PicoBlog

THE WORST THING WE READ™ON WEDNESDAY, TEXAS Gov. Greg Abbott—chief executive of a state containing nearly 9 percent of the population of the United States—declared himself superior to the federal government. After the Supreme Court ruled, by a bare 5–4 majority, that the Texas National Guard could not fence the United States Border Patrol away from the border of the United States, Abbot put out a letter attacking the Biden Administration's handling of immigration, and announcing that the state would make its own border policy.

Texas Pacific Land Corporation - A Remarkable Company with Abhorrent Governance. Texas Pacific Corporation Is a 100+ year old company, which started out as a trust, but converted to a C-Corp. in January of 2021, after a long fight between the legacy trustees and a couple of long-time shareholders who went active on the Trust.  Note that these long-time shareholders are not activists but were just shareholders tired of the shareholder unfriendly decisions of the legacy trustees.

Public health touches all aspects of our lives, not just during a pandemic and not just with infectious diseases. Thanks to your feedback, this newsletter will continue with COVID updates and address other public health topics, too. To choose what topics land in your inbox, click HERE. There was, yet another, horrific mass shooting in the U.S. this weekend. In Texas. This time at a shopping mall that I’ve been to many times with my daughters.

Good morning! I’ve been pretty silent on here this past week, so I wanted to pop in and thank you for signing up to my newsletter, I’m very excited to share more of my work with you in this new setting. I’ll talk more about my goals, plans, and recipes at the end of this week! Until then, coffee’s on me today (at least for some of you, I’ll post an update whenever there is no credit left on it), scan this card to pay for your drink :)

And it was amazing. Like I said last week, it was just one of the most pleasurable, joyful tours + release weeks I’ve had in years. Of course, I immediately came home to discover my kid has an ear infection. 😅 And that my house is so, so, so messy (and kind of filthy too)…BUT THAT IS OKAY. That is the glam life of an author. 😂 I shall clean now and shove antibiotics down Cricket’s throat every twelve hours.

Before we dive into this week’s post, thanks to everyone who read last week’s “Memories of Mom” post. I heard from so many of you in the comments here, on other platforms where I was sharing the link and some direct messages, too. It touched me that so many people related to my story and if you didn’t know my mom, Patsy, you maybe feel like you do now. Happy Mother’s Day this weekend!

If you’ve been an SOS subscriber from the beginning, you know about my beef with Valak, the demonic nun that made its first appearance in The Conjuring 2 before getting a spin-off prequel with The Nun in 2018. Five years later, Valak is back in The Nun 2, which came out this fall. Pete and I recently devoted a weekend to catch up on recently released horror movies, including The Nun 2, and I can confirm: VALAK STILL SCARES THE EVER-LOVING SHIT OUT OF ME.

I really struggled writing this post. I think it’s because I want to come off as some kind of social media expert, but as I was writing, I realized I’m also a victim. There are lots of topics to cover— like doomsday scrolling on Twitter, Instagram’s constant updates taking control away from their users, Tiktok’s algorithm targeting my precise secrets and fears, conspiracy stuff creeping into mainstream outlets, etc. etc. It’s all starting to take a toll on me.

Philosophers have been puzzled by the fact that sorrow fades. If one form of grief responds to the death of someone you love—not its impact on your relationship—then shouldn’t you grieve forever? The significance of their death for them does not diminish. And it’s not about you. The puzzle is not merely intellectual: it can be emotionally fraught.    Our dread of a future in which we must forego the sight of faces and the sound of voices which we love and from which today we derive our dearest joy, this dread, far from being dissipated, is intensified, if to the pain of such a privation we feel that there will be added what seems to us now in anticipation more painful still: not to feel it as a pain at all—to remain indifferent… (Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time)