varnam

🦕 also @varnam on Spoutible. Joined here Feb 2008 there Feb 2023.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

The morning of 20th January. Brushing the snow from his fur, the Fox of Greenwich Village sat down by the far window in the coffee shop. He ordered cinnamon toast and a pot of coffee. He was meeting a friend, an old badger, a professor at NYU, who arrived not long afterwards, ordering more coffee and a slice of chocolate layer cake.
"Well," said the Fox, at last, "here we are, Prof. The day itself."
"I often think of Hazlitt's words," said the Badger, carefully pouring cream, "'Egotism is an infirmity that perpetually grows upon a man, till at last he cannot bear to think of anything but himself, nor even to suppose that others do.' That sort of poisonous fire never lasts, it may flame and rain sparks for a while, suck in the air around it, but it never lasts for very long in the great scheme of things. And God grinds exceptionally fine, exceptionally fine."
With that, the badger finished his cake, and lit his pipe. And together they watched the snow falling like feathers, a strange heavenly balm quietening the city's brawling roar.

[Tara Moriarty @MoriartyLab]

Canadian COVID Forecast: Jan 18-31, 2025

SEVERE: ON, SK
VERY HIGH: CAN, AB, MB, North, QC
HIGH: BC, NB, NL, NS, PEI
MODERATE: none

About 1 in 61 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.

[Laura Miers @LauraMiers]

The American Academy of Pediatrics also sold out. American kids can now attend school with lice, pink eye, Covid, & up to 5 watery stools per day. As long as the parents are working, no one cares if the kids die.

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

Never forget that the airlines were instrumental in pressuring the CDC to reduce COVID isolation. It was hurting their bottom line.

This is a workers rights issue. People need to be able to stay home when sick.

Also wear a respirator when you fly.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

How are the top science programs handling high COVID-19 transmission, inclusivity, equity, and diversity in January 2025?

🔥Sick policies
🔥Virtual options
🔥High-quality masks supplied/required
🔥ASHRAE-level air cleaning

This is an excerpt of my welcome email to students:

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

COVID brain damage is real, and I’m officially out of patience.

Yesterday, I saw a man with an N95 around his neck (good start!) walking toward the parking garage at work. I tried to catch up to say, "Hey, good on you for masking!" but then he started coughing. I backed up, put my respirator back on, and let him go about his business.

He went to the same floor as me, looked around confused, turned to me, and shook his head. I knew exactly what that meant: wrong floor, wrong car.

Fast-rewind to the other day at a tennis facility: my wife and I watched a man try to open three red Teslas before finally finding his own.

If you don’t think COVID causes brain damage that will impact your life, I’m officially fresh out of f***s to give.

Mask up, ventilate your spaces, and protect your brain. It’s no joke.

[Putrino Lab @PutrinoLab]

Since my episode with the wonderful @longcovidanswer has been released highlighting viral persistence as a major driver of some #LongCOVID pathology, I’ve been asked repeatedly, “what should we do about it?” - totally fair question. Here is my proposed roadmap: 1/

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

It was a bright and frosty Plough Monday and the air was sweet with birdsong. The farmers, old and bark-worn, young and bright-eyed, from every farm and gainery around the village and the hamlet had paid their visits to the cottage. They bade Old Fox a solemn good morning & winked at Wolf, and left pouches of coins, cleaned in vinegar and polished to a dull shine, and generous withy baskets of green winter cheese and floury loaves and fruit cakes and marmalade and cider, so that Old Fox might open up the church that morning & keep the thin gold plough-lights burning to bless their ploughs and their horses and the furrows and the ridges of the long year ahead.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Twenty-third Window. Wolf and Grand-cub had decided to spend the entire day playing board games. They climbed up to Grand-cub's little bedroom in the lower attic, which opened onto another slightly smaller, nest-like room with chintz wallpaper, a tiny window in the thatch, and an ancient enfolding-sort of sofa, upholstered in one of the meadow designs May Morris created for Old Fox in the '90s. In this lovely, half-secret room were stored a cornucopia of toys, teddy bears, children's picture books, games, puzzles, wonders and dressing up clothes and props.
Up and down the old wooden stairs they went carrying all their favourites. The commonplace - Ludo, Snakes & Ladders, Draughts, Peg’ity and Spoil Five, which Babcia loved. The unusual, fashionable and recently acquired: Whirligig or Looping the Loop, Spiral Way, Who Knows?, and Aviation, a fierce aerial tactics game of attack and defence. And a selection of somewhat ancient offerings from Queen Victoria's day: the Magnetic Fish Pond, Cries of London, and Wheeling, "an exciting game for cyclists", the rules for which everyone found almost impossible to understand.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. Christmas Eve. A Triptych. First panel: A one-up-one-down red-brick cottage on Fordington High Street at the edge of Dorchester. A young Squirrel tucks her kits into bed, hangs their red knitted stockings on the posts, reads them a story of an enchanted land of sweets and nuts and cakes. Afterwards, she goes downstairs, puts another lump of coal on the fire and pours herself a small glass of French brandy.
Second Panel: A low thatched cottage on a quiet lane five miles south-west, not far from the sea. Above, a multitude of stars shiver in the clear winter sky. Inside, an Elderly Squirrel has the kettle on for a hot water bottle. He hums a jaunty dance tune as he waits, and talks to himself as he remembers the social whirl of the Abbey party. "Mustn't forget to make a note of Miss Rabbit and Grey Brock's invitation to tea on St Thomas's Day, and the choral concert at the church next week and, what else was there, oh I know, helpers for the jumble sale in January! Dear me, where's my diary!" And he very carefully wrote his new engagements onto the pristine and new-cut pages.
Final Panel: An Old Fox waits. His household are all asleep. The fire is embering low. Suddenly, outside, the silvered sound of bells, the tread of impatient hooves on the frozen leaves and grass, a deep, comforting voice, the scent of pine, of juniper, of soft fur, of snow, of sugar. But that panel is not for us to see, it fades with attention, just as it should.
Merry, Merry Christmas, from Old Fox's Cottage!

[Tara Moriarty @MoriartyLab]

It’s rare and precious when a community gets together to create accessible and safe spaces for everyone like this.

There are organizations doing just that.
See the poster for Mask4Mask_queer_hfx (Instagram) for their New Years Eve Masked event in Halifax NS, posted below.

Another organization in Toronto, covidsafereventstoronto (Instagram) has a party on Dec 22. Their Instagram events calendar has the deets.

Nanny and her granddaughter are delighted to be able to join in with family and friends, with so much appreciation at the thoughtfulness that these kinds of events can happen.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Twenty-second Window. There seemed to be teas and parties and soirées and carol concerts every night in the village in the week before Christmas. That Sunday afternoon, it was the turn of the Vicarage. The Reverend Lion stood at the polished black door, framed in damp festoons of new-cut greenery, welcoming every guest, large or small, rich or poor, shy or gregarious, High Church or Low, with great charm and gusto and consideration.
An enormous tea had been laid out in the drawing room by the Christmas tree. There was a battalion of warm mince pies and white-iced fairy cakes decorated with little silver balls, neat rows of celery stuffed with rich cream cheese, great rounds of Blue Vinny and Rammel, warm rolls with curls of salty butter, platters of gougères and devilled egg sandwiches, coconut cake and Portland cake and Gâteau magique. To drink, there were three elaborate silver bowls of ecclesiastical punch (always a little joke between the Bishop of Dorchester & the Vicar): one an Oxford Bishop with port & lemon & cloves, one a Smoking Beadle with dragony ginger wine and plump raisins, and the third, a Smoking Cardinal made with a generous amount of champagne, which had rather a throng about it. Afterwards, Old Fox and the Reverend went into his study and spoke a little of the party and of the liturgical responsibilities of the days to come. Then suddenly, the Reverend turned to Old Fox and said, in very great earnest, "Did we remember everyone tonight, Old Fox, the whole flock, I mean, I do worry about the lonely at this time." "None left," said Old Fox, putting another log on the fire,"none left behind."

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Twentieth Window. As Midwinter neared, and the sea darkened, Old Fox travelled to Ringstead Bay, driven by the Blacksmith, who respected Old Fox's county perambulating and needed no explanations. He dropped him off a mile or so from the beach, and turned his cart around, off to see his married daughter in Osmington. As Old Fox neared the thundery, pebbled waves, he called out and almost immediately a voice cried back in response - the Mermaid of Ringstead, far out in the swell, surrounded by the bobbing heads of seals. They met in the shallows, at the edge of the sea-warth and talked for a long while. Old Fox gave her her presents - a silver box and a silver comb, a branch of red quince blossom from his garden and a tin of little almond cakes, shaped like crescent moons. And she sang to him, an old song of 1810, a song of ships laden with goods, sailing through the snow, sailing into Weymouth on Christmas Eve.

[varnam @varnam]

@AnneLouiseAvery @ColinTheMathmo @RachelandDesign Very magical. Thank you

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Twenty-first Window. Midwinter morning & Old Fox had vanished into the freezing fog, gone to the high furzed hills, where the hawks circle and call, gone to see the King all of Gold, gone to the stony place where few can follow and return, enfolded by downs and dales, by old barrow magic, until the first light came, pale burnished along the star-scattered welkin way, pale and reaching in the east. How is the world, asks Old Fox. In shivers, answers the King, in shivers.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Fourteenth Window. At dusk, before supper, they gathered in the parlour, the woodsmoke & marzipan & sweet apple-scented parlour. And Babcia recited the blessings and lit the candles on her menorah in the dimming light and Old Fox stood on an old Welsh stool, which had belonged to his grandmother and her grandmother before her, and began to sing, his voice carrying through the dark rooms of the cottage and out into the cold Dorset night and up to the cold white stars and to the cold white moon in its first quarter.
Far, far, far it drifted over the little village, over the water meadows and the gentle woods and wolds, the ancient downs & the high barrows with their sleeping kings, far, far, far, over the great restless, coal-dimmed, gold-glinted sprawl of London, over the snaking estuary with its salt-red, flax-sailed barges, over wild, flooded fenlands, clear it carried through the calls of lapwings and snow geese & herring gulls, high above the storm-flecked German sea and the port-towns and the eel-towns, the vast black pine forests and the lamp-gilded, tram-spun, soup-kitchened cities, all the way to Kraków, where it paused, as though stilled by the cup of a conductor's palm, over Babcia's tall tenement building on Straszewskiego, once her home and the home of her long-lost daughter, then fell, note by note by note, word by word by word,  a fierce polyphonic blessing of friendship and of love, an inviolable, unbreakable, indivisible love untarnished by time past and history yet to come.

[Anne Louise Avery @AnneLouiseAvery]

Old Fox's Advent Calendar. The Sixteenth Window. Wrapped up warmly in a newly-knitted jumper (cloud-grey) and a long scarf (holly-red), both early Christmas presents from Bear's Sisters, Peter raced down the hill from the hamlet to the village on his bicycle. He was going to see the Newcomer, to listen to his afternoon stories, to buy some marzipan, and get his fortune told. It was all so exciting. He left his bike by the church wall, and went to join the crowd milling around the wagon. He waved at Old Fox and Wolf and made a funny face at Grandcub.
The Newcomer was just beginning, and there was magic crackling in the winter air. "Once, a long time ago, when the world was full of darkness and the gods yearned for form, they called a great white reindeer into being, and his bones became the cold mountains and his veins the silver rivers and streams and his antlers the arched heavens and his eyes, the bright stars...." Peter was spellbound, every word seemed animate, and every picture the fox described became an unimaginably vast landscape of colour and beauty and magic.
Afterwards, he bought not just bags of marzipan, but cloudberry cakes too, and chocolate stars and a little model of a polar bear, with soft ivory fur. The best bit was the fortune-telling though. The Newcomer asked him to pour some wax into a wooden bowl of water, and then examined the strange shapes it formed. "Here, look, the spring maiden, Biejjenniejte, hair woven plaited with birch leaves – you have been gravely ill, but she has settled it and it flows underground now, fierce but contained. And your loneliness, too, Peter, see this feathered wax, in the shape of Angelica roots and flowers, a friend is on the way, a friend like you. Welcome them when they come. Bless you, kind boy, special boy, brave boy!" And the Newcomer placed a paw on his arm for a moment and looked at him intently, then nodded goodbye and turned to the next inquirers in the queue, a slightly nervous-looking Miss Rabbit and Grey Brock.

[Inclusion Canada @InclusionCA]

A recent @CdnHumanRights news release highlights alarming data about people with disabilities inequal access to housing, including higher rates of homelessness, less access to safe drinking water, poorer air quality, and not getting the help they need to live independently - among many other findings.

We cannot let these findings simply be findings. We must act on them and work towards an equal and inclusive world where people with disabilities are given the same opportunities to housing they want as anyone else.

Read the release here: https://t.co/a9Xfs77U1c

[BKBelton 🇨🇦 @bk_belton]

@PierrePoilievre ❌STOP LYING❌
Rents went up because Conservative premiers lifted Rent Controls,not PMJT. Housing is a GLOBAL economic issue affecting every civilized country on the planet post pandemic.Canada is doing better than most thanks to PMJT & Sean.
You will never govern.
#Trudeau2025

[Amanda Hu @amandalhu]

Hey just spitballing what if, instead of spending money on PIs, you fund literally any other thing that would improve education and the work environment for teachers?