by Ijeoma Oluo
To be clear, there never was and never will be a time when Ijeoma Oluo’s new book
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy Of White Male America (Seal Press) isn’t relevant. But reading history-rich analysis of white male supremacy and its toxic repercussions from the author of
So You Want To Talk About Race on the same week that the living personification of white grievance stormed the U.S. Capitol was like finding the key in the back of a fantasy novel: Suddenly, the labyrinthine gibberish started to make sense. Throughout the book, Oluo lifts the hood on institutional racism and sexism, breaking down everything from how white backlash to Reconstruction influenced widespread housing discrimination and, in turn, racial wealth gaps to online “brocialists” and their allergy to female power. (Hint: White male identity politics are still identity politics.) One by one, Oluo holds up parts of these complex and insidious engines, demonstrating for readers how each piece,
On Tuesday, the Italian Cultural Institute and Merlin Publishers are presenting an online discussion with Italian authors Giacomo Mazzariol, Paola Frusca and Federico Buffa on the occasion of the publication of their books’ Maltese translation.
Mazzariol is the author of Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri (2016, Giulio Einaudi Editore), which has been translated into Maltese by Ludvic Azzopardi Ferrando, who will also be present for the discussion.
The plot follows five-year-old Jack, who has two sisters but no brother to play with. One day his parents announce that a ‘special’ brother is on the way. Thus Jack imagines him as a superhero with amazing powers, like the characters in his comic books.
Erma Lou (Holler) Warren passed peacefully into the arms of her Heavenly Father on Tuesday January 5, 2021 in Fairfield, IL at the age of 91.
Erma Lou is survived by Dale Warren, her loving husband of 71 years; sons Michael (Brenda) of Woodlawn, IL and Faron (Keyna) of Fairfield; brothers Ivan Holler of Fairfield and Bernard (Marge) Holler of Eau Claire, WI; six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Earl and Iva (Bright) Holler, in-laws Donald and Mary (Henson) Warren, sister-in-law Bonnie (Lathrop) Holler, brother-in-law Gary Warren and sister-in-law Kay (Warren) Gallion.
Erma Lou was born in April of 1929 in Orchardville, IL. She graduated from Wayne City High School in 1947. After high school, Erma Lou attended Barry Jones Beauty Academy in Mt. Vernon, IL where she earned her State of Illinois Registered Beauty Culturist license. She married Dale in 1949 and they were blessed with two sons. In a
Like locked-down people the world over, I took up a few new hobbies in 2020: amateur epidemiology, amateur immunology, amateur statistical analysis and amateur pandemic-response planning. These are brain-melting pastimes for brain-melting times – if I’ve relied on music for one thing this year, it’s been to drown out my rational mind for a moment. Luckily, this track – a sparkling, saccharine love song adorned with glinting synths, airhorn blasts and a belching bass line – has the power to override almost all conscious thought. Between the in-joke lyrics (Harle wrote the original for his girlfriend; AG Cook named this remix after Harle’s cat) and anonymous chipmunk vocals, Aquarius is not a song that encourages deep meditation, or even basic analysis. Instead, it is mindlessly euphoric, irresistibly groovy and utterly un-serious. I can’t think of anything further removed from analysing local Covid hospital admission data.