We make our own myth, we don’t wait for the oracle

It feels like a uniquely American capitalist take to assume these traditions will make you completely self sufficient. You need a lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of knowledge across a lot of subjects, and a lot of luck to provide for everyone's nutritional needs.

So should you even bother trying to be more self sufficient with your food? I argue yes. Foraging and gardening are fun and will teach you so much about many things. They are deeply rewarding activities that can supplement your diet. There are herbs I haven't bought in years because I grow my own. There are dishes I can only make with foraged ingredients because I can't get them in stores.

-Fresh herbs: Many many perennial options that largely take care of themselves with summer watering every now and then - oregano, sage, rosemary, chives, fennel, lemon balm. Focus on what you actually use, plus a lot are great for pollinators when they flower

-Fresh greens: I really struggle to use these in time if I do buy them and lots of greens, like lettuce and mustards, grow in a single month and can keep coming back when pinched. Collards and spinach are perennial in a lot of the US - these are typically cooler season guys so best for early spring/fall plantings or shade gardens

-Perennials that just keep producing: Sunchokes, artichokes, asparagus. Lots of berries - raspberry, salmonberry, blueberry, currants, thimbleberry, on and on.

-Things that taste way better than you can get them at the store: BROCCOLI and tomatoes, berries, I'm sure there are others but those are my favorite.

-You can get a lot of starts for free or trades in local gardening groups, and there's tons of free seed shares in many towns every year

-Focus on things you'll actually eat and enjoy, start small and then scale up as you learn more and troubleshoot problems

my mom is in fact aware that dandelions exist. she temporarily forgot the name and there was some miscommunication.

the truth is actually weirder

she’s aware dandelions look like this

she is familiar with this flower. she knows the name of this flower. she declines to believe, however, that these are also dandelions

she does not believe these are the same plant. I tried to explain, and she thought I was either misinformed or lying. so I asked her what exactly did she think the yellow ones were called?

gosh I enjoy this website

my mom is in fact aware that dandelions exist. she temporarily forgot the name and there was some miscommunication.

the truth is actually weirder

she’s aware dandelions look like this

she is familiar with this flower. she knows the name of this flower. she declines to believe, however, that these are also dandelions

she does not believe these are the same plant. I tried to explain, and she thought I was either misinformed or lying. so I asked her what exactly did she think the yellow ones were called?

gosh I enjoy this website

chess players wearing the board...

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Sopiko Guramishvili

Tan Zhongyi

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Mariya Muzychuk

yet insomnia has been my longest lifelong disabling condition. i have often gone more than 70 hours with no sleep, and when i finally ‘crash’ i may only sleep 5 hours between 70 hour no-sleep periods.

this issue began when i was a toddler and i have memories of being as young as 4 years old and regularly sneaking downstairs in the night to watch tv bc sleep was hopeless & no routine or discipline helped. i have lost jobs, friendships, and more over my sleep disorder.

it came to a head this spring when i’d been awake nearly 80 hours for the second time in a month and i realized i was going to fail out of grad school and lose my visa if i didn’t find a way to sleep. and i tried everything. i often sleep better outside camping so one night i was so desperate that i walked an hour to a soccer pitch (closest grassy space to my place in dublin) and tried to sleep on the ground there.

so knowing my attempts with a sleep specialist had gone nowhere i went to my psychiatrist for a crisis appointment while in the middle of an insomnia episode. he asked me what type of treatment i was open to, and i told him anything. i’d do anything. he discussed several non-medication options and several medication options. i’d already tried all the non-med plans, and most anti-anxiety meds (especially antihistamine classes) hadn’t worked.

so he decided we should try seropia (seroquel in the u.s., generic name Quetiapine). it’s an anti-psychotic sometimes rx’d for sleep as an off-label use.

he told me to try 20 mg and go up to 30 or down to 10 as needed. first night i slept nineteen hours without waking up once, woke up completely disoriented and dehydrated LOL. so i immediately went down to 10 mg. it has been life changing. i take it every night between 20:00 and 21:30 and i’m usually asleep by 23:00. i usually sleep 8-10 hours and don’t have too much of a ‘hangover’ in the morning.

i’ve suffered chronic nightmares but it hasn’t made them worse at all. mostly i just have very vivid dreams. also if someone calls me while i’m asleep i can have a completely normal conversation with them but may not remember it in the morning haha. apparently once took an important phone call from a friend at 1 am and i said to her “by the way you woke me up from my seropia sleep so i probably won’t remember this tomorrow, so text me to remind me.” sure enough she texted me and i didn’t remember. after nearly sending a sleep-email one night i’ve started sleeping with my phone in another room, which is better sleep hygiene anyway for me personally.

anyway all that said, if you’re not making any headway with a sleep specialist or GP, you might try a psychiatric approach.

ofc i’ve had terrible experiences with psychs and it’s never perfect. but it’s a route that worked for me this time bc i have a good psych. so if you find a psych you trust (or already have one managing your other meds) it’s worth a shot.

seropia does have a minor risk of interacting with my other meds (lamotrigine & fluvoxamine) but i’ve luckily had no issues. a few people have tried to scare me due to the connection between taking sleep medication longterm and heart disease, but the fact is chronic insomnia is proven to be extremely dangerous for cardiovascular health so this is the better route for me, personally!

i’m still adjusting to the fact that i get to simply sleep at night now.

i also didn’t realize how many of my famous all-day naps were related to this alone. i assumed they were tangled up in my other conditions, but i barely nap at all anymore.

don’t get me wrong. i’m still usually tired & in pain from my other diagnoses but i’m nevertheless overall functioning in a way i never thought possible.

In America, she adopted the name Eve Adams — a playful nod to her androgyny, invoking the biblical Adam and Eve — and wore men’s clothing.

“She was a vibrant activist, who was daring. She had an androgynous appearance, which immediately identified her as a lesbian,” said Jonathan Ned Katz, author of The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams. “Wearing pants for women was just unthinkable in the time period.”

Adams soon immersed herself in New York’s anarchist circles, befriending prominent Jewish anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. She worked as a traveling saleswoman for leftist publications including Mother Earth, activities that landed her on the Bureau of Investigation’s watch list during the First Red Scare.

In 1923, Adams published Lesbian Love, a collection of essays about the romantic lives of dozens of women in Greenwich Village. Katz described the book as far ahead of its time.

“The word “lesbian” was not used much. It was like a dirty word at the time, so you didn’t say it out loud,” Katz said. “Here she was, putting it on a book jacket.”

Two years later, Adams opened Eve’s Hangout in Greenwich Village. The underground tearoom became a rare refuge where lesbian women could socialize openly.

But the haven proved short-lived. In 1926, an undercover detective named Margaret Leonard visited Eve’s Hangout, where she met Adams. The following day, the two attended a play in Times Square together. Adams gave Leonard a copy of Lesbian Love — evidence of “obscenity” that prosecutors later used against her — and Leonard alleged Adams made sexual advances toward her during the taxi ride to the theater.

Adams was convicted and spent 18 months in jail before the United States deported her to Poland.

She settled in Paris, where she began a relationship with Jewish cabaret singer Hella Olstein Soldner. In 1943, the two women were arrested and sent to the Drancy internment camp. From there, they were deported to Auschwitz, where both were murdered.

Eve in Paris