Ramblings of a Menopausal Broad

Tag: Ukraine

Seven Things I Love (5-16-2022)

May 17, 2022 / / 0 Comments

1. This News Media Source – They had me at their mission statement:

To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.

These people do old-school investigative reporting. The media bias sites say that PROPUBLICA “leans left” but ProPublica has won FIVE Pulitzers so you judge for yourself. (The most common “criticism” is that ProPublica doesn’t cover issues that are of concern of conservative and/or get conservative perspectives. I think with the way things are right now, there’s a reason for that.)

2. This Cool (and Clever) Trick with Coins – Those Brits, always doing stuff like this. But I’m bummed, I have a bunch of English coins but most of them are too old! The only new one I have is the one pence (or penny) coin, which is the copper colored one on the left. I’ll need to stock up next time I’m over (if that ever happens.) Anyone need any Euro coins? I have LOADS of those.

3. These Dancing Trees – Linden trees have an amazing history. They’ve been revered by the Egyptians, the Greeks and even the Catholic Church. They’ve provided ingredients for medicinal treatments to the Gauls. And during the French Revolution more than 60,000 Linden trees were planted and the trees were consecrated as “the tree of liberty.”

The Germans came up with a lovely way to use the Linden trees. There you will find Tanzlinden, or dance lindens, throughout the country. A platform is constructed within the trees, and the Lindens are shaped into the form of a structure/building, often with windows. This creates a meeting place where celebrations, which generally includes dancing, are held. Such a lovely tradition and fantastic way to keep connected to nature.

[Found on Present & Correct]

4. This Laundry Tip – Several months ago I decided to switch to more natural cleaning products including laundry detergent and fabric softener. Finding better options for laundry detergent was easier than for fabric softener. The main reason for this is because my laundry machine doesn’t do well with thicker formulas (which aren’t really good for any washers) and most fabric softeners highlight how thick and oozy they are.

But in doing research about natural softeners I came across a lot of articles recommending the use of vinegar as a fabric softener.

Now I’ve used vinegar in my laundry before – like when I’ve accidentally forgot to put my clothes in the dryer and left them in the washer too long and they got that mildew-y smell – vinegar will fix that right up. But I never noticed that it made my clothes softer. But I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try.

Damn if it didn’t work! I think the reason I didn’t notice it working previously was because I wasn’t using enough (I wasn’t adding it via the little fabric softener slot.)

In addition to it being a great fabric softener (and household cleaner in general), and being very inexpensive (I buy two gigantic jugs at a time at CostCo), there are other benefits to using vinegar in your laundry:

1. Gets rid of limescale (as I mentioned, I add it via the fabric softener dispenser but you can also clean your entire machine by putting it in your detergent dispenser and running an empty load.)

2. DIY Stain Remover

3. Keeps denim from fading

4. Gets rid of lint and reduces static

5. Erase hem lines

From “7 reasons why you should use vinegar when doing your laundry” by Cynthia Lawrence on Tom’s guide

5. This Role Model – Once again, Giannis Antetokounmpo shows his fans, both young and old, how to behave.

After the Bucks lost the seventh game of the playoffs series (to the Celtics), Antetokounmpo was interviewed and not surprisingly was asked how he felt about the loss. Here’s his response.

At the end of the day, we were playing sports and there’s a winner, there’s a loser.” But at the end of the day, this is a learning curve. Nobody promised you’re going to be in the second round [of the playoffs]. There’s people that have never been in the second round; there’s people that have never been in the NBA finals. So, in my first seven seasons, I’m not viewing it as, ‘I lost.’

It was a learning experience, so hopefully, this moment, instead of thinking that we lost something, we can gain and learn in order for us to put ourselves in a position to win another championship.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

We need more of this.

[Found on Inc.com]

6. This Year’s Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 – UKRAINE winning had much more significance than just having the best song. Some are saying they got the sympathy vote, but I think that a much more accurate way to describe what happened is that Europe showed their support for Ukraine.

In a time of war this may seem like a trivial thing, but for a country that needs to feel a national identity; where even the smallest amount of good cheer is amplified because of their dire situation; this nugget of happiness will most likely give many a necessary boost.

7. This Breakfast – Amalfi Coast. Everything about it.

[Found on Everything. Just. Pure. Lovely. blog]

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Seven Things I Love (4-4-2022)

April 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Artist – I read about the Sir John Soane Museum on Atlas Obscura and have wanted to go ever since. I mean, any museum choked full of memorabilia and curiosities is in my wheelhouse. But despite my desire and numerous trips to London, I have yet to managed to visit.

Before I even knew that one of Gretchen Scherer’s paintings was a room in the Soane Museum, I was drawn to her work. I would love to see them in person – according to the Hyperallergic article, even though she has meticulously recreated the room down to minute details, she added a few details to get across personal messages. Those need to be seen in larger versions of the image to be visible.

Still, they are lovely. The square piece in the slideshow below is called “Sir John Soane’s Museum, Library and Dining Room” and it is the largest piece in her exhibit at Monya Rowe Gallery.

[Found on Hyperallergic]

2. This Hero – The Soldier who told the Russian warship to “Go Fuck Yourself” and then was captured along with a dozen of his fellow Ukrainian Soldiers has been released and received a medal for his bravery.

3. This Tea – a friend of mine brought me some of this tea when she came over for lunch last week – WOW!!! I have been looking for a herbal tea that I can drink that wouldn’t require me to add a ton of sweetener. And since I’m not using artificial sweetener anymore that basically means honey or raw sugar or agave nectar.

This fits the bill, in fact you won’t need any sweetener at all. And when it says it’s naturally sweet it’s completely true. There is no fake sugar in here and yet it’s still rather sweet. Well, sweet and spicy.

I still love a good cuppa (black tea with milk and sugar) but it’s really nice to have a second option now.

[Found by my friend Edell – thanks E!]

4. This Drug Disposal Program – When I first ran across this (can’t remember when or where) I decided to request the free pouch just for the heck of it.

I used to not have to worry at all about drug disposal because the municipality where I worked had a drop box right in the village hall where you could drop off meds (both prescription and OTC.)

I think a lot of people don’t realize how bad it is to toss medications. It’s obviously really, REALLY bad to put them down the drain or in the toilet, but it’s also bad to put them in the garbage. Eventually the containers could break open or decompose and the medications could get into the groundwater – it’s really no different than putting them down the drain/toilet.

That is why proper disposal is so important. I got rid of most of my extra meds right before I retired but over the past three years I’ve managed to accumulate some expired pharmaceuticals. When I decided I finally had enough I ripped open the package I received from Deterra.

I had thought that the package was going to be a pouch where you could mail in your meds for disposal. Oh no. This was SO EASY. All you need to do is take all the medications out of the bottles, rip open the top of the pouch, drop them all in, fill the pouch about half full with water, water 30 seconds, close the pouch (shake it a little to get the water/stuff inside to mix up with all the pills) and then TOSS IT IN THE TRASH!

The stuff in the pouch makes the pills safe for the environment. You can read more about it and order a free pouch here.

5. This Seinfeld Clip – This is from 1995. Ukrainians have always been bad ass.

6. This Career – I want to be a personal librarian! I suppose to do this you have to live in a place where there are a lot of rich people.

Private Librarian, Christy Shannon Smirl

[Found on Los Angeles Daily News]

7. This Photo from the 1980s – Cyndi Lauper playing miniature golf with Pee Wee Herman. This says all that needs to be said about the ’80s and it’s why it’ll always be my favorite decade.

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Art by Rick Frausto

Seven Things I Love (3-21-2022)

March 22, 2022 / / 2 Comments
  1. 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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Seven Things I Love (3-14-2022)

March 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Bust of an Unidentified Black Slave by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux – Housed at The Met Museum, the bust is one of only two known versions carved in marble. It is a powerful representation of the brutality that people of color endured and how they responded with fortitude and strength.

“Created twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the French colonies (1848), the sculpture was debuted in Paris in 1869 under the title Négresse, a term that reinforces the fallacy of human difference based on skin color. The subject’s resisting pose, defiant expression, and accompanying inscription – ‘Pourquoi Naître Esclave!’ (Why Born Enslaved!) – convey an antislavery message. However, the bust also perpetuates a Western tradition of representation that long saw the Black figure as inseparable from the ropes and chains of enslavement.” 

From the Met Museum website

2. This Short Film Created by Apple (so admittedly it’s one long ad) – this short film is very well done. You will actually become invested in what happens to these four people, you’ll find yourself rooting for them. I also liked that they are basically addressing a “Great Resignation” issue. (Though in reality, haven’t difficult bosses who don’t appreciate their employees and overwork them; and employees who dream of going off and making it on their own, haven’t these things been around forever? What was the tipping point?)

[Found on Inc.com]

3. This Nautical Discovery – This is HUGE. I have been slightly (okay, not slightly) obsessed with the history of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition on the Endurance for decades. I think the main reason for my being drawn to their story is because rarely do you hear about such a disaster where every single person survives.

Here’s what happened. The Endurance became lodged in ice and began to sink. This took a long time and they were able to get a lot of things they needed off the ship. Eventually it was crushed and sank completely. The crew were stuck on the Antarctic ice for about 17 MONTHS.

The men finally were rescued after Shackleton and a group of five men made an arduous trek 750 miles in a small boat to a British-owned island called South Georgia.

The men documented their 17 months with photography, which is another reason why the story is so interesting. Here are some newly restored photos. And here are some photos from negatives discovered in the ice. And more photos here. You can just keep finding more and more.

[Found on BBC]

4. This Reunion – Filmed on the Polish-Ukrainian border, photographer David Melero Pena caught the reunion of a father with his young daughter.

According to the Newsweek article where I found the video, the translation of the post’s caption is:

“The reunion…destroyed me while editing photos and video. I just have no words.”

[Found on Newsweek]

5. This “Witch” – On Sunday Emma Watson was the presenter for “Outstanding British Film” at the BAFTAs.

Rebel Wilson introduced her and joked, “Here to present the next award is Emma Watson. She calls herself a feminist, but we all know she’s a witch.” (Who wouldn’t love that introduction?!?!)

When Emma Watson got to the podium she said, “I’m here for all of the witches by the way.”

Most people recognized that this was a slight snub at J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, the series that made Emma a superstar.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the controversy surrounding Rowling, she has made some anti-trans comments in the past and has been accused of having written an transphobic mystery novel,

[Found on Pink News and Mashable]

6. This State’s Legislation on College Tuition – OMG, NEW MEXICO rocks!

Legislation was signed into law on March 4, 2022 by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham that will make college free for students who choose to go to public universities!

From the article:

On March 4, 2022, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship Act after it passed both state legislative houses. The law allots $75 million to a fund of scholarships. This will expand scholarship coverage from 10,000 to 35,000 students in the coming fall. An award of tuition and fees is coordinated in partnership with the public or tribal participating college. Almost any New Mexico resident qualifies, including continuing and part-time students. Students must maintain a minimum of six credit hours and a grade point average of at least 2.5 during their time in school.

[Found on My Modern Met]

7. This Letter – I love this SO MUCH. The letter is wonderful (the life of a public service employee!) and no one could read this aloud better than Keegan Michael Key.

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Seven Things I Love (3-7-2022)

March 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Tuesday is International Women’s Day
CELEBRATE accordingly!!!

  1. 1. This Ukrainian Artist’s Work – Maria Prymachenko’s artwork are cheery and colorful but some of the pieces are darker, which is not surprising considering what the Ukrainian people have been through over the past decades.

[Found on Kottke.org]

  1. 2. This Website – The V&A Museum kept quite busy in 2020 and 2021, and through social media and online activities they kept their patrons informed and engaged during the pandemic. I follow them on Facebook and get their newsletter but somehow I missed this.
  3. Luckily a friend of mine’s daughter is dressing up as Marie Antoinette for school and while I was looking for this picture to show both of them I found this fun page.

What we have is an interactive site that allows you to create your very own Marie Antoinette style wig! You can make it as small or as LARGE as you like (I discovered that depending upon the way you swoop you can even create braids). After you’ve made your wig you can decorate it with a various feathers, flowers, pendants, and other items (note the ship). Last, but not least, you can powder it to your heart’s content (there are some lovely colors to choose from.)

Here’s one of my creations

I always love learning new things, especially history. This was particularly fun. Is seems the wigs got pretty out of control for a while. Men’s wigs were as big a deal as the women’s wigs.

[Found on Dazed Digital]

3. This Mom’s Sense of Humor – Kayla Marie Sullivan used her skills from when she was a reporter to convey the difficulties of parenting a two-year-old.
It’s H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.

@kaylareporting

Now accepting donations for babysitters & or take out! Venmo: @Kayla-Sullivan-96 🤣 #NewsVoice #ToddlerMom #EveryKiss #newsvoice #YerAWizard #2022

♬ original sound – Kayla Marie Sullivan

4. This Historic Mystery Solved! I have loved the Venus of Willendorf (sometimes called the Woman of Willendorf) since the first time I saw it. I mean, what’s not to love – they worshiped a voluptuous babe!

The Venus is estimated to be around 30,000 years old and made from oolite limestone. It’s called the Venus of Willendorf because it was found in 1908, somewhere close to the banks of the Danube River near Willendorf, Austria. But they’ve never know her origin.

Researchers led by Gerhard Weber, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Vienna, believe they have matched the figurine’s limestone with a location near Lake Garda in northern Italy, revealing the likely origin of “one of the most famous signs of early modern human symbolic behavior,” according to a study published on Monday in Scientific Reports. 

The new research suggests that the crafters of this iconic object, a hunter-gatherer culture known as the Gravettian people, traveled hundreds of miles across the treacherous landscape of Europe before the last ice age, though the team noted that it’s unclear what might have prompted such a journey. 

From “Scientists Solve 30,000-Year-Old ‘Venus’ Statue Mystery, Study Says” by Becky Ferreira; March 1, 2022; Vice-motherboard

[Found on VICE]

5. This Crowd-Sourced History Project – Charles Dickens is well-known for his literary genius but one lesser known element of his life is that as a younger man he taught himself a form of shorthand using Thomas Gurney’s 18th century manual on Brachygraphy. The word Brachygraphy means “a system of writing using abbreviations or special characters” – in other words, shorthand.

There are several documents that Dickens wrote using brachygraphy that scholars have been struggling to decipher, some with success. But the one that has been most elusive is the Tavistock letter.

Two Dickensian scholars, Claire Wood of the University of Leicester, and Hugo Bowles of the University of Foggia, decided to create the Dickens Code Project in the hopes of getting assistance from puzzle experts and code breakers around the world. They ended up with sixteen full submissions, none of which were complete.

Shane Baggs, a computer technical support specialist from San Jose, California, won the overall contest, while a college student at the University of Virginia named Ken Cox was declared the runner-up.

Since then, Baggs and Cox have managed to finished deciphering nearly 70% of the letter, far more than they ever expected. You can see a line-by-line translation here.

Full page of the Tavistock letter.

6. This Inspiring Article – With all that is going on in the world we need some positivity and hope. Here ya go.

[Found on Harper’s Bazaar]

7. THIS Postmodern Jukebox Video – I was lucky enough to get to go to a REAL concert last week. I saw one of my favorite bands – Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ). And man, I was not disappointed!

PMJ does covers of songs in a variety of styles, such as the roaring twenties, sixties girl group, swing, jazz, gospel, and “film noir.”

This video is one of the songs sung at the concert – you will recognize it right away. We didn’t have this many performers but some of them – like Tia Simone (wow), LaVance Colley (wow), and Olivia Kuper Harris (beautiful) – were there on Friday!

Click on the photo below to see the video.

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Seven Things I Love (2-28-2022)

March 1, 2022 / / 2 Comments
  1. 1. This Candle Company – Harlem Candle Company creates luxury candles, diffusers, and room sprays using famous people and places in black history as inspiration. I haven’t received my order yet but I wanted to include this while it was still Black History Month.

I ordered a “Savoy” candle which has the following description:

The Savoy Ballroom was the soul of Harlem, and kept Lenox Avenue jumping for decades. It was a block long, dripping with glittering crystal chandeliers and an elegant marble staircase, and is known for having birthed the Lindy Hop.   The glamour and excitement of nights on that iconic dance floor are beautifully reflected with a luscious overture of blackcurrant, tart mandarin, crisp green apple and juicy pear evolving into a flirtatious floral heart of Lily of the Valley and jasmine petals. Sensual sandalwood and sheer musk bring warmth to perfectly balance this intoxicating blend.

Is that not heavenly? I’m hoping I’ll get the candle, light it, get into my comfy chair, close my eyes, and be transported back to the Savoy Ballroom of the ’20s. I hope I haven’t set my expectations too high for a scented candle (ha ha ha.)

Plus they’re beautiful.

2. This Custom Library – Jim Cardon, built this library as a gift for his brother! I mean, if this doesn’t warrant a ‘Brother of the Year‘ award I don’t know what would. He modeled it after the library in the movie ‘The Illusionist‘ (on of my favorites, the entire film is available for free on YouTube.)

Talk about book porn!

[Found on Core77]

3. This Lagoon in Australia – PINK! It’s my “signature color”. Is this not amazing? It’s called Hutt Lagoon and the color is from “the caroteinoid-producing algae, dunaliella salina – which is a source of beta-carotene; a food-colouring agent and a great source of Vitamin A.”

The photographer is from Russia and her name is Kristina Makeeva. She’s EXTREMELY talented. If click on her name ⬅ it’ll take you to her Instagram and you can see all her photos. They’ll blow you away.

[Found on My Modern Met]

4. These Knitters or “Yarn Bombers” – I love it if someone yarn bombed my mailbox. I know it doesn’t last forever but while it doesn’t last, it’s so wonderful!

5. This Wall – photo was taken at MOD GEN: a Modern General Store, in the Third Ward near downtown Milwaukee, one of my favorite shops. They have a wonderful selection of unique books, games, puzzles, stationary products, kitchen items, and well, things you won’t find anywhere else. Most importantly they have a fabulous selection of plants and succulents at the back of the store. If you haven’t been I’d suggest you check it out!

6. This Interview with Judi Dench, Graham Norton, Elton John, and John Bishop – I’m fairly certain I don’t need to explain who any of these people are except maybe the last. John Bishop is one of THE most popular comedians in Britain but if you are a Doctor Who fan you will recognize him from the current series as Dan Lewis.

Anyway, got this video from a friend (thanks Stasie!) and it is so wonderful, mostly because this is ME to a tee.

It actually reminds me of, I think it was my 15th high school reunion? I got there and ran into a friend of mine. I would have bet everything I had that she went to one of the other two high schools in Dubuque (where I grew up). I said to her, “Oh my god, what are you doing here!” I mean, I was glad to see her, just surprised. And she replied (obviously a little perplexed and miffed), “what do you mean, what am I doing here.?” She actually got pretty pissed at me because she thought I was joking around but the truth is, I couldn’t remember. I can’t remember much of anything from the past 55+ years except for little snippets here and there. And a lot of what I can remember is due to photos and mementoes I have.

Recently I found a treasure trove of documents – all sorts of certificates and papers from my youth. Going through them was truly a walk down memory lane but there were a few things that I absolutely did NOT remember doing.

For example, in 1978 and 1979 I was in the Annual Metropolitan Speech Contest In 1978 my category was “Choral Reading.” I do remember that. In 1979 my categories were “Prose” and “Pantomime.” I don’t remember ever doing pantomime, not once in my entire life. But here’s evidence in print.

7. These Ukranians – Honestly, I can’t imagine Americans fighting like this. Well, actually, the way I see it going in America if there was ever an attack like this – all the super wealthy would leave to wherever they needed to go to be safe and comfortable, the lower upper-class and upper-middle class would most likely die (except possibly for those who are POC and LGBTQ), and the lower middle class and lower class would be like the Ukrainians – we ain’t puttin’ up with no shit.

What do you think?

Anyway, these Ukrainians are KICKASS.

Okay, first this guy, who picked up a god-damned landmine and moved it off a road all the while continuing to hold his cigarette in his mouth – DAYUM!

Then there is this UNARMED woman, who told a Russian soldier to fill his pockets with the sunflower seeds she offered him so that when he died his body would grow flowers (at least then he’d be doing something good for the world).

Next is this Ukrainian man, who may be a little nuts but who single-handedly attempted to stop a convoy of Russian tanks.

And last but not least, the 13 extremely brave Ukrainians whose job it was to secure Snake Island (also called Zmiinyi Island) – when approached by a Russian battleship told them to “go fuck yourself” IN RUSSIAN before being blown up. They were initially all reported dead because there was no radio contact.

The good news is that the Ukrainians discovered they didn’t die. Hallelujah! The bad news is that after being able to repel two attacks by the Russians they eventually had to surrender due to a lack of ammunition. The Ukrainian soldiers are now being held Sevastopol, Crimea, which was documented on Russian State television.

Also, SNL did a cold opening with the Ukrainian Chorus of New York singing “A Prayer for Ukraine” and I get overwhelmed with emotion every time I watch it.

[EXTRA] ICYMI, John Mahoney was the guest host on SNL on Saturday. He joined the Five Timer’s Club and there’s a new epic musical sketch to go along with Diner Lobster (2018), Bodega Bathroom (2019), Airport Sushi (2020), and New York Musical (2020).

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