Stuff I like by Benita

We recently about how used clothes that get donated in the U.S. often wind up for sale in markets in Africa. As part of the story, we published some we found in a couple of markets in Kenya.

One shirt in particular caught our eye:

The shirt had a name inside it (Rachel Williams) and a bat mitzvah date (Nov. 20, 1993). We wanted to close the loop — to find Rachel Williams, and Jennifer of "Dancing with the Toons" fame. So Tuesday, we threw up the Internet bat signal and .

Adam Soclof of , a Jewish news service, saw and set out to find Rachel Williams. He used Facebook Graph Search to look for people named Rachel Williams who had a friend named Jennifer, who would have been about 13 in 1993, and with whom he shared common Facebook friends.

This is relevant to my interests. I'm super excited to watch this.

"As the incendiary lead singer of the band Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna became the most famous face of the riot grrrl movement, the early-’90s feminist counterpart to grunge. (She coined the phrase “smells like teen spirit,” which her friend Kurt Cobain would make famous.) Later, she moved from the Pacific Northwest to New York City, where she fronted the socially conscious dance-rock outfit Le Tigre, and most recently she founded the band the Julie Ruin, which released the kinetic record “Run Fast” in September.

(via How We Doodle | the busy mockingbird)

I love this so much. A 4-year-old "helps" with her mom's artwork. It happened by accident the first time when the daughter decided to draw a body on her mom's already drawn head, but it's since evolved into her daughter asking for her mom's heads to finish. The mother fills them in and colors them based on guidelines from her daughter.

"Now the very first time, this was as far as I had gotten before my daughter asked to “help.”  Later, I started just drawing faces & heads because she kept asking for them.  Plus, that’s my favorite part to draw anyway.  So when she asks to “draw the body,” I choose to let her."

Frank Bruni finds Courtney Love's phone in a cab. 

"But at the office, Bruni's assistant, Isabella Moschen, realized she could see the incoming texts. "First I saw that Stella Schnabel had just texted her," said Moschen. "And then I noticed this name, Lo'renzo Hill-White, and I Googled him and he's a celebrity stylist. Then there was Peri Lyons, the name sounded familiar to me, and I realized my uncle used to date her! She's a psychic to the stars. I said to Frank, 'It's gotta be Courtney Love.'"

CLICK THIS. SO GOOD. AIRPORTS ARE FASCINATING. I LOVE THEM.

This is old, but it somehow missed my radar in July. Please heed advice. It's truth.

"The power that comes with naming a child can be both intimidating and addictive, and we are currently in the throes of a child-naming crisis here in America. Seemingly rational people are naming their kids Baylynn, and Daxx, and Nirvana. Ethans are becoming Aythans. Marys are becoming Jazzmins. Wannabe elitist parents keep trying to one-up each other, as if a uniquely horrible name serves as some kind of guarantee against little Aston Martin growing up to be merely ordinary. Soon we'll be staring down an army of Apples, and the entire country will collapse upon itself. Each of us will get only a few opportunities (or if you're Antonio Cromartie, two dozen) to help in the fight against this encroaching apocalypse, so when your turn comes, please do your part by following a few simple rules."

This is brilliant because it's true. I always cringe when someone jokes as if it's a good thing, "I'm bad at math." And it happens very often among word types: journalists, writers, editors, etc. It's almost as if it's a negative in the business to be good at math, as if you can't be good with words and numbers. LIES. 

I've never said "I'm bad at math," and I really hope you'll stop saying it, too. This guy explains why everyone needs to stop saying and believing those four words.

"welcome to journalism, where “bad at math” isn’t just a destructive idea — it’s a badge of honor. It’s your admission to the club. It’s woven into the very fabric of identity as a journalist.

And it’s a destructive lie. One I would say most journalists believe. It’s a lie that may well be a lurking variable in the death of journalism’s institutions.

Truth is, “bad at math” was never a good thing in journalism, even when things like data and analytics weren’t a part of the job. Covering a city budget? It’s shameful how many newsroom creatures can’t calculate percent change. Covering sports? It’s embarrassing how many sports writers dismiss the gigantic leaps forward in data analysis in all sports as “nerd stuff.”

Dude means nothing, yet everything.

"Dude may be the most Mandarin Chinese word in American English. In Mandarin, depending on how I intone the single syllable ma, I could be saying “mother” (mā), or I could be saying something as radically distinct as “horse” (mă).