In the 1800s, catching your train on time was no easy feat. Every town had its own "local time," based on the position of the sun in the sky. There were 23 local times in Indiana. 38 in Michigan. Sometimes the time changed every few minutes.
This created tons of confusion, and a few train crashes. But eventually, a high school principal, a scientist, and a railroad bureaucrat did something about it. They introduced time zones in the United States. It took some doing--they had to convince all the major cities to go along with it, get over some objections that the railroads were stepping on "God's time," and figure out how to tell everyone what time it was. But they made it happen, beginning on one day in 1883, and it stuck. It's a story about how railroads created, in all kinds of ways, the world we live in today.
This episode was originally produced by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and edited by Jacob Goldstein. Jess Jiang is Planet Money's Acting Executive Producer.
GOFFSTOWN, NH—With critics calling the former president’s highly anticipated town hall a “disgrace” for all involved,” Donald Trump was widely condemned Thursday for giving a platform to CNN. “It was dangerous, irresponsible, and downright disgusting for President Trump to provide CNN with a large national audience…
In the bathroom on your first Hinge date after a man with one really long fingernail pressures you to set up a cryptocurrency wallet on your phone. 0/10
In the child psychologist’s office after asking her if the divorce will turn your son into the type of man who wears a puka shell necklace and she says, “Maybe.” 3/10
At your free trial class at CrossFit, doing box jumps, working on your divorce bod. You’ve peed a little bit and you have to tell Coach Bryce that after three kids, your pelvic floor is just a flimsy suggestion. 2/10
At the hair salon, getting the gray in your hair dyed pink. Reclaim that lost youth—you look like Cyndi Lauper. Or Helen Mirren? Or just plain desperate? How much is this going to cost, and why is everyone staring at you? 3/10
In the car. This is the little black dress of crying locales. It’s classic, comfortable, and accessible day or night. Crying in the car is always in style. 10/10
On an experimental ketamine infusion for a depressive episode, as you commandeer Santa’s sleigh through the cosmos. You weep at the symbolism of taking control of your life before the doctor increases your dose, and you crash the reindeer into a fjord. 8/10
In the shower, performing basic hygiene. Tears go right down the drain, and the steam combined with the lacrimal salt content can be rebranded as a mineral facial. 10/10
At kindergarten/school pick-up, not totally sure if today is your day or your ex’s, and the anxiety is killing you. Plus, Marcia Neuwirth—chipper mother of five who always looks disgustingly impeccable—is coming in hot with open arms, frowning at you as though you were a middle-class paycheck. 2/10
In the tattoo parlor, because, unlike your marriage, this sweet divorce tattoo will last forever. That ouroboros shaped like an infinity symbol with your kids’ initials inside looks dope! Does anyone still say “dope”? WOW, that’s painful. 9/10
On your divorcée ayahuasca retreat. Crying is actually encouraged here, but now your shaman’s scolding you for bragging about the oriental rug you found on the desert floor of Joshua Tree, which is just a puddle of your own vomit, some of which you purged on your new friend Barb. 7/10
In the McDonald’s drive-thru, because fuck cooking, fuck a well-balanced diet, definitely fuck CrossFit. You’ll take a quarter pounder with a large fry and two Happy Meals, please, plus a soft serve… what do you mean the soft serve machine is down? 3/10 (When the soft serve machine is working: 9/10)
In front of your lawyer, who is decidedly less chic than Laura Dern in Marriage Story, when she presents you with various custody schedules that are so complex, a Nobel-winning astrophysicist must have invented them. And you’re paying five hundred dollars an hour for this. 0/10
In a pitch meeting about user experience when the client asks about “journeys” and “paths.” You misunderstand and spend twelve career-damaging minutes talking about your ayahuasca retreat. 6/10
Getting a free sample at Costco and thinking, if those culinary geniuses at Jimmy Dean can marry a sausage and a pancake, maybe there’s hope for you to find love again too. 8/10
In the closet, embracing cleaning supplies. Privacy, at last. Plus, that mop won’t make you try and articulate your feelings. 10/10
At Medieval Times, gnawing on a turkey leg. You used to love it here, but now the final joust between the black and red knight just hits a little too close to home. 3/10
At your gynecologist’s, where you realize this is the last chance at penetration you’ll have until you financially recover from that crypto scam and feel brave enough to download Hinge again. 4/10
Watching the latest season of Love Is Blind, on the couch, by yourself. They’re all so full of hope, and you’re just full of fast food and gas. 5/10
In your couple’s therapist’s office, rehashing the past. Like no one has ever cried in a therapist’s office before? This is amateur. 1/10
On a boat, where you’re on a boat. Things could be so much worse. 10/10
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s mid-year updates season!
If you’ve had your question answered here in the past, please email me an update and let us know how your situation turned out. Did you take the advice? Did you not take the advice? What happened? How’s your situation now? (Don’t post your updates here though; email them to me.)
Your update doesn’t have to be positive or big to be worth submitting. We want to hear them all, even if you don’t think yours is that interesting.
And if there’s anyone you especially want to hear an update from, mention it here and I’ll reach out to those people directly.
Mark “Scrapdaddy” Bradford, a Houston-based artist, has opened a new nonprofit art space, called The Mark Bradford Project, in the Independence Heights neighborhood.
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mr. Bradford moved to Houston at the age of eight, when his father Glenn Bradford took a job with an architecture firm in the city. A mostly self-taught artist, Mr. Bradford attended Houston Community College (HCC) for four years where he learned to weld, however, he dates his passion for building and creating back to his youth. Mr. Bradford’s great-grandfather was an inventor, and as a young child, Mr. Bradford was fascinated by a steel plant in Mansfield, Louisiana. After moving to Houston, he also was intrigued by the metal roller coasters at AstroWorld.
Mark “Scrapdaddy” Bradford with his 2012 Art Car “Mr. Green,” which won the Mayor’s Cup and Grand Trophy at the parade that year. Photo by Robert Seale.
After graduating from high school, Mr. Bradford worked as a bike courier and decided to learn the craft of welding so he could fulfill his dream of working creatively with metal. During his time at HCC, Mr. Bradford got involved with Houston’s Art Car Parade. Over the decades, his large, intricate, kinetic, metal creations have become a staple of the event. Beyond local fame, his work has been featured throughout North and South America, as well as Europe. His creations have appeared on several television shows, including Battle Bots, Junkyard Wars, and Guinness Primetime Live. Additionally, Mr. Bradford hosted two shows for the History Channel’s Scrapyard Scavengers.
Mr. Bradford told Glasstire, “Scrapdaddy has evolved. It was a place of ego. It came about when we were doing this TV show Junkyard Wars in London and we [Shawn Ham and Ken Crimmins] were the Texas Scrap Daddies, but now I want to be more of an advocate for recycling and repurposing and working with what you’ve got.”
Though he values the success he has found, these days Mr. Bradford’s goal is to share his skills to inspire and motivate others. For a number of years, he has led tours of his studio and workshops for educators, teaching them how to work with metal when welding is not an option. It is this passion that has led him to transport his work to a more permanent location and launch a nonprofit organization.
“The Owl House,” by Mark “Scrapdaddy” Bradford and David Miller. Photo by Larry Harris.
David Miller, who was a fraternity brother of Mr. Bradford’s father, has partnered with Mr. Bradford in creating the organization. The two have a history: nearly 30 years ago, Mr. Bradford taught Mr. Miller to weld. Last summer, Mr. Bradford moved into a small house on Mr. Miller’s property, and together the two have added metal scales to the structure, which they call The Owl House. Inspired by the Beer Can House and The Orange Show Visionary Center for the Arts, the two have purchased a smaller lot directly behind Mr. Miller’s original property, which consists of an array of work spaces and Mr. Miller’s sculptures, as a home for Mr. Bradford’s sculpture collection.
Mark “Scrapdaddy” Bradford with his sculptures. Photo by Ted Degener.
While The Owl House and other sculptures can be seen at the entrance of the original property at 512 W. Donovan Street, the entrance to The Mark Bradford Project is at the other end of the lot on Marcella Street. The lot had long been an open area where people would dump dirt, so Mr. Bradford has used this excess soil to create mounds throughout the space. Additionally, he has salvaged plants that had been thrown out by a landscaping business to beautify the lot. It has taken over a year for Mr. Bradford to transport all of his work to the new space, but now the property is home to over one hundred sculptures by Mr. Bradford; it is the largest collection of Scrapdaddy sculptures.
The Mark Bradford Project. Photo by Larry Harris.
The Mark Bradford Project is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 12 pm to 5 pm. To schedule a tour, email Mr. Bradford at scrapdaddy@me.com.
MINNEAPOLIS—Boasting that its latest product would completely eradicate loneliness, Green Giant unveiled a new lettuce Thursday that customers could put a wig on and pretend was their wife. “With Green Giant’s new iceberg lettuce, you don’t just have the makings of a delicious salad—you also have a companion, a lover,…
WASHINGTON—Reeling in the wake of his indictment on 13 federal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) revealed Thursday that he would fund his legal defense by selling official Ray-Bans for 90% off. “These are the real deal and going for much, much cheaper than market price,” the…
Often called an “Instagram sensation,” Dallas-based artist Dan Lam has created eye-catching sculptures out of foam and resin for years. Whether a drip,blob, or squish, Lam’s vibrant works beg to be touched (except, they can’t be).
After graduating from the University of North Texas, Lam attended graduate school at Arizona State University, receiving her MFA in 2014. Since then, her work has been featured in exhibitions and art fairs around the world.
Lam was recently selected as a collaborative artist for the forthcoming Meow Wolf Grapevine. Below, she and I discuss everything from her first foam sculptures to her current projects.
Caleb Bell (CB): It is my understanding that you didn’t really start experimenting and creating with foam until graduate school at Arizona State University. Is that correct? Can you share a little about those very first foam sculptures?
Dan Lam (DL): I first learned about polyurethane foam right before I graduated from undergrad at UNT, but I started using it once I started graduate school. The first few times I used it, it was straightforward — I mixed the materials and poured them. I watched how it worked and learned more from practice. There was some shaping and forming on my part, but I let the material do its thing. Once I got the hang of it, I started pushing what I could do with it.
CB: As far as “pushing” the medium, from those initial works until now, how would you say your sculptures have evolved?
DL: They’ve become more complex and less straightforward. I layer other materials on the polyurethane, including resin, paint, and various polymers. The further I’ve gone, the more layers there are, and the shapes and textures have also become more detailed. In my early sculptures, it was easy to recognize what the material was.
Dan Lam, “A Subtle Alchemy,” 2021. The piece was on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in 2021. Photo: Kevin Todora
CB: What are the main inspirations for your works? What are you hoping viewers take away from encountering a piece?
DL: My inspirations come from various sources, but the most direct influence is nature. I take many visual cues from the natural world, especially in how I form the work and how it builds and layers. I don’t want to recreate what already exists, so I take inspiration and give it time to percolate and filter through.
I want people to have a sense of wonder or curiosity. It can be as simple as wondering what the work is made of, or even what it is. Maybe those questions lead to more questions and there is dialogue there, whether it be internal or with someone. To create something that sparks questions is ultimately what I want.
Dan Lam installing work at Meow Wolf Grapevine. Photo courtesy of the artist
CB: I know that you were selected to contribute to the forthcoming Meow Wolf in Grapevine, and you recently installed your largest work to date. Before we discuss that though, I wanted to talk about your Nasher Public installation in 2021.
At the time, that was the largest piece you had ever created. Can you share how it felt to realize the size and scale of that sculpture? Also, how do you think the scale influenced visitor interaction and perception?
DL: Making Subtle Alchemy for Nasher Public was a massive accomplishment for me. It was the largest piece I had created up to that point (with the help of assistants). I worked with fabricators previously to execute at that scale. I learned a lot from that experience regarding materials/processes and solidifying my capabilities. Before starting, it felt daunting. But the days passed and progress was made! I love how physically involved it is to work at that size. It forces me to slow down as well.
The piece’s scale was the perfect size for the gallery at the Nasher. It was tall enough that people could walk into it and spend time within the piece. There was projection mapping to create the effect of the sculpture morphing and moving. The piece’s finish was a chameleon pigment, which shifted with the viewer’s perspective. All of those elements combined piqued the curiosity of visitors and drew them into the space.
CB: In what ways would you say creating that piece helped prepare you for your 15 x 15-foot wall installation for Meow Wolf Grapevine?
DL: The most significant way it helped me prepare was problem-solving. When working at a large scale, there is less room for error and more demand for preparation and planning. You have to break the process down more intentionally into steps. There is also a timing element to make sure everything comes together logistically.
CB: I know you can’t share a lot about the Meow Wolf installation and process, but what has being involved with that project meant to you?
DL: I love what Meow Wolf is doing — it is different and creates a space for artists and art lovers that didn’t exist before. It’s fun, playful, and immersive. You can see the excitement in people when they go. I can see how they are contributing to a bigger dialogue in the art world, and being a part of that vision means a lot to me.
A peek at Lam’s Meow Wolf installation. Photo courtesy of the artist
CB: With your installation in Grapevine behind you, are there any forthcoming projects that you would like to share a little about?
DL: Yes! I have an upcoming solo show in Portland, Oregon with Chefas Projects in July, a mini release in August that will be directly from my website, and a solo in New York City with Hashimoto Contemporary in December.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
To stay up to date with Dan Lam, follow her on Instagram (@sopopomo).
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My coworker mistreats employees and no one will do anything about it
I’ve been working at the same company for a while now (over 5 years) and over time, I have seen a trend that does not seem like it will ever get addressed. I have a co-worker, let’s call her Kathleen, who frequently oversteps professional boundaries with colleagues, especially junior staff. She has directed them to run personal errands, calls them late at night to talk about her personal issues for hours, many times while intoxicated, and organizes social events but excludes team members, despite leadership being invited.
She is also known to give harsh feedback (has yelled in the past), undercut her supervisors when they are not in the room, and reassign work that should be assigned to her. I feel like we keep rotating out her direct reports, who are mostly junior staff because she is so hard to work with. If Kathleen were a man, I think she would have been reprimanded by now for the inappropriate phone calls.
Her habits are well known and many of my colleagues come to me to vent and ask why things have not changed. I think it is because our leadership has a soft spot for her. Kathleen has had a tough life. She does not have a lot of friends and this job is her world, which I think blurs the boundaries. But this is impacting the morale of a growing team! How can I bring this up to leadership in a way that could result in changes? The last time this festered, I was told to stop talking about it and that junior staff should just not answer her calls.
If you brought it up and got told to stop talking about it, I’m skeptical that trying again will be any different. Maybe you could get traction if you speak up with a group of colleagues rather than on your own, but I’m not optimistic.
Can you instead focus on making sure the people who work for Kathleen are supported — that they know they can ignore her late-night calls and say no to running personal errands, and are otherwise empowered to enforce appropriate boundaries with her? That’s not really enough, but it might be all that’s in your power to do.
2. Is it legal to ask for documentation for dietary restrictions?
I recently traveled to a work meeting where some meals were provided. Unfortunately, there was a mixup with catering for one of the meals, and this meant that there were no options for attendees with certain dietary restrictions, including me. This was unfortunate and uncomfortable, but things happen. I bought a modest lunch with my company credit card and submitted the receipt for reimbursement, along with the meeting agenda as required.
I received a message asking why I bought lunch when it was provided per the agenda because per the company policy, “If a traveler chooses to substitute an outside meal for a meal otherwise included in a conference registration, the outside meal is considered a non-reimbursable personal expense.”
I acknowledged that yes, lunch was included with the agenda, but unfortunately, none of the lunch options accommodated my dietary restrictions. The lunch that was delivered was meat sandwiches and I cannot eat gluten and do not eat red meat. I noted that there was a mix-up with catering and included the message of apology that I received from the hosting organization.
When I was told that did not constitute an exception and I would need to pay for the meal, I sent a message to the business office indicating that I understood that there was a question about my purchasing of my lunch and noting that my purchase of the lunch was not a choice. I could not eat the lunch provided because none of the options accommodated my dietary restrictions so, in essence, a meal was not provided.
Initially I received this reply: “Thank you for your explanation on why you purchased lunch on [date] when the meeting agenda stated that lunch was already included. [Department] will approve the expense report with the purchase lunch included.” But then, I received this follow-up message: “Could you please provide a copy of your medically documented gluten intolerance?”
A colleague who also attended the meeting ran into the same issue because they are vegetarian. Once they shared that the lunch didn’t offer vegetarian options, their travel expense was processed without request for further documentation.
Never mind the different processes for different employees, is it legal to ask an employee to provide documentation for dietary restrictions in this or other circumstances?
Employers can legally require you to provide documentation to establish that you need a medical accommodation … but it’s ridiculous to bother asking for it in a situation like this. The accommodation wasn’t onerous, and they’re probably spending more in staff time questioning it than what your lunch cost and they’re doing that at the expense of your good will. Plus, as your vegetarian coworker’s experience demonstrates, not all dietary restrictions are medical in nature (which is undoubtedly why she wasn’t asked for documentation).
3. My coworkers’ plants have infested the office with gnats
I need help navigating an annoying topic with coworkers who I truly do get along with but don’t seem to see the problem I do. Several of my coworkers have adorned their offices and the common spaces between with plants. So. Many. Plants.
And while I am happy they are flexing their green thumb, some of these plants have come along with a gnat infestation. I am swatting away gnats all day and I don’t even have plants in my office. We’ve all commented and complained about the matter but I’m the only one who has brought in fly paper and other remedies in an attempt to kill the little suckers off, no one else seems to care enough to try. And I’m the only one without any plants in the office.
I’m sick of spending my time and money on other peoples’ plants. Please help before I really do go gnats.
You’ve got to talk to whoever has some authority to fix this — whether it’s by putting some money into gnat eradication or telling people to take their plants home or some other solution I haven’t thought of. Right now you’re relying on sort of cajoling people into fixing it on their own, and it’s not working; you need someone with authority to step in (which I suspect is likely to mean a plant ban, but who knows). So: office manager? Facilities person? Whoever has authority over your physical space, go to them and say this: “We have a gnat infestation because of the plants people have brought in. I am swatting away gnats all day, despite bringing in fly paper and XYZ. Help!”
4. My old boss was horrible … right?
Last year, I had a job I hated. I was a personal assistant, and I worked exclusively for my boss. I was 25, and my industry has a culture of demanding bosses and assistants. Not only did I not gel with my boss, I wasn’t great at the work. However, the pay was good, so I committed to getting better. My boss even said that he’d seen improvement a few weeks before this fustercluck.
Then, over the course of a weekend, I learned that my mother had cancer, my grandmother was dying, and I had Covid. (For the record: my mother recovered, my grandmother held on, and my Covid was mild.) I didn’t handle it well, and my performance suffered, but I thought I was holding together. Then my boss called and screamed at me for falling behind, asking why I was failing. I’ll admit that I could’ve handled things better — I was very emotional — but once he had me crying, I blurted out that my mother had cancer. My boss grudgingly agreed to “back off,” but said that I should have told him about my mom’s diagnosis first thing (?). I felt violated, because I’d had personal information bullied out of me, but what could I do? No way I’d be punished for worrying about a parent with cancer, right?
Wrong! A week later, I had another surprise call, where my boss and HR put me on a PIP out of nowhere. The PIP gave me three months, and considering that I already wasn’t the best assistant, I took it as a nudge to find something else. I kept quiet and started job-hunting, because there’s no way I’d be punished for a job hunt I was all but told to start, right?
Wrong again! Two months into my PIP, my boss called and confronted me about “interviewing around.” Apparently, one of his industry connections (I refuse to use the word “friend,” because this man has none) recognized me as an applicant. I was shocked, especially since he was acting like I’d betrayed him — he kept asking if I “seriously thought I could get away with this.” I replied that I was under the impression my PIP was a soft exit, and he seemed flabbergasted and said it was not, and that I was “betraying all the hard work he put into me.” I decided to resign, since it was clear I had no future with this man. I stayed for a month, lied at my exit interview, and got spectacularly drunk to celebrate my last day. (To my ex-boss’ credit, he did give me a good recommendation. Faint praise award?)
Now that I’m in a normal work environment, this is bananapants, right? Even back then, I thought my boss’ actions were unprofessional. Now that I have more distance (and a normal boss), it feels downright abusive. Expecting a subordinate to disclose a family member’s health issues, abruptly putting them on a PIP a week after you literally screamed it out of them, and then accusing them of betraying your trust when they take the a hint and job-hunt — that’s bananapants verging on banana-tuxedo, right? Yes, I kind of already know the answer! But I’m still dealing with PTSD from working under that man, and I’m selfishly seeking vindication from someone other than my (in remission, thank god) mother.
Verdict: bright yellow bananapants with a jaunty banana hat.
You perfectly identified all the problems: (a) screaming at you, (b) saying you should have told him about your mom’s diagnosis first thing (what? no), (c) accusing you of betraying his trust by leaving, and (d) being shocked that you were job-searching when you’d been warned your job was in jeopardy. Bananas all around.
5. Am I getting bad advice from my campus career center?
I am about to graduate and enter the workforce, so I’ve been diving into your cover letter category and using the advice there to help me craft a letter to apply for my first ever “real” job. I found the advice and examples given to be very helpful in writing a personable letter that highlights my experiences.
However, when I took my cover letter draft to my college’s career planning service, I received some very different advice. I was told to use only business-formal language and to follow a template. I was also told to add in 2-3 “skills-based” paragraphs with a topic sentence (an example I was quoted reads, “I possess strong communication and collaboration skills”) and to end each paragraph with directly relating the skill back to the job. The career planning person advised ending the letter with “I would welcome the opportunity to discuss my interests and skills further in an interview” because “Remember to ask for what you want — an interview!”
I am a bit confused, as the end result felt stiffer and much more formulaic, and to me resembled more of the “before” cover letter examples on this site than the “after” letters that resulted in jobs. Is this bad cover letter advice? I know my cover letter isn’t perfect; I just want to follow the right advice to make it better. I am extremely new to the workforce and have never written a cover letter before, so my only experience with them comes from meeting the career planning advisor and from reading the examples on this site.
I’ve attached the template I was told to use, as well as the cover letter that I brought to the meeting and wrote using the advice on this site.
A sentence I have unfortunately typed many times: ignore your campus career center. Some of them are good, but a lot of them give terrible advice and yours appears to be one of those. The cover letter you sent me was really good — better than most! Their advice to you would significantly weaken it.
The strongest cover letters are conversational, not stiffly formal (at least in most industries; lawyers seem to hate contractions).
There’s nothing wrong with using a template, but you don’t have to adhere to a specific template if your letter works just fine without one. There’s also nothing terribly wrong with ending a letter by saying you’d welcome an interview; that’s a pretty standard, generic thing to say and it’s not a problem that they suggest it … but you don’t have to, and it does seem like they’re nitpicking you based on the belief that you must follow their (very generic, bland, and unexciting) template rather than on any ability to evaluate your letter as a whole.
You might find it interesting to ask the person advising you there what their background is; you’re highly, highly likely to discover they don’t have any significant experience hiring people (some career centers are even staffed by current undergrads with almost no work history).
Over the past year, events ranging from widespread social media bans to criminal convictions for seditious conspiracy have left far-right militant group the Proud Boys depleted and demoralized. For readers with acquaintances within the organization’s ranks, here are things to never say to a Proud Boy.
Rep. John Kuempel, R-Seguin, pledged to defend his legislation dialing back Senate bills that would eliminate tenure and ban diversity, equity and inclusion offices. But faculty and students say even the House versions will hurt higher education.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I am about to finish grad school and am job-hunting. I have interviewed with a company for Job A, and feel like I may get an offer in the next week. Although I am interviewing now, I would not start this job for several months due to my grad school courses, something Job A knows about.
I am also interviewing soon for Job B, which is with the federal government. I applied for this job last year, well before Job A was on the radar. Job B would be my dream job — higher starting pay than most positions in my field, ironclad stability, and on an incredible team in a great agency. However, the federal government is notoriously slow to make its offers, so it is unlikely I’d have even a verbal or tentative offer in hand from Job B before an offer and its window to accept from Job A has come and gone. The job market is also incredibly tough in my field and region, and so I’m worried these two jobs could be my only prospects for the next few months.
How bad would it be if I were to accept an offer from Job A, and then sometime between now and my start date back out because of an offer from Job B? On the one hand, you’ve given advice in the past that backing out of an offer after you’ve accepted is bad form, and I am in a field where people from these two employers know one another. On the other hand, Job B has been in motion for a while, and there’s not really anything I or anyone can do to speed it up. Additionally, it’s been a while since you’ve written about this topic, and in 2023, I think we all have a different idea of what we owe our employers and potential employers than we did 5-10 years ago, especially after seeing how companies have treated their employees during Covid and layoffs.
As far as I can find, I’ve always said you can back out of a job offer if you decide it’s in your best interests to do that — you just have to accept that you might be burning the bridge with that employer.
I’d state it a lot more strongly now though, and that’s because both the world has changed and I have: these are business decisions and you get to make the decisions that are best for you.
And people back out of offers. They take another job they like better, or they decide not to leave their current job after all, or they decide they’re not willing to move, or all sorts of other things. You do need to accept that you might be burning the bridge with the employer, but that just means they might not be willing to offer you another job in the future, not that they’ll be badmouthing you all over town. (At least they won’t if they’re reasonably functional — and if they’re not, that’s all the more reason not to go work for them.)
On their side of things, employers also back out of offers. They do layoffs and oops, your position is one that was cut even though you haven’t started yet and even though you’ve already quit your old job. They have hiring freezes. They reorg and the job you were supposed to start is gone. It’s not super common but it happens. These are business relationships, and everyone is acting in their own best interests. Employers get to, and you get to too.
You shouldn’t do it cavalierly, obviously, but you never need to sacrifice your best interests to an employer.
This is an excerpt from Taylor Kay Phillips’s humor book A Guide to Midwestern Conversation, a bitingly funny illustrated guide to the language of the landlocked, celebrating the common phrases and sentiments of the American Heartland. Based on the “Guide to Midwestern Conversation” series originally published by McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
Leamington, ON – Your mother has been sitting silently on her porch running her fingers through the fabric of an old summer dress and listening to “Gord’s Gold” on repeat all week and, oh God, oh no, she definitely slept with him didn’t she? When the news broke of Mr Lightfoot’s passing on CBC Radio, […]
CALGARY – Danielle Smith and her administration are currently under fire for a comment she made during a press conference where she explained the trees currently being burned would have not been if they refused to get vaccinations. “Trees that got vaccinated to protect their fellow trees from disease are actually Nazis,” Smith explained. “A […]
A panel of independent medical experts for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of allowing the hormonal birth control pill Opill (norgestrel) to be sold over the counter rather than by prescription.
The 17-0 vote by the panel came after a two-day meeting in which the experts reviewed data and analyses from the pill's maker, Laboratoire HRA Pharma, and FDA scientists, as well as heard public comments on the potential switch.
Opill is a once-a-day pill containing only progestin. It was first approved in 1973 and has shown to be remarkably safe in the five decades since then, proving safer than combination hormone pills that have risks of blood clots. Experts estimate Opill is about 93 percent effective at preventing pregnancy in real-life use, higher than the real-life efficacy of other easily accessible birth-control methods, such as condoms (around 87 percent).
A recently released trove of documents from the American College of Pediatricians (ACPEDs) reveals how a Republican donor used veiled threats implying legal action against a Dallas-area children’s hospital as part of a massive pressure campaign to force the hospital to turn away transgender patients.
In November 2021, the GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS) program at Children’s Medical Center Dallas dissolved after a vitriolic campaign that included attacks by Governor Greg Abbott and, in one incident, protesters showing up at the office of a board member. Although the clinic followed the best practices of experts in medical care for transgender kids, opponents claimed without basis that the clinic was engaged in “genital mutilation” of young people.
Behind the scenes, Republican megadonor and hotel magnate Monty Bennett exerted pressure on the clinic while also pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the war chests of anti-trans lawmakers (See “Monty Bennett’s Transphobic Money”). Leaders at ACPEDs, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, apparently saw Bennett’s tactics—using veiled threats and right-wing talking points about trans healthcare to badger the administrators of the children’s hospital—as a playbook they could reproduce in their nationwide fight against gender-affirming care. And the files in the massive release of private data from the hate group reflect how right-wing politicians, extremist groups like ACPEDs, and their wealthy supporters often work closely together, sharing rhetoric and tactics with each other.
Bennett’s previously unreported emails with Children’s Medical Center staff were among the more than 10,000 documents accidentally released by ACPEDs in a massive data breach, as first reported by WIRED. The cache demonstrates the role the organization has played as a clearinghouse for anti-trans and anti-abortion policy in recent years.
Neither Bennett nor ACPEDs responded to the Texas Observer’s requests for comment.
Starting in December 2019, Bennet sent a series of misinformation-packed emails to representatives of Children’s Medical about the GENECIS clinic. His tactics are tantamount to what is known as “sealioning”—a technique to wear people down with relentless requests for information.
The email chain begins with Bennett requesting “studies/evidence supporting the benefits/outcomes of gender realignment in general and Children’s GeneCIS program specifically.” After receiving a number of position papers and research studies from the hospital’s senior director of communications, Bennett asserts that “treating transgender youth early and aggressively is based far more on activist researchers’ will than on the ethical treatment of minors or the conclusions of the scientific studies you sent us.”
“You all may very well become bankrupted, regardless of how much insurance your organization carries.”—Monty Bennett to children’s hospital administrator
While Bennett begins the chain with what seems like genuine curiosity by requesting more information about gender-affirming care, he followed up with an email on January 26 expressing much stronger views. That email contains a multi-page, point-by-point critique of the research studies. Bennett argues that “clinicians are being bullied into writing a radical prescription based on fear and groupthink.”
Echoing talking points used by right-wing protesters, Bennett described the clinic as a “sterilization program”—yet another commonplace but erroneous misconception about transgender healthcare—and threatened, “You all may very well become bankrupted, regardless of how much insurance your organization carries.”
“Please stop damaging our children. Before it’s too late,” Bennett continued. “And please send back immediately all the monies Ashford has ever donated to you guys. I cannot have my firm be associated with your experimentation on children.” Ashford Inc. is Bennet’s publicly traded firm.
Bennett also asked: “Is it wrong that I will volunteer to testify that you guys knew (by way of this email) that there was very little proof that your sterilization program was either safe or effective?”
Bennett’s emails to Children’s Medical came as Republicans launched a second wave of anti-trans legislation across the country. According to the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislation map, lawmakers in the state introduced 66 bills in 2020, exceeding the previous peak in 2016 by 15 percent. By 2023, they’d filed more than 520 anti-trans bills across the nation. Texas leads the pack in terms of anti-trans legislation, with 57 bills introduced by Republican representatives in 2023.
This hateful campaign to criminalize trans youth and the people who take care of them has been met with impassioned protest both in and outside of the Capitol. But powerful donors and the politicians whose campaigns they support appear hellbent on pushing a religious policy agenda—one that’s inexorably tied to ACPEDs, as revealed by the path the emails took to land in its hands.
In November 2020, months after Bennett demanded money back from a children’s hospital, Rob Hays—CEO of Ashford Hospitality Trust and one of Bennett’s top lieutenants—forwarded the exchange to a man by the name of William Stigall. Stigall is currently vice president and chief research officer at Cook Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and a faculty member at both the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and at the University of Dallas, a private Catholic college that’s actually based in Irving. Stigall in turn forwarded the emails to Michelle Cretella, the executive director of ACPEDs, where Stigall sits on the board of directors.
After receiving the emails from Stigall, Cretella sent them to her assistant and requested that the exchange be saved in her personal Google Drive folder with the name “HOW TO DEFUND TRANS PEDIATRICS.” Her folder was stored, along with many of her other private files, underneath a folder labeled “Staff Duties—Job Descriptions” on an open Google Drive folder, available to anyone on the internet.
After receiving Monty’s Bennett’s emails, ACPEDS director Michelle Cretella sent them to her assistant and requested that the exchange be saved in her personal Google Drive folder with the name “HOW TO DEFUND TRANS PEDIATRICS.”
Bennett’s substantial wealth could be used as leverage: Bennett donated unknown sums of money to Children’s Medical Center Dallas via his company Ashford Inc. as well as significant sums to Republican politicians who were publicly pressuring the clinic. However, the subject of the email chain, “HOW TO DEFUND TRANS PEDIATRICS,” suggests the organization believed it could use the same tactics against other clinics like GENECIS.
Children’s Medical Center Dallas declined to comment on Bennett’s emails, or how much money Bennett and his companies have donated to the nonprofit hospital.
ACPEDs documents from the leak show that GENECIS had been on ACPEDs radar since at least 2016. That year, ACPEDs received a letter from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton thanking the organization for submitting an amicus brief in support of the state of Texas in the landmark abortion case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the 2016 Supreme Court decision that blocked the state’s House Bill 2 anti-abortion law.
While it’s impossible to say whether Bennett ever communicated directly with ACPEDs, it’s clear that members of his inner circle and theirs aren’t far removed from one another. Stigall sits on the advisory board of the Dallas Forum on Law, Politics, and Culture—a group of conservative scholars who advocate “natural law theory” as a foundation for American public philosophy. Hays also happens to be a member of the Dallas Forum’s board of directors alongside multiple professors at the University of Dallas, which often hosts Dallas Forum events. Minutes of the executive committee meetings show that Stigall worked on behalf of ACPEDs to build a relationship with the University of Dallas, which offered to host a board meeting and “mini conference” with faculty members. They also show that the talking points and language used in Bennett’s emails broadly echo those promoted by ACPEDs—for example, that therapies provided by clinics such as GENECIS are “permanently sterilizing” minors.
“The biggest benefit of GENECIS or clinics like it is the coordination of care,” said one parent of a transgender child who received treatment at GENECIS, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being reported to the state and investigated under suspicion of “child abuse.”
“GENECIS was vital. For most people, clinics like GENECIS may be the first real-life opportunity they’ve had to see how to be affirming to their child. It allowed my kid to just have a normal life,” the parent said. “People need to understand just how devastating it was for GENECIS to be closed down.”
Republican politicians championed the campaign to shut down GENECIS, which also included the efforts of conservative media outlets and a defunct astroturf group known as Save Texas Kids. As reported by The 19th News: Pressure from the governor’s office; an investigative committee led by former state Representative Matt Krause, who led the Republican charge to remove some 850 books on subjects of race and sexuality in schools; a formal opinion from Paxton labeling gender-affirming care as “child abuse”; and a number of bills proposed in the 2021 legislative session contributed to the shuttering of the clinic.
“People need to understand just how devastating it was for GENECIS to be closed down.”
Children’s Medical Center in Dallas refused to comment, citing “ongoing legal proceedings.” Dr. Ximena Lopez, the GENECIS program director, is engaged in an ongoing lawsuit against Children’s Medical Center over the program’s closure.
Targeted pressure campaigns on clinics like GENECIS were but opening forays in a broad push to criminalize gender affirming care in Texas. Political pressure has continued to build as other clinics providing gender-affirming have faced similar attacks. Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston announced in March 2022 that it would cease gender-affirming care in response to Abbott’s call to investigate families with transgender kids who seek healthcare. Last Friday, Paxton announced an investigation into Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin regarding allegations that the hospital performed unlawful procedures, an announcement that came shortly after Project Veritas, a far-right outlet known for deceptively edited videos and propagating conspiracy theories, released footage purporting to reveal improper medical practices at Dell Children’s.
The latest state-sponsored investigation into a gender-affirming clinic came on the same day that the Texas Legislature was set to discuss proposed legislation that would ban the treatments offered by such clinics. The legislation proposing to ban gender-affirming care for minors was originally set to be discussed on May 2, but was delayed due to a procedural move by Democratic elected officials who noted that bill analysis by an advocacy organization had been misattributed in the bill. The organization was none other than ACPEDs.
With the anti-trans bills piling up and Child Protective Services hijacked to serve the Republican Party agenda, families with trans children are already fleeing Texas. As political threats and protests against gender-affirming care clinics grow commonplace, it’s not hard to wonder how many of them are receiving email chains which follow a similar template. Whether through legislative means or legal threat, Republicans and their wealthy backers seem determined to cut transgender young people off from the healthcare they need to survive and thrive.
Monty’s Money
Since 2010, Monty Bennett has donated directly and through various companies $215,000 to Abbott, $305,000 to Paxton, and $28,000 to Krause.
The two related bills which ban gender-affirming care for minors, Senate Bill 14 and House Bill 1686, have a combined 96 sponsors. Twenty-one of those sponsors have received a total of $142,500 campaign contributions from Bennett and his associated companies—Verbena LLC, MJP Operating, and Dartmore LP—since 2010. Four of the sponsors, including the authors Senator Donna Campell and Representative Tom Oliverson, received a total of $572,720 from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, to which Bennett and Ashford have together have contributed $100,000 since 2010. All together, Bennett and his companies have put at least $790,500 over the last 13 years toward Republican politicians who have taken a hardline stance against gender-affirming care.
Bennett was also able to use his wealth to fund a news website that has run exclusively critical reports about GENECIS. In early 2021, Bennett resurrected a defunct historic Black-owned newspaper, the Dallas Express, as a right-wing news website that has been linked to a network of partisan “pink slime” news websites associated with businessman Brian Timpone. Since then, the Dallas Express has demonstrated a knack for extensively covering the activities of right-wing astroturf groups in Dallas. Prior to the formal dissolution of the clinic, the Dallas Express ran a handful of articles attacking the clinic, all of them prominently featuring quotes from a defunct astroturf group, Save Texas Kids.
The dissolution of the GENECIS program didn’t stop the Dallas Express from continuing to hammer the clinic with attacks and allegations of wrongdoing. Some 10 articles critical of GENECIS were published after November 2021, including an Op-Ed co-written by Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, that accused the clinic of “permanently mutilating” patients.
D8VK translates Direct3D 8 to Vulkan, just like DXVK for Direct3D 9 / 10 / 11 and VKD3D-Proton for Direct3D 12 used with Wine and Proton on Linux and Steam Deck. Fantastic to see the progress on this.
AUSTIN, TX—In an effort to provide students with everything they need to know about sexual development, sexual intercourse, and pregnancy, an updated sex ed curriculum instituted Wednesday across Texas instructed children how to stone whores. “The new and improved sex education guidelines will provide comprehensive…
WASHINGTON—According to a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans don’t trust Donald Trump or Joe Biden to watch their stuff while they are in the bathroom. “Our survey of over 10,000 likely voters found that three quarters of Americans don’t believe President Biden or former…
FINDLAY, OH—Calling it a great investment and an important step toward building long-term financial security, first-time homebuyers Adam and Celeste Conley told reporters Wednesday they had purchased a nice starter doorknob. “It’s nothing fancy, but I think a decent brass exterior doorknob is a great way for us to get…
“The idea behind [Swedish Death Cleaning] is simple: At a certain point in your life, you should stop accumulating more stuff and start dealing with the stuff you’ve already accumulated so your loved ones won’t have to do it after you’re gone.” – Lifehacker
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Life is temporary, but Swedish Death Metal is forever. We, the members of the band Bloodstained Odin, will help you destroy all the shit in your house so you can die on a pile of broken litter. You will be remembered not as a part-time math teacher at Nieblas Middle School, but as a demigod who stayed true to their mission of destroying shit instead of subscribing to society’s fucked-up rules about getting organized.
Do you ever use this dining room table? You paused in answering, so our lead singer, Erik (also plays rhythm guitar), has started destroying it with a Fiskars-brand thirty-six-inch axe. Who knows where you will eat dinner tonight, but it is plain to see where your glorious corpse will lie: on a temple of splintered stained pine under this horribly suburban hanging lamp. Hail Satan.
What is the deal with the sofa? Is it something you feel fückin’ rad about? You say you bought it last year, and given your part-time teacher’s salary, it was an extravagant purchase? Pathetic. Our drummer, Anders, has dragged it out to the street and set it on fire with gasoline we found in your garage.
We will tackle the garage later. But for now, your couch is taken care of. Hail Anders.
You live alone. Our lead guitarist, Oskar, smashed all your dishes, glasses, and bowls except for one dish, glass, and bowl. He did it with his guitar. It was awesome. You got angry, which also looked awesome. It will be in slow motion when the episode airs.
Just a reminder: you signed a release.
You have so many clothes. Are all these clothes being worn by you, or are they here for nostalgia’s sake? Do not bother answering because they have all been thrown onto your couch, which, as you know, is on fire in the street.
Why have you kept these many boxes of photographs? I do not care. The answer is that you were saving them for this very day, when they would be bagged up and taken to our friend Nils’s video studio. It is there the photos of your friends and family will rain down upon Bloodstained Odin as we shoot the video for our song “All Fallen Mortals Are Sad Shame.” It will look killer, and your friends and loved ones will live on forever on our YouTube page, which has 527 subscribers.
Remember when I said we would take care of your garage later? Anders and Oskar are wearing latex devil masks and smashing into it with enormous rented tractors.
Stop running around in the street, yelling about how you are only in your thirties and in good health. Go back inside. You will notice a stylish Scandinavian sparse sense of open space. It is accented by a makeshift funeral pyre formed by the remains of your American dining table. The one that had no design sense whatsoever.
I also just poured a bucket of blood we bought from a local butcher all over your books. It will please you to hear that it looked fückin’ rad on camera. You will see it in the episode, at about fifteen minutes in.
On the wall above the bloodstained bookshelf, there is a giant framed photograph of your couch and clothes burning in the street. The art department had it made within the hour. It is amazing how fast a production team can make things happen. It took almost four months to get my poster of Tobias from the band Ghost framed. But for you, they did it inside of a day. Hail Bonnie, Stu, and Linda.
You are living in the now, thanks to Bloodstained Odin. You had no idea this process would be so cleansing. You feel lighter, and you are in the moment. You refuse to say any of this on camera, but deep down in your tortured soul, you are very grateful to us for this fückin’ rad process. We have forever changed you.
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