- 1. This Postage Stamp – There have been many examples of bravery by the Ukrainian people but this particular instance stands out.
If you haven’t heard the story of the Ukrainian soldiers of Snake Island, you can read about it here, and you can hear the audio here.
[Found on My Modern Met]
2. This GoFundMe – Mila Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Even though she’s lived most of her life in America and is now an America citizen, her Ukrainian heritage is near and dear to her heart. So when the war broke out, Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher knew that they had to do something to help. They started a GoFundMe with the plan that they would match up to $3,000,000. Never did they expect the fundraiser to reach $35 million (the current amount)!
This is the message of thanks they posted.
They also have been working with Airbnb to find housing for the refugees.
Ukrainian President Zelensky called them (via Zoom) to thank them personally for their efforts. (The man must never sleep.)
[Found on the Los Angeles Times]
3. These Pep Talks – An art teacher at West Side Elementary in Healdsburg, California thought it would be a fun project for her class to create a hotline with the kids offering upbeat and happy messages. She figured they’d get a few calls, mostly from friends and family members.
In her wildest dreams she didn’t expect this. It’s grown from a few hundred calls a day to over ten thousand calls AN HOUR. They too have done a GoFundMe to raise money to keep the hotline running.
If you don’t think that it has value, give it a call – 707-998-8410.
You’ll be a believer in no time.
[Found on the The Daily Show & Good News Network]
4. This Southeast Wisconsin Creamery – I love goat milk products – goat cheese, goat butter, goat.. well, that’s pretty much it. I was at this lovely little boucherie (butcher)/cafe in the Third Ward (Milwaukee) called Bavette’s a month or so ago and after having a yummy lunch I picked up a few things from the shop area. One of them was this goat cheese. It was the best damned goat cheese I’ve ever had!
Now, it’s not really that far for me to get down to the Third Ward, about 15 minutes maybe, but finding parking down there can be a bugger and honestly, trying to do all that rigamarole for a container of goat cheese is a bit much. I looked up the Blakesville Creamery to see if maybe their products were carried someplace a little closer to my house and discovered (a) they are located in Port Washington (which is almost the same distance as the Third Ward) but (b) they SHIP!!! I ordered my first package of cheeses and I’m in heaven.
The great thing is that their cheeses have a shelf life of about 4 to 6 weeks, so you can really stock up. And they don’t have to stay completely cold either – they age them in 55 degrees.
I say try it, you’ll like it!
5. This Comedian – I saw Catherine Cohen on Late Night with Seth Meyers last week and thought she was a hoot. She was promoting her new comedy special on Netflix and so I thought to myself, I need to make a mental note to watch that. Now normally when I make a “mental note” the likelihood that the task/idea/whatever will ever be followed up on is nearly zero but for some reason this one stuck. I not only managed to remember her name but I remembered that it was on Netflix as well. I watched it and, for the most part, I give it two energetic thumbs up. The songs are most definitely my favorite parts.
6. This To-Do List – The Feminist To-Do List is bi-weekly e-newsletter from the United States of Women. It includes small tasks you can do in the fight for equality, information about feminist achievements, and things that the USOW generally thinks that we feminists would find interesting. It’s just the right amount of info and frequency. You can sign up for it here.
The United States of Women has a second newsletter you can sign up for at the same time called ‘Joy is Resistance.’ This newsletter is sent out weekly to honor and uplift during Heritage Months (periods within the year that are designated to celebrate and acknowledge various ethnic and marginalized groups.)
[Found by my good friend Ann L.]
7. These New Quarters – I got my first proof set! The first quarters with American women. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Top Row – Maya Angelou (American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist), Dr. Sally Ride (Astronaut and physicist, first American woman in space), Anna May Wong (Actress, first Chinese American Hollywood movie star)
Bottom Row – Nina Otero-Warren (Woman’s Suffrage Movement Leader, educator, and politician), Wilma Mankiller (Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation)
They chose the five women from over 11,000 names submitted via a portal set up by the National Women’s History Museum. The plan is to release up to 5 coins each year through 2025. I signed up to automatically receive new American Women Quarters proof sets from the U.S. Mint.
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