Welcome to the Asylum

For fucks sake. Do people realize how much money and LIFE it costs when people don’t go to the doctor regularly? I was consulted today on a young man who hasn’t seen a doctor in years because of his immigration status. He was healthy until he wasn’t. He’s in the ICU on the verge of death and they don’t know why. No drugs no injuries no past illnesses. His blood work is all over the place and there’s no way it happened overnight.

How much money is that gonna cost now?/s 🙄

If I'm not the best-dressed man at the on-site quarterly financial planning meeting, I'll *die*.

I am normally not a fan of shiny ties, but this one is an exception. It's this shimmery copper in person.

1940's-ish vibe - please don't drive me crazy by calling this Victorian or earlier. This is also all separates and not a suit. (Jacket and trousers would match if a suit, and there would be some cut differences, fwiw.)

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

Shigaraki

Kurogiri

Dabi

Toga

Twice

Mr. Compress

Spinner

Magne

Muscular

Mustard

Giran

Moonfish

All For One

There used to be thousands of Jews in Iraq. The ancient Talmudic centers of Surah and Pumbedita were in Iraq. Jews in Iraq, and indeed most of the world, had never been treated as equal citizens, being subject to Dhimmi laws, but still the Iraqi Jewish culture flourished.

Today, it is estimated that there are only four Jews left in Iraq. Four Jews.

The Iraqi Jewish community is one of the oldest Jewish communities outside of Israel, and it was razed to the ground.

If you talk about the Holocaust but don't talk about the multiple ethnic cleansings and genocides of Jews in the SWANA region, you are being deliberately ignorant and antisemitic.

My ancestors lived and died and were buried in Iraq but I can't visit their hometowns and gravesites because they're all gone.

At least they took a couple more generations to get to the second Hillel, but wait until you hear about Yehudah Nesi‘a, the grandson (or great grandson?) of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi.

Just tuck "elder" at the end if you're talking about the earlier ones, and don't bother talking about post Rabbi Yehuda haNasi Nesi’im. They're not relevant, since we go by the Babylonian Talmud.