La Maja Oscura

Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels. That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.

During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education. The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge. What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly.

On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of "Coat of Many Colors" dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.

Sueños Festival

Crafting/Millennium Park Concerts Sir Chloe and Los Aterciopelados

Roller skate on the lakefront trail

Bike commute home

Spain Eclipse trip

Sapphopalooza Film Fest

Ok Go concert

Physical Theater Festival

Super Sapphic

Water for Elephants

Block Party

Hummingbirds.

everything is more expensive than it used to be. even disregarding trumps horrific tariffs (which you shouldn’t do), inflation will always make things more expensive and in particular the lasting effects of COVID pricing are still ongoing. everything got more expensive, from food to replacement parts for machinery to cotton to lumber to metals that go into making needles and zippers, and so on and that means making things got more expensive.

the only reason you’re not noticing that rising cost in your fast fashion clothing is because shein clothes are made by people being paid pennies per garment, if they’re paid at all, using materials that contain lead and formaldehyde. labor is almost always your highest cost when making clothing unless you’re working with incredibly costly materials or you’re not paying your workers properly.

a single piece of ethically made clothing represents so many materials and so many types of labor. there’s the plant that had to be grown and harvested and then turned into fibers that could then be woven into fabric. the thread, elastic, and any fixings like zippers or buttons or hooks and eyes all have to be made from materials that are mined or grown or made. pigment has to be mined and processed or synthesized for the garment to be dyed or printed and that fabric has to be sewn by humans. not machines. there are many machines involved, from fabric printers to sewing machines to cotton gins to garment presses and more, all of which have to be human operated and/or maintained/inspected/overseen. and most of which have annoying fiddly bits that need to be replaced over and over and over again. all the facilities involved in making the clothing and clothing materials have to be cleaned and maintained and inspected. nearly every time a material or garment changes locations the terms and prices have to be negotiated.

nearly all of this is human work.