you’re reading it wrong! They’re not really attributing those opinions to you; they’re trying to acknowledge your presence. They don’t want to talk around you as if you’re not there and it’s almost certainly meant as a warm/funny way to not seem like they’re ignoring you. You don’t need much of a response to it — you could just smile and say “no, no” or “ha, not at all” or any other non-committal but reasonably warm response you’re comfortable with.

5. I was promised a bonus but haven’t seen it yet

I was lucky enough to be asked to come work a conference overseas for my job. I did great, and got a lot of good feedback emailed to my manager — hurray!

During the conference, the organizer (who works at our company) mentioned that all of the staff (me included) working the event would get a bonus. She and I even talked about what I should spend my bonus on.

I never did receive it. I checked with a coworker who was also at the event, and he got his already. I’m pretty non-confrontational, and I don’t want to come off as greedy or money-grubbing, but I’d like the bonus! What’s the best way to ask about it?

It’s not money-grubbing to ask about a work payment that you were told you would receive, especially when you know someone else already got theirs. Talk with the organizer and say this: “You had mentioned everyone working at X would get a bonus, which I really appreciated. Do you know when we’re likely to see it come through?”

POCATELLO, ID—Shedding new light on an unfolding situation that allegedly left Mom very upset, a new report issued Tuesday through Dad’s gritted teeth indicated that you needed to come back here right this instant and apologize to your mother. “Give your mother a hug right now and tell her you’re sorry,” the report stated in part, stressing that sources have had it up to here with your attitude lately, and if they ever caught you talking to your mother that way again, they would have no problem grounding you until the end of time—and that would include the winter formal. “Go apologize now, and you better sound like you mean it! That woman does so much for you, and this is how you treat her? You are acting like a spoiled brat. Maybe your friends’ parents allow that kind of talk, but we don’t behave like that in this house.” The report concluded by threatening to pull you off the basketball team so fast your head would spin if you didn’t learn how to show your parents some goddamn respect.

The post Report: Get Back Here And Apologize To Your Mother appeared first on The Onion.

Authentic countryside silo pre-
furnished with 550 tons of dried corn. Priced to sell, as the previous owner died of asphyxiation. 

Reference #829583

The post Bucolic Silo appeared first on The Onion.

AIRDRIE – Airdrie’s annual Harvest Festival is clearly just the town’s annual Summer Carnival with some scarecrows and hay bales thrown in, according to underwhelmed sources. “Look, they crossed out most of ‘Yeehaw!’ on the cowboy poster and replaced it with ‘Yeargh!’” said one visitor. “I guess he’s scared of the cotton candy that’s been […]

The post Fall festival just summer festival with scarecrow appeared first on The Beaverton.

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

Because I Want the American Experiment to Continue

I’m voting for the Harris-Walz ticket because I want to see the American experiment continue: democratic process, free and fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law. They are not “issues” with rational counterarguments and reasonable opposing sides. They’re the bedrock of our nation. We’ve seen the alternatives. January 6th told us all we need to know about the national mutation that the failed dictator and his supporters would bring forth. History has made clear that every wannabe strongman is a weak man devoid of ideas, beyond the singular need to retain power through intimidation, suppression, and violence. The American experiment is imperfect, variable, aspirational, and ongoing, and it’s the latter that makes it exceptional. The American experiment reaches again and again, imagines anew with each generation, and writes bolder, more audacious stories about what it means to be free, to live within the sanctuary of liberty, and to be truly inclusionary and equal. The American experiment gets closer to its ideals through community organizing, through protest marches and demonstrations, through kitchen-table debates, and with each vote cast for visions of what it means to be a strong, compassionate nation. If you’re reading this and still think that not voting for Harris-Walz is a means of protest, please consider that it’s the worst protest tactic of all. Especially in a tight election and given the dictator-in-waiting, it also may be your last act of protest. Please don’t squander the hard-won right to vote, don’t stay at home when generations of Americans have put their lives and livelihoods on the line to guarantee you the right that they and their elders didn’t have, and please don’t deny yourself, your family, your community, and folks like me the ability to see the American experiment persist and morph from ideals to viable ideas.

Monique Truong is a novelist, essayist, and librettist.

Read more essays (with new ones added every day) at 270reasons.com.

The arguments here represent the opinion of the authors and not necessarily those of the McSweeney’s Literary Arts Fund.

Tom-Cardigan and Lo Fi superhero shirt both made by "Jemoomoo.makes" on instagram.

We selling the LF shirts at merch!
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MD Anderson said it was notified via a letter from BCBSTX earlier this year.

This year's early voting broke a record in Harris County for the number of in-person votes cast during the first week of early voting, beating the previous 2020 record by 58,161 votes.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I’m in a position where I do some industry event hosting and public interviewing. I don’t arrange any of the events, I’m just a speaker/host (I work in a related field too, but these gigs are freelance and paid separately.)

I had agreed to interview someone very prestigious in their field who was launching a new product. It was a big event with paid tickets, with the expectation that quotes from the interview would be used for content, promotion, and publicity. I’ve worked with the PR company who were handling it on similar events and it’s all been fine.

At this recent event, I turned up 15 minutes before the interview, as requested. The VIP, who I’ll call Lee, arrived and seemed a little tipsy but in good humor (it was an evening event in a venue with a bar so while being tipsy obviously is not great, it wasn’t like they were morning-drinking at an office.) I asked if they wanted to go over the interview questions, they said no and that they’d go with the flow on stage, and seemed fine.

Alison, I went to the bathroom and in that time (literally about four minutes) Lee had downed a full glass of wine and started gulping down another. The PR people were all present and laughing away like it was a party — one of them was the person who got Lee the drinks from the venue’s bar. I was immediately worried this would be a mess but Lee is an adult surrounded by their publicity people who weren’t saying anything, so I said nothing. For what it’s worth, there would be some allowance for this person to lean into some “creative genius” eccentricity if they were still interesting and articulate, so I was hoping that would be the case.

It was not.

I went on stage, gave Lee a nice introduction, and they came on stage — and it unsurprisingly and rapidly went very wrong. Lee couldn’t articulate themselves, started getting frustrated at themselves, and I could tell they were about to start crying. I pivoted the discussion to some audience feedback on the need for the new product, early reviews, etc, just to give Lee a few moments to breathe. As an audience member was speaking, I quietly asked Lee if they wanted me to wrap it up, but they said they wanted to hear some more feedback. I vamped a little with the audience, but I could see that Lee was not getting any more composed and the audience was aware. I tried to wrap it up as elegantly as I could, at which point Lee started audibly getting emotional, saying they’d ruined the event. The PR reps ushered Lee back to their hotel, only mentioning to me on the way out that Lee hadn’t eaten anything before drinking, had been very anxious about the event, and had a hugely stressful week.

I feel mortified and a bit sick. I feel like I unwillingly participated in someone who has a drinking issue, major anxiety, or both being shoved in front of a crowd when they were in a bad state. I’ve never been in that position before and feel like I should have tried to say something in the three minutes we had before going on stage, or maybe ended the “interview” more quickly. By the time we’d started, I was genuinely trying to figure out how to give the product some attention and discussion while not drawing attention to Lee’s behavior — but in retrospect I think it was so obvious to the audience that Lee was drunk that I should have just got them off the stage immediately, rather than have them continue to sit on stage for 15 minutes.

It’s so obvious that Lee was not in a good space that I can’t be angry at them, I just feel sad for them — but I am annoyed at the PR team for not flagging Lee’s anxiety with me and for giving them two drinks within literally five minutes right before we were going on stage. Apart from Lee’s welfare, I’m also worried that I looked unprofessional to the audience and like the discomfort of the event is going to fall on me, and, as I’m freelance, that’s a big deal for me in terms of future jobs.

I’m not sure if anything needs to be said to the PR company. They’re obviously aware it did not go to plan for them or the product launch, so sending a message afterwards feels possibly like stating the obvious?

We had also agreed on a fee in advance which was on the assumption that I would have a 45-minute interview with Lee, which obviously did not happen. Should I still expect the full amount? I did all my research and preparation and arrived ready to do my job, but I know they didn’t get what they needed. I don’t know what is fair to expect, payment-wise?

You should be paid for the job you agreed to do. You set aside time and prepared and came ready to do the work, and then you rolled with a very difficult situation very gracefully. Nothing here warrants a reduction in your fee.

In your shoes, I’d call your contact at the PR company and say you wanted to touch base about the event and check on Lee. It’ll be clear why you’re concerned, and your contact should have some kind of commentary on what happened that should naturally bring you to more of a point of closure about the event. But if for some reason they don’t do that, you could say, “That was a tough situation to handle — is there anything I could have done differently on my end to smooth that over? I had asked Lee if they wanted to wrap up early and they didn’t so I tried to pivot to the product, but I think it was just a rough situation for everyone to navigate.” This is really just about helping things feel more wrapped up, since it’s weird if no one talks to you about it.

But from there you should send your normal invoice and assume they will pay it. It would be really crappy of them to balk at that, just like it would be crappy if they balked at paying you because a VIP got food poisoning on stage and had to cut the night short or anything else that short-circuited an on-stage interview.

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