PicoBlog

On this week’s episode I bring you my liberal prepper pal, Brekke Wagoner. She’s the creator and host of the Sustainable Prepping YouTube Channel where she aims to educate through a holistic approach to emergency preparedness. She provides tips and resources in an action-oriented, forward-focused community to empower working women and their families to face any crisis with calm and confidence. I got to know Brekke over the last couple years on this journey and I interviewed her for this story I wrote for The Progressive last summer about progressive preppers and prepping.

Dear All, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to each of the 430 subscribers who have chosen to follow my Blogstack. To those who are paid subscribers, an extra special thank you. I appreciate your patience as I work on this book, which is shaping up to be at least 250,000 words. Rest assured, it will be released this year, sooner rather than later. At present, my life feels somewhat bewildering, and I am only just beginning to find some clarity.

Hello, Subscribers, A breaking Canadian Broadcasting Channel news report has revealed that “Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being contradicted by members of the iconic singer-songwriter’s own family and an extensive CBC investigation.” Here’s the link to the CBC story. Yes, based on the evidence, it appears that Sainte-Marie is a pretend Indian—a pretendian. It’s been a common problem for us Indians for centuries. James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans, features Hawk-eye, perhaps the first fictional pretendian.

Potential future topic idea (or maybe a just me thing): saddle sores from cycling. I'm loving the Peloton and started doing longer rides consistently recently, but man, it has been hard on the soft tissue down there. I've read all the suggestions from cycling sites (chamois cream, padded shorts, seat adjustments, etc.) but I'm curious from a physician's perspective what the best course of action is once things are already sore.

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

When I first started this newsletter, the Pride Profiles I shared were destined for the 2020 National Order of the Arrow Conference, which as we all know now, was cancelled due to the pandemic. In the time since, I’ve kept the Pride Profiles coming and expanded the scope beyond members of the OA. Getting to know LGBTQ+ Scouters from across the country has been a true delight for me, and I hope for you as well.

When Zach Schonfeld joined the Order of the Arrow, it was mere weeks before the Boy Scouts of America would vote to end its ban on gay youth. He couldn’t have known it then, but his experience in the program would closely track the evolution of the BSA on matters of diversity. By the time Schonfeld served as national chief of the OA in 2020, the organization had shifted significantly on policy, and was making strides toward a more inclusive culture.

How to understand Yevgeny Prigozhin's march on Moscow and its sudden end?  Often there are plots without a coup; this seemed like a coup without a plot.  Yet weird as the mercenary chief’s mutiny was, we can draw some conclusions from its course and from its conclusion. 1.  Putin is not popular.  All the opinion polling we have takes place in an environment where his power is seen as more or less inevitable and where answering the question the wrong way seems risky.

Not a city with lots of monkeys. The stock definition in Wikipedia and most other sites is that a Primate City is a city that is at least twice the population of the next largest city. When I was in school (and dinosaurs ruled the Earth), a secondary condition is that it must also be the capital of the nation. The United States does not have a primary city under either definition.