I Don't Hate It | Sooo Many Princes in Tents
Hey there. What's everybody been doing? I have mostly been walking around chanting to myself, "Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man." Did you see that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature but the Swedish Academy hasn't been able to contact him? Apparently a reference to the win was added to his site this week but then promptly removed. (No one knows by whom. Maybe Russia. Or China.)
My parents are visiting me. My father and I waited in the car while my mother went inside a store earlier today and when she came out he told her that forty-seven other people had gone in after her and that she looked out of place because she "didn't have a backpack on." It is a college town, after all.
1. During the Vice Presidential Debate a couple of weeks ago, held at Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia, not far from where I live, I shared on Twitter and Facebook that people should read Kristen Green's Something Must Be Done about Prince Edward County. Since then, Green won the Library of Virginia Nonfiction Literary Award AND the Library of Virginia Nonfiction People's Choice Award for this book that "shows just how profound and pernicious the legacy of Jim Crow is today," as my friend James said.
2. "Tent Revival" is Amy Woolard's deep dive into rural healthcare, Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinics, and how issues of access impact all of us, at every level. Paywalled after the first four paragraphs? Consider subscribing. The discount code FALL16 will get you a one-year domestic or digital subscription for only $25.
3. When Dylan won the Nobel, I shared the link with this tagline: "The podcast 'Sooo Many White Guys' just got renewed for another season." I don't know if that's true or not (it was a joke), but Phoebe Robinson's "Sooo Many White Guys" is one of the best podcasts going.