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<title>19 April, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Grim Journey of the Accused Brooklyn Subway Shooter</strong> - Frank James, the man charged with carrying out the Sunset Park attack, appears to have inhabited a world of conspiracy theories, grievance, and mental illness. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-grim-journey-of-the-accused-brooklyn-subway-shooter">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Siege of Chernihiv</strong> - For more than a month, the Russian military pummelled residents with bombing raids and missile fire, turning a locked-in Ukrainian city into an urban death trap. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-siege-of-chernihiv">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Case for an Immediate Energy Embargo on Russia</strong> - An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky argues that halting the purchase of oil and gas is the surest way to stop Vladimir Putin’s military machine. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-case-for-an-immediate-energy-embargo-on-russia">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ultimate Tiger Mom</strong> - In the Indian preserve where she lived, the extraordinarily fecund Collarwali was a boon to her threatened species. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/afterword/the-ultimate-tiger-mom">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Hit the Road,” Reviewed: A Mysterious and Thrilling Revelation from Iran</strong> - The début feature by Panah Panahi is a love story, a tragicomedy, and a triumph. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/hit-the-road-reviewed-a-mysterious-and-thrilling-revelation-%20from-iran">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Ignoring emails with Twitter’s funniest comedian</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/fTFx2oYSoewDbAAt2WAb80Ixvns=/257x0:1697x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70766152/Untitled_design__7_.0.png"/>
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<figcaption>
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Caleb Hearon
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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How Caleb Hearon spends his day on the internet (muting group chats, being confused by hot lumberjacks).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1qUqHv">
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<em>Welcome to 24 Hours Online, where we ask one extremely internetty person to document a day in their life looking at screens.</em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HLt8Mt">
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Caleb Hearon’s first time going mega-viral on Twitter was near the end of 2019. He made a <a href="https://twitter.com/calebsaysthings/status/1201590348730032129?lang=en">now-legendary POV video</a> in which he pretended to agree with a friend who was venting to him about a situation in which they were clearly in the wrong. He’s been goofing around on the platform since 2010, back in the era of “Ashton Kutcher going on the <em>Ellen</em> show and talking about his ‘tweeps,’” as he describes it.
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In those days, Hearon was a high schooler in rural Missouri working for what he calls a “family values” organization for teens. (“I had so much fun tweeting stuff like, ‘we need gun control now!’ and immediately getting in trouble,” he says.) Then, in college, he became the kind of Twitter micro-celebrity around campus who drunk sorority girls would ask to follow them back at parties.
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</p>
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<div id="ONYCUp">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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pov: you’re a close friend venting to me about a situation where you were entirely in the wrong <a href="https://t.co/jGVesg228V">pic.twitter.com/jGVesg228V</a>
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</p>
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— caleb hearon (<span class="citation" data-cites="calebsaysthings">@calebsaysthings</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/calebsaysthings/status/1201590348730032129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2019</a></blockquote></div></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZgkEIx">
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Now 27, he’s living in LA and working as a comedian and TV writer, but still regularly goes viral on the platform. During his <a href="https://www.vox.com/24-hours-online">24 Hours Online</a>, Hearon ignores emails from Nancy Pelosi and JC Penney, mutes all his group chats, and considers buying a mixed-use building in Seattle on a late night Zillow binge. Here he is, in his own words.
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</p>
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<h3 id="tcCSHX">
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<strong>8:30 am</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lsf0UZ">
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I wake up and immediately delete like, 20 emails from brands that want me to buy stuff. They’re literally all from the fat guy fashion places that have sunk their hooks in me because there’s no good fashion for fat men: JC Penney, DXL, KingSize, and the non-cool shit from Carhartt. The emails are like, “Get your husky men’s clothes for cleaning out the gutter in your Saturday dad jeans!” and I’m like, “Dog, get me out of here.” And then of course, it’s Nancy Pelosi being like, “I did not want to send this email, Caleb. President Jimmy Carter needs you to pitch in for the North Carolina Senate,” and I’m like, “I thought this bitch was dead!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PHGxjW">
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I usually check Instagram first in the mornings because more often than not, I have some deranged Close Friends content to catch up on. I look for the little green VIP circles first then if I’m bored or have time to kill I’ll watch general admission stories. My favorite Close Friends stories are when it’s a B-list celebrity being like, “Had a beautiful morning. Walked to the park and saw a dog I thought was cute. Love you guys, have a good one!”
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View this post on Instagram
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</a>
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17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; white-space:
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nowrap;">
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccc-toPMw4j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color:
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#c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;
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text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Swipes4Daddy (<span class="citation" data-cites="swipes4daddy">@swipes4daddy</span>)</a>
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</p>
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</div>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wdJMES">
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One of the first things I stop to actually read is from the account <a href="https://www.instagram.com/swipes4daddy/"><span class="citation" data-cites="Swipes4Daddy">@Swipes4Daddy</span></a>, one of my favorites. She swipes on much older men and then they flirt with her and it’s never not disgusting or insane. It’s hot girl heterosexual culture, which is something that I’m outside of.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OKwcGJ">
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I have a meeting at 10, so I get on the Starbucks app and order a venti iced caramel latte with blonde espresso. I’m not one of the advanced cool girls who likes black cold brew from a local coffee shop; I really love Starbucks. I hate to give them clout, but when I was broke in Chicago and needed somewhere to write for hours on end, Starbucks was perfect because you didn’t feel bad taking over a table.
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</p>
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<h3 id="1UFsnd">
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<strong>9:45 am </strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oAJC5R">
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Last night I tweeted something that accidentally became a viral prompt where gay men are quoting with what woman they would most like to die for. Doing a prompt tweet is one of the most embarrassing things you can ever do in your life. I read the replies to see how many people said Julia Roberts (my pick). You wouldn’t believe the actresses who have stans, women who’ve been in two movies in the past 25 years.
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</p>
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<div id="ckyyLm">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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when gay boys turn 13 years old the universe assigns them one woman working in entertainment. from that point forward their purpose on earth becomes supporting this woman so hard that the force of their love for her could literally kill them.
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</p>
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— caleb hearon (<span class="citation" data-cites="calebsaysthings">@calebsaysthings</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/calebsaysthings/status/1511906542802518019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2022</a>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fxj6zb">
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The <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bradley.thor?lang=en">guy who splits logs on TikTok</a> is getting attention again because it makes people feral I guess? I don’t get it. Since he’s become big he has this air about him where he’ll chop the wood and give a little chuckle and smirk or lick his lips. I’m like, bitch, this is gross now.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ef5YKk">
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Then I see this bizarre little video of Doctor Oz, who is of course running for senate and needs to be stopped; he’s in a grocery store going, “You can’t even buy groceries anymore because of Joe Biden!” Any time rich people cosplay as “everyday Americans” it cracks me up. I love watching rich people imagine the struggles of poor people.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kB3RTB">
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I reply to some texts. I put all my group chats on mute a few weeks ago and now I’m the most at peace any person has ever been. I get irrationally angry when I’m doing something and then I get three texts in a row.
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</p>
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<h3 id="BFELUk">
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<strong>11 am</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0fFpd">
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I go on TikTok to post a Story, which they have now. As somebody who has to promote my live shows constantly, Stories and Fleets (RIP) are the best way to do it. It helps those of us who don’t do sponsored content; I’m more interested in selling tickets, writing scripts, and being in TV shows. But there’s a lot more money on the spon-con side.
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</p>
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<h3 id="36cgq0">
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<strong>2 pm</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ztA4St">
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I’m pitching a TV show this week, so I log on to a Zoom meeting with my co-creator, our showrunner, two producers, and some execs from a streaming network. It’s a live-action, queer TV show based in Kansas City. (I think I can say all of that?)
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</p>
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<div id="YgkxFE">
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<blockquote cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@bradley.thor/video/7083891646676454699" class="tiktok-embed">
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<section>
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<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bradley.thor" target="_blank" title="@bradley.thor"><span class="citation" data-cites="bradley.thor">@bradley.thor</span></a>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Reply to <span class="citation" data-cites="vocalismajor">@vocalismajor</span>
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</p>
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<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7083891614736763691" target="_blank" title="♬
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original sound - Thoren Bradley">♬ original sound - Thoren Bradley</a>
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</section>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<h3 id="oVHHno">
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<strong>3 to 8 pm</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GKzQG0">
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I have a long break in the middle of the day so I drive me and a friend around in my Jeep to go get sushi. We listen to “All I Ever Wanted” by Mase radio on Spotify. I also rediscover Chingy’s “Right Thurr.” It’s great, real windows-down-on-a-nice-day music.
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</p>
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<h3 id="mSlriY">
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<strong>10 pm</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G8Jgv5">
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Emails are the bane of my existence. I can’t fucking believe we still do this. Right before bed, I end up doing like, 20 of them because I put them off all day. When you’re a comedian you have a million little jobs, and for every little job you have seven fucking pages of paperwork. It makes me want to scream.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23398082/Screen_Shot_2022_04_15_at_2.43.19_PM.png"/>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7URR7z">
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I am a phone-in-bed person, but my big bedtime rule about media is I don’t watch TV in bed. I’m also not a big TikTok person; I don’t go down the five hour TikTok holes like a lot of people do. Instead I’ll look up property that I am not buying. I’ll be like, “houses in Kansas city under $500,000 with this many bedrooms.” Or I’ll look up mixed-use buildings. Maybe I want to open a coffee shop in Seattle! It’s nice to dream about. What if tomorrow I had to rip up the floorboards in an old building I just bought? What if I was doing something other than what I have to do?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I68tcM">
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Something I talk about a lot is how the internet makes mediocre people feel great and makes great people feel mediocre. It causes introspection for people who probably don’t need more introspection, and it causes delusions of grandeur for people who don’t need to feel better about themselves. It’s a very bizarre place to put worth into, and having a big following only makes it weirder.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ti2uuZ">
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You have a mix of people telling you you’re a genius because you did a 20-second video in your car — which is not genius, by the way, ever. And then you’ll have people telling you you’re the ugliest person who ever lived and that you should die. And it’s like, well, one day I will. The internet is a very strange place and I’ll probably be on it forever.
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</p>
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<h3 id="tsREAC">
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<strong>Total screen time</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SQCd3C">
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9 hours
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8f7knQ">
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<em>This column was first published in The Goods newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em><strong>Sign up here</strong></em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get newsletter exclusives.</em>
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The post-Hamilton era of historical musicals has begun</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/B0D1Fd6NmGrUYH1sjzgptMdCM1M=/0x0:2987x2240/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70765918/02_suffs0075rr.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Phillipa Soo (foreground) in the world premiere musical Suffs at the Public Theatre. | Joan Marcus
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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With Suffs and Paradise Square, this season’s new musicals are reexamining the history books.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qVs0oA">
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Seven years after <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21305967/hamilton-debate-controversy-historical-accuracy-
|
||
explained"><em>Hamilton</em></a> first hit Broadway, we’re finally beginning to see how large its legacy will loom. This spring, two new musicals are taking New York with an approach to history that gestures emphatically toward <em>Hamilton</em>: race-conscious, aiming for progressive ideas, and pitched squarely to the audiences of today. They pull it off with mixed results.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="byfkyk">
|
||
Broadway has always loved both a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22641501/hamilton-parks-rec-harry-potter-cringe-obama-era-pop-culture">painfully earnest</a> historical musical (see: <em>1776</em>) and an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11418672/hamilton-is-fanfic-not-
|
||
historically-inaccurate">arch and knowing deconstruction of history</a> (see: <em>Evita</em>, <em>Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</em>, and, more recently, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21171636/six-broadway-musical-
|
||
review"><em>Six</em></a>). Among <em>Hamilton</em>’s great innovations was that it found a way to serve both subgenres at once. <em>Hamilton</em> invited audiences to empathize sincerely with the travails of the Founding Fathers, and it also used its color-conscious casting to <a href="https://www.vox.com/21308627/hamilton-movie-review-disney-2020">subtly critique America’s historical racism</a>. It’s a tricky, supremely delicate balancing act, but <em>Hamilton</em> proved it could be done. Now its first true imitators are finally here.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fXL5pE">
|
||
On Broadway, cluttered and chaotic <em>Paradise Square</em> delves into the gritty history of New York’s Civil War-era Five Points district. There, Black and Irish Americans lived in the slums shoulder to shoulder, and, the leaden lyrics helpfully spell out, could “love who we want to love with no apology.” Downtown at the Public Theater, where <em>Hamilton</em> premiered, flawed, ambitious <em>Suffs</em> takes on the suffragist fight for the 19th Amendment and the flawed, ambitious women who brought it to pass. “Don’t forget our failure, don’t forget our fight,” they admonish.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jy4VnI">
|
||
Neither <em>Paradise Square</em> nor <em>Suffs</em> quite works at the level <em>Hamilton</em> did, although of the two, <em>Suffs</em> comes a hell of a lot closer. Together, they form a case study in the best and worst ways of putting <em>Hamilton</em>’s legacy to work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="MrjacD"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Actors in period
|
||
costume dance onstage." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/OBd0Cd65BM-9KPgNR0m9NFm4TnA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23397914/0060___Center__Joaquina_Kalukango__Nathaniel_Stampley__Chilina_Kennedy_and_the_cast_of_Paradise_Square__Kevin_Berne.jpg"/> <cite>Kevin Berne</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Center, Joaquina Kalukango, Nathaniel Stampley, Chilina Kennedy, and the cast of Paradise Square.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p9upkc">
|
||
<em>Paradise Square </em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/theater/paradise-square-musical-berkeley-drabinsky.html">has been in development for 10 years</a>, since before <em>Hamilton</em> rewrote the rules of the historical musical. It began in 2012 as an off-Broadway show called <em>Hard Times</em>, written by Irish American musician Larry Kirwan and centered around Stephen Foster, the celebrated American pop composer of the 19th century. Its long and tortured development history shows in the final result.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lDXzqe">
|
||
Stephen Foster was in many ways a thoroughly American musical genius. He wrote songs still regularly hummed today (“Oh! Susanna,” “Swanee River”), but he also appropriated much of his music from Black culture and <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/126035325">wrote racist songs meant for minstrel shows</a>. He spent the last years of his life drinking away his money in the Five Points, where New York City’s poor Black and Irish populations lived next door to one another.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RFXdLn">
|
||
<em>Hard Times</em> put Foster and his music at the center of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/draft-riots">the Draft Riots of 1863</a>, when working-class white men rioted over being drafted to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The idea was that the Five Points symbolized the possibility for racial solidarity, the riots showed America’s racial unrest, and Foster’s songs sat squarely in the middle of both. The show premiered in 2012 at New York’s Cell Theatre to largely positive reviews.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ooA7P8">
|
||
“Mr. Kirwan has not only delivered a knockout entertainment, he’s done a public service,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/theater/reviews/hard-times-an-american-musical-at-the-cell-
|
||
theater.html?smid=pl-share">the New York Times review declared</a>, “reacquainting us with the Foster songbook and the striving, teeming America for which it was written.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="frCPEt">
|
||
<em>Hard Times</em> would become <em>Paradise Square</em> when controversial producer Garth Drabinsky signed on to shepherd the show to Broadway. Drabinsky, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/theater/06drabinsky.html">who was convicted of fraud and forgery in both Canada and the US</a> in 2009, pinned a lot to this project, seeing it as a comeback vehicle of sorts after his release from Canadian prison in 2013. As he prepared for a 2019 workshop at the Berkeley Rep, he decided to thoroughly rework it.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sxNW1w">
|
||
Drabinsky “shied away from anchoring the show in Foster’s music, with its romanticization of the slavery-era South,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/theater/garth-drabinsky-broadway-paradise-
|
||
square.html">explained Richard Zoglin for the New York Times this April</a>. Instead, he decided the show should be centered on the previously minor character of Nellie O’Brien, a Black woman married to an Irishman who owns the tavern called Paradise Square.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BkT8N1">
|
||
Drabinsky also felt that the show should have new music and a diverse creative team. To that end, he brought on writer after writer after writer. The final result credits Christina Anderson, Craig Lucas, and Larry Kirwan for the book, Jason Howland for the music, and Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare for the lyrics.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WhHdD7">
|
||
In its final version, <em>Paradise Square</em> sees Nellie struggling to keep her business afloat with her husband away at war, while rich white men from uptown slam her tavern with fines for trumped-up offenses. Her solution is to host a dance-off, with both her striving immigrant nephew and a formerly enslaved man on the run from the law competing for the trophy. Meanwhile, Stephen Foster lurks drunkenly on the sidelines, stealing songs, and a Civil War veteran who is one of Paradise Square’s patrons foments unrest at the new draft laws.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s7XzGy">
|
||
To be frank: This is too many plotlines from too many cooks. <em>Paradise Square</em> in the final product is cluttered and disjointed. It’s a musical by committee that circles blandly around its 10 (10!) major characters without succeeding in making a single one of them feel human or alive. It seems to know it can’t be great and so strives to be sentimental instead, and then fails at even that. It is unspecific and uninteresting; all the things that a show about awful, brilliant Stephen Foster could have avoided being.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i801Pq">
|
||
If you’re making a musical about race in America, it’s a good idea to aim for a diverse creative team. And surely it’s reasonable to want to throw your resources behind a story that centers the experiences of Black people circa the Civil War over those of a problematic white man. The problem with <em>Paradise Square</em> seems to be that Drabinsky has applied those lessons of the post-<em>Hamilton</em> era to his own show clumsily and without nuance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hrJaIX">
|
||
Instead of starting with a story that centered the 19th-century Black experience, he started with a musical story about a white man and his appropriated music, and then pushed both man and music to the side. Rather than building a diverse creative team from the ground up, he built a post-hoc committee, and then he asked them to create a compelling concept to fill the theatrical vacuum he himself created. It was a losing proposition from start to finish.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5VutMW">
|
||
When <em>Paradise Square</em> manages to come to life, it is always thanks to the titanic efforts of individual figures. Joaquina Kalukango, Tony-nominated for her performance in <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/5/20961826/slave-
|
||
play-broadway-2019-review"><em>Slave Play</em></a>, manages to find the specificity in Nellie O’Brien through sheer force of will, despite a script that never once allows Nellie to make an active choice. Kalukango wrings a standing ovation out of audiences every performance with her rendition of the 11 o’clock rock ballad “Let It Burn,” and while weeks later the memory of her voice still gives me chills, the song itself is so generic I cannot recall a single lyric or chord from it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NQbEVt">
|
||
Meanwhile, choreographer Bill T. Jones managed to find the one subplot in this doomed show that works at the level of both theme and form. Historically, tap dance was born in the Five Points, an American art form blossoming out of the union of Irish step and Black buck-and-wing. In a dance-off at Nellie’s tavern, Jones shows you how it happened, right on stage in front of you.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l4jX3E">
|
||
It’s a glorious theatrical moment, an illustration of what can be born out of racial solidarity that only musical theater could deliver. It also happens in a show that otherwise seems to have no idea why it’s a musical at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="NtVQGH"/>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zkeASRFa1Eq8ADvz-
|
||
jyGuS6WbI0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23397901/03_suffs0005rr.jpg"/></p>
|
||
<cite>Joan Marcus</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Nikki M. James as <em>Suffs</em>’ Ida B. Wells at the Public Theater.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jOSet6">
|
||
If <em>Paradise Square</em> is a musical by committee, <em>Suffs</em> is the product of a singular vision. With book, music, and lyrics by Shaina Taub, who also stars, <em>Suffs</em> focuses its aims on a woman of singularly focused aims: Alice Paul, who devoted her life first to the 1919 passage of the 19th Amendment and then to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. (<a href="https://www.alicepaul.org/equal-rights-
|
||
amendment-2/">Paul drafted the ERA</a>, which still has yet to be ratified.) And <em>Suffs</em> makes it plain that Paul’s single-minded drive came with costs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ynho4I">
|
||
In her quest to get women the right to vote, Paul suffers harassment and ridicule. She is imprisoned and then violently force-fed in prison, which Taub renders in a particularly harrowing scene. She also sacrifices other principles.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lnFgqo">
|
||
Infamously, Alice Paul invited Ida B. Wells to join her in a march for suffrage before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration — and then, after southern white suffragists objected, asked Wells to march in the back, behind everyone else. (Wells refused.) In <em>Suffs</em>, this choice becomes Paul’s original sin, tainting all her later work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v8Xj5N">
|
||
“<em>This</em> fight is <em>only</em> for suffrage, above all else, at any cost,” Paul says staunchly. “Not colored rights or any other cause.” Wells (played here by a stunning Nikki M. James), makes it clear that Paul is fooling herself if she thinks her activism can be so neatly divided. “Since when does a radical roll over for bigots in the first place?” she demands. “Wait my turn? Well I sure don’t see you waiting yours.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IH0ry4">
|
||
A weaker or less nuanced version of this story would make Wells the only Black woman Paul and her team encounter, a walking reminder of their racial guilt who serves no other dramatic purpose. In <em>Suffs</em>, Wells is an icon in her own right, a firebrand activist who is committed to the suffrage movement and refuses to bow to anyone else’s agenda. Her most important relationship is not with Paul, but with her fellow Black activist Mary Church Terrell. Together, they playfully spar over how best to ally with the white suffragists, with Wells favoring confrontation and Terrell favoring conciliation. Crucially, their debate echoes Paul’s fight with the establishment suffrage leader Carrie Catt, who calls for slow and incremental change and can’t abide Paul’s rabble-rousing ways. All of these disparate subplots revolve around the same central set of ideas, which keeps the play feeling focused and on-mission.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0w8yFd">
|
||
<em>Suffs</em>’ ferocious discipline here recalls the best of <em>Hamilton</em>, which derived much of its theatrical power from its ability to bring the broad biographical sweep of Hamilton’s life into parallel with the narrower thematic aims of its music. Likewise, <em>Suff</em>s’ careful attention to racial nuance is a legacy of the post-<em>Hamilton</em> era. It even seems, in a way, to be responding to the critiques of <em>Hamilton:</em> While <em>Hamilton</em> is consistently dinged for its refusal to fully interrogate its subjects’ slave-holding practices, no one can accuse <em>Suffs</em> of whitewashing away Alice Paul’s racism. These are not the only parallels between the two shows. As Helen Shaw <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/04/theater-review-
|
||
shaina-taubs-suffs.html">wrote for Vulture</a>, doing a shot anytime someone talking about <em>Suffs</em> brings up <em>Hamilton</em> will quickly get you sloshed.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="twWFQT">
|
||
<em>Suffs</em> has its premiere at the Public Theater, where <em>Hamilton</em> was born. The show stars its own composer, book-writer, and lyricist, as <em>Hamilton</em> did. It takes a progressive lens to history, like <em>Hamilton</em> did. Its all-women-and-nonbinary cast rhymes with <em>Hamilton</em>’s famous color-conscious cast. It features Phillipa Soo, <em>Hamilton</em>’s Eliza, clearly having a ball as the slinky and glamorous “beautiful suffragette” Inez Milholland (“We must put the <em>sex</em> in sex equality!”).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2xnx6G">
|
||
Where <em>Paradise Square</em> put the lessons of <em>Hamilton</em> to use clumsily, without appearing to understand their logic, <em>Suffs</em> understands why its famous predecessor worked. Its radicalism is baked into its form, and it doesn’t have to compensate with last-minute changes to its creative team. As a result, the power of its original vision keeps shining through, undiluted.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cagj3U">
|
||
Where <em>Suffs</em> falls short of <em>Hamilton</em>’s example is in its inability to find the joy in the dark history it covers. This is a grim, even nightmarish account of the fight for equality, and while the dourness effectively evokes the historic and brutal costs of that fight, it also becomes wearing over time. Taub’s music, which is mostly serviceable when compared to her knife-sharp lyrics, has a tendency to repeat itself, which adds to the wearing effect. The only playfulness <em>Suffs</em> offers comes from the repeated device of having the cast burlesque itself as the suffragists’ male antagonists (Grace McLean is a stunning Woodrow Wilson), and that is a joke that suffers from some diminishing returns.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CmfeIK">
|
||
By the end of <em>Suffs</em>’ first act, I was weeping freely behind my mask. I was also longing for just one song that might be a little bit light. Something to lessen the effect of grinding misery that constantly threatens to overshadow the whole show.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CYOafu">
|
||
The biggest problem <em>Suffs</em> is dealing with is that it is, if anything, <em>too</em> much itself. It stands as a sharp contrast to a show like <em>Paradise Square</em>, which doesn’t seem to have a very clear idea at all of what it is — and as a reminder that for all the power of <em>Hamilton</em>’s politics, and whatever backlash it might face as the cultural mood shifts, its greatest legacy is as a show committed fully and with all its might to the force of its vision.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>When your job helps the rest of America work</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/XE5WbIRbipOVDvoePyVp6bVXJQg=/407x0:3600x2395/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70735945/20220322_highlight_childcare_28.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Katherine Lantigua, center, is the owner of KColorful Daycare in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she cares for a dozen children on any given day. Pictured, Lantigua sings along to a musical track with the children under her care on a recent March day. | Photographs by Tim Tai for Vox
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Why so many are giving up on child care work and what it will mean for everyone else.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YYgW4HsU995yniG4Y5QuEoQvF0Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21899595/VOX_The_Highlight_Box_Logo_Horizontal.png"/>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k5XQby">
|
||
<em>Part of the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/features/23013380/work-is-broken-can-we-fix-
|
||
it"><em><strong>Future of Work issue</strong></em></a><em> of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
highlight"><em><strong>The Highlight</strong></em></a><em>, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QyZye0">
|
||
The first children arrive at 5 am. It’s still dark out, and they’re sleepy, but their mom has to get to New York for her shift in the emergency room. Katherine Lantigua gives each of the kids a bottle or a sippy cup, and then they nap until the others start to arrive, around 7. From there, it’s a whirlwind.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MdP6Ak">
|
||
Lantigua and her husband, Diogenes del Rosario, take care of 12 children, plus their own two kids, who range from 7 months to 12 years old, at KColorful Daycare, the in-home child care center they started in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 2019.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I7ncOV">
|
||
On a recent morning, that means: teaching the kids about the letter N, pivoting the children to blocks when they’re not paying attention to the letter N, snagging a plastic cucumber from someone’s mouth and putting it aside for cleaning, asking Messiah to stop running, comforting Anaya, cuddling baby Kamiyah when she got up from her nap, teaching all the kids what an eggplant is, asking Messiah to stop running, helping Amir name the colors of the balls he’s putting into a box, putting on the babies’ shoes for outside time, pushing Zaid in the swing, brokering a dispute over a push toy, and, of course, asking Messiah to stop running.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YOyIi4__mH-
|
||
rs0cAlrB-97FgkiA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372836/20220322_highlight_childcare_06.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Michelle Ortiz drops off her children, Messiah, 4, and Kamiyah, 7 months, with Lantigua at KColorful Daycare.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZsV9zg">
|
||
Then it’s hand-washing time, then lunch, then nap, then the older kids start to arrive for after- school care. The day care closes at 6 pm, but then Lantigua has paperwork, grocery shopping for the next day’s meals, and helping her own kids with homework and bedtime.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CEkZEw">
|
||
“I am exhausted at the end of the day,” Lantigua said during a brief break while the children napped. “I have to toughen up and say, ‘I got this,’ because after I finish day care, then it’s time for my own kids.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MzDXpg">
|
||
The long days are hard on Lantigua, but her work is what allows Messiah’s family, and Anaya’s, and so many others, to go to their jobs every day knowing their kids are somewhere safe where they can learn and grow. Care work like Lantigua’s is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/opinion/care-economy-infrastructure-rosie-the-riveter.html">often called</a> “the work that makes other work possible,” a truth made especially clear during the pandemic, when many day cares and schools closed, leaving millions of parents struggling to watch their kids while still doing their jobs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pOmCA5">
|
||
<a href="https://19thnews.org/2021/08/moms-child-care-pandemic-full-time-job/">One analysis</a> found that moms spent an average of eight full hours a day on child care in 2020, the equivalent of an extra full-time job — and a reminder of how labor-intensive, and how necessary, work like Lantigua’s is.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TmOcERlFiS69YDyBb_TwxgrY4MI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372923/20220322_highlight_childcare_10.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua works on a lesson with 1-year-old Gianalyize.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/R-G3pGVCnStOWjS-X6W9tD4fMk4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372842/20220322_highlight_childcare_37.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
From left, Messiah, Amir, 2, and Tyshawn, 4, wash their hands after lunch.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="c-image- grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/gxV1Rhks3wuPKNYME3UoyLzAKfY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372841/20220322_highlight_childcare_33.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua (left) feeds Kamiyah as (from rear) Tyshawn, Anaya, and Messiah, all 4, feed themselves lunch.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/AtnSQb9ihbq3oR3EyqsyXrNkoeE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372843/20220322_highlight_childcare_39.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua places a blanket over Anaya as she prepares for a nap after lunch.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZedOR5">
|
||
Lantigua herself, however, is barely making ends meet. After she pays her mortgage and the salary for her one employee, she said, she has to choose: “This month I’m going to pay the light, next month I’m going to pay the gas.” Saving for retirement is out of the question for now. Neither she nor her husband takes a salary. “We can’t afford that,” Lantigua says. Instead, they try to cover expenses as best they can with whatever the day care makes in a month.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P4his2">
|
||
For their long hours spent in a difficult, always-on environment, child care providers like Lantigua often make poverty-level wages — an <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/childcare-
|
||
workers.htm#:~:text=The%20median%20hourly%20wage%20for%20childcare%20workers%20was%20%2412.24%20in%20May%202020.&text=Employment%20of%20childcare%20workers%20is,on%20average%2C%20over%20the%20decade.">average of just $13.22 an hour</a> in May 2021, when the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/OES/Current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000">median hourly wage</a> for all workers was $22. They are disproportionately likely to lack benefits and to need <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/11/the-people-taking-care-of-our-kids-live-in-poverty/">public assistance</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8VhOps">
|
||
“Child care workers, the people providing this labor and this service that is absolutely vital to the continuing of our economy and families, are so underpaid that they can’t afford to cover their basic needs,” said Asha Banerjee, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PhAaA1">
|
||
The job has gotten even harder during the pandemic, with new risks, like the possibility of contracting Covid-19, and new requirements, like making a room full of toddlers keep their masks on at all times, constantly sanitizing toys and surfaces, and coping with lost enrollment as parents pull their kids out over Covid fears or because they’ve lost their jobs. Inflation is driving up the cost of basic supplies and stretching providers’ budgets even further. “Our plastic cups and our materials actually cost more,” said Reena Abraham, owner of the Learning Experience, a Brooklyn child care center.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="guRHfy">
|
||
There’s a limit to how much providers can raise prices, though. Child care costs more than college tuition in many states — in Connecticut, it averages <a href="https://www.epi.org/child-
|
||
care-costs-in-the-united-
|
||
states/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_4-SBhCgARIsAAlegrUQncBTrwPnYulBlqtHLfJtnR_U_rWaOUw2zJnlFgVUXm5dCUmxMi4aAkVmEALw_wcB#/CT">$15,501 per year</a> — and many families can’t afford to pay much more. Indeed, experts in the field say the only way to fix the system is for the government to dramatically scale up its investment, increasing subsidies to help families afford care and make sure workers earn a living wage. However, with President Joe Biden’s big social spending package, which included <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-
|
||
taxes">funding for child care and preschool</a>, stalled in Congress, it’s not clear when — if ever — such help will arrive.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tnU6TR">
|
||
Meanwhile, the sector is rapidly losing workers. More than <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2019/may/oes399011.htm">560,000 people</a> worked in child care in 2019, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/economy/child-care-labor-force-declines/index.html">one-third of those jobs were lost</a> at the start of the pandemic. The industry hasn’t recovered, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/economy/child-care-labor-force-declines/index.html">dropping 4,500 jobs</a> between September and November 2021 and another 3,700 jobs in December alone. In a lot of cases, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/19/childcare-workers-quit/">workers are leaving for better pay</a> as elementary school teachers, or in other sectors, such as hospitality or warehouse work. “We are competing with restaurants and Amazon for staffing,” Abraham said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Okvi5A">
|
||
The situation threatens the entire economy — all those jobs that child care work makes possible. One data analysis found that about <a href="https://19thnews.org/2021/01/about-700000-parents-with-young-kids-left-the-workforce-in-2020-for-many-loss-of-
|
||
child-care-was-to-blame/">700,000 parents of young children</a> left the labor force in 2020, many because of a lack of child care.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/D6fgqzWkDCwmuKG3FZuCfkijV5c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372838/20220322_highlight_childcare_22.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua, left, and assistant Bienvenida de la Cruz enjoy a sunny day with the children in the yard outside the day care. De la Cruz is the only employee Lantigua can afford to hire; though Lantigua owns the day care, she cannot afford to pay herself, she says.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BUd9Ko">
|
||
Lantigua, for her part, has big dreams for her day care. She’d love to hire more staff so she could provide more individualized attention to each child. She could design separate activities for the babies and toddlers, rather than having them all do the same thing. She could spend more one-on-one time with each child, attending to their unique challenges and needs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APmrRo">
|
||
Instead, she’s left trying to make the math work, providing a service that families desperately need but that lawmakers and society at large consistently fail to prioritize. “I feel that we are ignored,” Lantigua said. “I feel that we are neglected. I feel that we don’t matter.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="lgRGPy"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pAbhUJ">
|
||
Lantigua hasn’t always been a child care provider.<strong> </strong>When she and her husband moved to Connecticut four years ago, she was a medical assistant. But the family couldn’t find affordable care for their daughter. It’s a common problem: <a href="https://childcaredeserts.org/2018/#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%2051,enough%20licensed%20child%20care%20providers.">51 percent of Americans</a> live in child care deserts, areas where there are more than three times as many children as there are available care slots, <a href="https://childcaredeserts.org/2018/">according to the Center for American Progress</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E2EVXZ">
|
||
For Lantigua and her husband, that meant splitting the day in half: She worked the day shift at a clinic while her husband drove for Uber at night. It wasn’t working, she said. “He almost got into a car accident because he was exhausted.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sh1KBn">
|
||
So they saved up money until they had enough to open a day care in their home, launching a career they hoped would allow them to take care of their daughter and their baby son, born in 2018, while still earning an income.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7dNaf">
|
||
Starting a day care isn’t easy. Would-be providers have to complete a lengthy state licensing process, which can include anything from background checks to inspections of the facility’s boiler and fire extinguishers. In Connecticut, it typically takes 60 to 90 days and costs about $3,000.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LJHgIt">
|
||
Then there’s the challenge of the work itself. When Lantigua opened her doors and saw all the kids together for the first time, “I was like, ‘what in the world did I get myself into?’” Lantigua remembers. “I have to be insane.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zevXbE">
|
||
Now, however, she projects an image of calm, even when six kids need six different things at once. A bright pink house with a picket fence, wreaths on the door, and a decorative sign reading, “family,” the day care is welcoming even before the children walk in. The kids spend much of the morning playing downstairs, where the play area includes blocks, baby dolls, a truly impressive array of plastic foods, and a reading corner full of picture books.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/WMoB1RLNOvW7m5SyAIuWpiyerE0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372938/20220322_highlight_childcare_30.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Anaya, 4, stands next to a group of dolls during playtime.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pNzP-
|
||
YCdS7_1vG0HPXZHuKkapjE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372889/20220322_highlight_childcare_18.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua works on a lesson about circles with Messiah, 4, and Gianalyize, 1.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/oA3mM6UJUsm83OXBihkxPmKdwKg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372837/20220322_highlight_childcare_20.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua walks outside with Gianalyize to play in the yard. “I like them to be independent,” she says. “It helps me, and it helps the families.”
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cLhrml">
|
||
Lantigua has taught a lot of the kids how to put on their own coats and shoes. “I like them to be independent,” she said. “It helps me, and it helps the families.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PRq9zM">
|
||
The families can use the help. Some work long hours. Some are single parents. All receive subsidies, a combination of state and federal funds designed to help lower-income families afford child care.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YmgNOy">
|
||
These subsidies are supposed to help with the punishing cost of care, but there’s not enough money to go around: Only about <a href="https://www.researchconnections.org/sites/default/files/pdf/rc33216.pdf">one in six US families</a> who are eligible for subsidies in a <a href="https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/615">federal-state program</a> actually get them, while many families languish on subsidy waitlists for years with no assistance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mW45Al">
|
||
The affordability problem affects millions of Americans, worsening as the cost of care <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/01/28/the-cost-of-child-care-in-the-us-is-rising/">skyrocketed during the pandemic</a>. <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/working-families-spending-big-money-child-care/">As of 2019</a>, more than half of working families with children under 5 — about 5.1 million households — were paying for child care. The average family spent 10 percent of its income on care, which is about <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/working-families-spending-big-money-child-care/">40 percent more</a> than the Department of Health and Human Services considers affordable. Low-income families, meanwhile, spent a full 35 percent of their pay on child care.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5SKc6L">
|
||
Even still, providers are squeezed. Lantigua, for example, said she only receives about $5 per hour per child in subsidy payments. At that rate, she can only afford one employee, her assistant, Bienvenida de la Cruz.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T4egvF">
|
||
Over the last two years, when someone needs a diaper change or a potty trip or some water, de la Cruz has been the one to handle it. Throughout the day, she’s constantly stepping in to help, grabbing someone’s coat or holding a fussing baby while Lantigua tends to the older kids. De la Cruz also cooks the meals for the day care from an open kitchen where the savory smells — of beef stew with carrots and potatoes, for example — can waft into the playroom. When the kids inevitably throw the food on the floor, she’s there to pick it up, too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ptDTy7">
|
||
For all this, she’s paid $13 per hour, the minimum wage in Connecticut. She doesn’t have health insurance. “I love my job,” de la Cruz said through an interpreter. At the same time, with three kids of her own to support, “it’s hard to make it to the end of the month.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WpULFeX4YrpiAl4D7qCKVwMsZDU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372981/20220322_highlight_childcare_04.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
De la Cruz prepares a breakfast of pancakes and fruit for children at the day care. The work pays her $13 an hour — minimum wage in Connecticut, but far below the median hourly wage for American workers, which is $22.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<div>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/KHPIQqMf8L58m97yKIsIs0XIfHw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372593/20220322_highlight_childcare_34.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
De la Cruz, left, and KColorful co-owner Diogenes del Rosario feed lunch to three toddlers in their care. Del Rosario used to drive for Uber at night before opening the day care with Lantigua, his wife.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EcakgC">
|
||
Del Rosario, Lantigua’s husband, doesn’t have health insurance, either. Lantigua and her kids get theirs through the state’s Medicaid program, but she was recently told that her income is above the threshold and she no longer qualifies. “According to them, that’s it,” she said. “I’m down the drain.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o1ppU7">
|
||
Lack of benefits — and low wages — are typical of the child care field. Only about 20 percent of child care workers have employer-sponsored health insurance, compared with 52 percent of all workers, according to <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/higher-wages-
|
||
for-child-care-and-home-health-care-workers/">a November 2021 report</a> by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Just one in 10 child care workers has retirement benefits.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eRZsnz">
|
||
The low compensation is a result of centuries of devaluing care work in America. <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21432940/child-care-bailout-covid-economy-
|
||
work-parents-great-rebuild">Proposals in Congress</a> to create universal child care programs, which could have increased worker pay, have stalled because they were painted as anti-family. “We’re still to some degree fighting the idea that children of a certain age, and really the younger they are, should be at home with their mothers,” said Caitlin McLean, director of multi-state and international programs at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rXCStq">
|
||
Moreover, child care has historically been performed by women, and especially women of color, <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/559457-the-roots-of-our-child-care-crisis-are-in-the-legacy-of-
|
||
slavery">dating back to slavery</a>. Today, the child care workforce is <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/higher-
|
||
wages-for-child-care-and-home-health-care-workers/">94 percent female</a> and disproportionately Black and Latina. A disproportionate share are also immigrants. The low pay of these workers is inextricably bound up with misogyny, racism, and xenophobia, said Banerjee, one of the co-authors of the EPI report. “Care work is undervalued because care workers are also undervalued.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AVPEol">
|
||
That devaluation has translated to serious hardship in a country where basics like food and housing are <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22994731/inflation-rate-russia-gas-prices-jerome-
|
||
powell">getting more expensive</a>, while wages — especially in child care work — fail to keep pace. <a href="https://www.ffyf.org/1-in-3-child-care-workers-is-experiencing-food-insecurity/">One in three child care workers</a> experienced food insecurity in 2020. More than 10 percent of workers in <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/its-unconscionable-we-depend-on-child-care-workers-to-provide-high-quality-care-to-
|
||
our-children-but-many-of-those-workers-cant-afford-food-and-rent/">one 2021 University of Oregon survey</a> said they’d been evicted during the pandemic; almost 30 percent said they struggled to pay their rent or mortgage. Meanwhile, child care workers are often unable to afford care for their own children, Banerjee said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/xXmSGg5mWqVlOGW6Lp9XEk7-Hyk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23373247/20220322_highlight_childcare_26.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua talks with parent Christine Wilson as Wilson’s daughter Anaya, 4, looks on in the yard outside the day care.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eFJXvw">
|
||
In addition to financial struggles, child care workers contend with long hours, intense physical and emotional demands, and, especially in the case of day care owner-operators, myriad responsibilities beyond just taking care of kids. “Child care teachers are doing all the things that you might realize, like leading a group of kids through lessons and activities and those types of things during the day, but they’re also doing all of these business activities to try to keep their program afloat,” McLean said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rSRs63">
|
||
That’s become even more difficult during the pandemic, when thousands of day cares had to close their doors to help stem the spread of Covid-19. Even after they were able to reopen, many struggled with <a href="https://www.wkbw.com/rebound/daycares-struggle-to-
|
||
rebound-from-pandemic">low enrollment</a>, which cut into their already precarious bottom line. Meanwhile, early educators found themselves thrust into the role of front-line workers overnight, caring for kids who were often too young to wear masks or keep a safe distance. “The six-feet-apart situation was a complete disaster,” Lantigua said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F7d4dr">
|
||
“They want to play with each other, they want to interact with each other, and they can’t.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qUxZuF">
|
||
Lantigua worried that one of the kids would bring Covid-19 into the day care. “My son has asthma, I have bronchitis,” she said. “It was scary.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DVSeJQ">
|
||
Such fears led some day care operators to close permanently. Others had to close because they could no longer pay the bills. Nearly 16,000 providers shut down permanently between December 2019 and March 2021, <a href="https://info.childcareaware.org/media/16000-childcare-providers-shut-down-in-the-
|
||
pandemic.-its-a-really-big-deal">according to a report</a> by the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EPYjlF">
|
||
That has made affordable care even harder to find than it was when Lantigua was looking, four years ago. Child care in America today is “just a complete market failure,” Banerjee said. “And without some sort of intervention, it won’t change.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="KGycGB"/>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SogOOT">
|
||
Many experts and providers say that intervention has to come in the form of increased government funding. “What folks really need is sustainable base funding for their programs,” McLean said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NrUH74">
|
||
For programs like Lantigua’s that serve low-income families, that would mean higher subsidies. She’d like to see a standard of at least minimum wage per hour per child. “I’m working with six different characters,” she said — different personalities, different needs, different ways of learning and being in the world. “So why don’t I deserve to get paid at least $13 per hour, per child?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/DzSxPcDU4yuxFathvbh3wAvDo3E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372864/20220322_highlight_childcare_31.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Lantigua puts a sock back onto baby Kamiyah’s foot as older children play around them. Unlike many day cares nationwide, KColorful has weathered the pandemic, but it has not been easy, as child care workers were thrust into the role of front-line workers overnight, looking after kids who were often too young to wear masks.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XcWiBv">
|
||
More broadly, it means a reimagining of America’s child care system as a public good supported by taxpayers on behalf of everyone, much like K-12 schools.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tnO8J0">
|
||
With public schools, “there’s a recognition that this is an expensive but crucial service, and so it’s going to be paid for with public funds, to make sure that costs can be covered and quality can remain high,” McLean said. With child care, by contrast, “really just whatever parents can afford is what they get. And often, that means that teachers are really shortchanged.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iZGhg4">
|
||
The pandemic has done a lot to focus public attention on the problem — perhaps depressingly, many Americans began to recognize the value of child care when it was no longer available. <a href="https://www.ffyf.org/timeline-of-covid-19-relief-for-the-
|
||
child-care-industry-and-working-
|
||
families/#:~:text=The%20%243%20trillion%20economic%20stimulus,family%20care%20for%20essential%20workers.">The CARES Act, HEROES Act, and American Rescue Plan</a> all included funding to help care providers weather some of the enrollment losses and increased costs associated with the pandemic. Last spring, President Biden unveiled the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/28/22404411/biden-american-families-plan-inequality">American Families Plan</a>, a proposal that included universal free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, along with a $225 billion investment to make infant and toddler care more affordable for families making up to 1.5 times their states’ median income. The plan also called for raising child care workers’ wages to $15 per hour, or to parity with those of kindergarten teachers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3oUwdq">
|
||
It wasn’t perfect — <a href="https://www.vox.com/22744837/house-senate-democrats-build-back-better-child-
|
||
care">there were questions</a> about how the plan would phase in, and whether it might drive up costs for middle-class families. Still, many workers and advocates hailed it as an important step in the right direction, and a sign that the government was finally taking child care seriously. Biden’s agenda reflected a recognition that “care is as important as roads and bridges to our economy,” Banerjee said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G5XwiR">
|
||
Then it stalled. The Build Back Better Act, which included many provisions of the American Families Plan, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/19/22845122/manchin-build-
|
||
back-better-psaki">floundered in the Senate</a> last winter when the White House couldn’t get centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on board. It’s unclear when or if it will be revived, or whether the child care provisions will be part of any revival.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CH7dnD">
|
||
For now, providers and families are still on their own, with some exceptions. <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_c992cb6e-903b-11ec-96fb-23726b837ec1.html">Lawmakers in Louisiana</a> are pushing for a $115 million annual investment over the next 10 years to improve the state’s child care system, including raising pay for workers. Washington, DC, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-
|
||
highlight/2019/8/5/20748833/washington-dc-pre-k-free-public-universal">began expanding public preschool</a> for 3- and 4-year olds in 2008, and now pays teachers in the program on par with teachers of older children, McLean said. More recently, the city established a pay equity fund to improve the pay of infant and toddler educators as well. And in New York, state legislators have proposed measures to expand families’ access to subsidies and to increase subsidy rates.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5YQdZz">
|
||
Nonprofits have also stepped in. The Connecticut-based group All Our Kin, for example, offers child care providers business training and licensing support; during the pandemic, the group has helped providers get PPE and apply for Paycheck Protection Program loans, and advocated for stabilization grants to help programs remain afloat. As a result of their help combined with federal and state aid, more than 90 percent of All Our Kin-affiliated child care programs have weathered the pandemic so far and remain open, said Jessica Sager, the group’s chief executive.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tGcI5P">
|
||
Lantigua relied on All Our Kin to help her transition from medical assistant to child care provider. “They sit down, they explain to you, they help you fill out these applications,” she said. “When you’re completely lost, it’s like you have a backbone.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XX7R_ZmpKgAqSOVJvLJW1D3K9hM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23372728/20220322_highlight_childcare_42.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
“I’m working with six different characters,” says Lantigua — different personalities, different needs, different ways of learning and being in the world. “So why don’t I deserve to get paid at least $13 per hour, per child?”
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PHxZqe">
|
||
Today, Lantigua is paying some of that help forward by training and organizing other providers. She teaches CPR on the weekends, and recently helped organize a rally called a <a href="https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/connecticut-childcare-workers-rally-state-
|
||
funding/520-bb7ac004-f83b-4acb-8721-022afda4dbf7">“Morning Without Child Care”</a> to call for higher subsidies from the state. Such advocacy may be producing results: Five bills recently introduced in the Connecticut legislature would include more funding for child care, including one that would boost subsidy rates and fund 13,000 additional care slots for infants and toddlers. “We are seeing a real surge of public will around potentially investing in family child care,” Sager said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f98WO6">
|
||
It remains an uncertain time for Lantigua and for providers across the country. No one knows when or if another Covid-19 surge will force another round of quarantines and closures. No one knows when the price of paper cups will come back down. No one knows when or if policymakers will step in with the funding to boost worker pay and make child care more affordable for parents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0w2ypV">
|
||
What Lantigua does know is that the status quo is untenable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RFfwBJ">
|
||
“It’s not fair for the child care providers, it’s not fair for the families,” she said, “and it’s definitely not fair for the children.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wEp7dz">
|
||
<em>Anna North reports for Vox on work and education in America, including the politics and policy around child care, schools, reproductive health care, and paid leave. She is the author of the novel </em>Outlawed<em>. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALkVCV">
|
||
<em>Coral Getino contributed reporting translation for this story.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div>
|
||
<div id="lJVivL">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Entry standards for National inter-State athletics in Chennai</strong> - Special Correspondent</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2022 | Delhi Capitals-Punjab Kings match on April 20 moved from Pune to Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium</strong> - The change of venue was necessitated due to multiple COVID-19 cases in the Delhi camp</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Former Australia wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell in ICU after suffering heart attack</strong> - Currently the Netherlands men's team head coach, Campbell felt chest pains and difficulty in breathing while he was out with his family on Saturday</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wayne Rooney’s Derby Country relegated to 3rd tier of English soccer</strong> - Wayne Rooney’s Derby County has been relegated to the third tier of English soccer to cap a miserable season that also saw the club docked 21 points for breaches of financial rules</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>La Liga: Barca’s top-four finish in danger after shock defeat by Cadiz</strong> - Barcelona’s already faint hopes of catching La Liga leaders Real Madrid suffered a huge blow as they slipped to a shock 1-0 home defeat by relegation-threatened Cadiz on Monday</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BJP to expose Sena corruption ahead of BMC polls</strong> - Opposition to hold rallies across Mumbai in ‘pol-khol’ campaign</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Farmers to stage protest against elephant menace</strong> - Forest Dept yet to construct hanging fence, says association</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Youth arrested for clubbing man to death in Pathanamthitta</strong> - Attack after accused picks up brawl with victim and his friend</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Relay hunger strike by music varsity’s non-teaching staff</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ten changemakers across India to get their work showcased</strong> - Stories will focus on their journey and get the viewers acquainted with their lives, their passions</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Dramatic images appear to show sinking Russian warship Moskva</strong> - Russia says the Moskva sank after an explosion of ammunition, but Ukrainians say they hit it with missiles.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: First civilian deaths in Lviv shatter sense of safety</strong> - The western city’s mayor says the strikes show there are “no safe and unsafe locations” in Ukraine.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French elections: EU apprehensive of Le Pen ahead of French run-off vote</strong> - A Marine Le Pen victory in France would send shockwaves across the European Union, writes Jessica Parker.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French elections: Macron v Le Pen and two visions for France</strong> - French voters have a big choice to make on public services, immigration and foreign policy.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dozens arrested at Sweden riots sparked by planned Quran burnings</strong> - There have been clashes between police and people angry at a far-right group’s plan to burn Qurans.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>United States commits to ending “reckless” anti-satellite missile testing</strong> - Will other nations with such weapons, including China and Russia, follow suit? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1848792">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Walmart and Alphabet jumped ahead of Amazon in drone delivery</strong> - Drone delivery could be poised to take off in the United States. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1848654">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Logitech’s Lift is a vertical mouse that’s easier to grasp</strong> - A trimmer build and left-handed option make the Lift extra helpful. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1847943">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Wearing a mask cleans nothing:” Florida judge vacates CDC travel mask mandate</strong> - Trump-appointed judge deemed “not qualified” argued that the CDC lacked authority. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1849014">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Your iOS app may still be covertly tracking you, despite what Apple says</strong> - Apple’s landmark App Tracking Transparency may not be as tough as some people think. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1848980">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>Husband doing crossword with his wife</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Husband: Emphatic no, five letters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Wife: Never
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
H: Pistol, 3 letters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
W: Gun
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
H: Disgust, 3 letters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
W: Ugh
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
H: Charity, 4 letters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
W: Give
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
H: Female sheep, 3 letters
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
W: Ewe
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
H: Pixar movie, 2 letters
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
W: Up
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/she_dark_wolf1"> /u/she_dark_wolf1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6z5su/husband_doing_crossword_with_his_wife/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6z5su/husband_doing_crossword_with_his_wife/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Two cannibals were eating Amy Schumer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
One says, ‘Does this taste funny to you?’
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The other one goes, ‘No’.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JoinTheAstleyCult"> /u/JoinTheAstleyCult </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u70dyk/two_cannibals_were_eating_amy_schumer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u70dyk/two_cannibals_were_eating_amy_schumer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A priest is sitting inside the church, when a guy comes in and asks to be confessed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Very well, my child,” says the priest, as he leads the man into the confession booth, “Tell me about your sins.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, Father,” says the guy, “On Monday, I was at my girlfriend’s house, and, well… the two of us alone, the house empty… I sinned, Father.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Don’t worry, child,” says the priest, “It’s perfectly normal to have such desires and share them with your partner. Nothing serious, just say two prayers and you will be cleansed of your sins.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“But Father,” continues the man, “It doesn’t end there. On Tuesday, I was at my girlfriend’s house again, but she had gone out with her mates, and the only one there was her sister, and, well… the two of us alone, the house empty… I sinned again, Father.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Oh, child,” says the Father, “You must be strong and fight those urges! Eight prayers shall cleanse you of your sins.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“But Father,” says the bloke again, “On Wednesday, I was at my girlfriend’s house again, and she wasn’t there then either, and the only one at home was her mum, and, well… the two of us alone, the house empty… Again I sinned, Father.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Good Lord,” says the priest, “Child, you must think about what you do, so pray-”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“But Father,” says the bloke, “On Thursday, I was at my girlfriend’s house again, and the whole family had gone to the shop, and the only one there was her aunt, and, well… the two of us alone, the house empty… I sinned yet again, Father.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The priest falls silent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“And then,” continues the bloke, “On Friday, I was at her house again, and they had gone out for the weekend and the only one there was her granny, and , well… the two of us alone, the house empty…”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The priest still did not answer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“And on Saturday,” said the bloke, “I went to her house again, and there was nobody there except for her father, and, well…”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man awaits a reply, but upon hearing none, he exits the booth – only to find the priest up on the belfry.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Father,” he calls, “What are you doing up there? I haven’t finished!”
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Back off, I’m not coming down,” says the priest, “The two of us alone, the Church’s fucking empty… and I don’t want you to sin anymore.”
|
||
</p>
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||
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6o734/a_priest_is_sitting_inside_the_church_when_a_guy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6o734/a_priest_is_sitting_inside_the_church_when_a_guy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Wife: I regret getting you that blender for Christmas</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Me: <em>sipping toast</em> why?
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AnimePrimeMinister"> /u/AnimePrimeMinister </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u70ekd/wife_i_regret_getting_you_that_blender_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u70ekd/wife_i_regret_getting_you_that_blender_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>See? To prove I’m not some boring house dad I went and got a tattoo!</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Her: Oh, cool! It’s.. uh?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Me: (proudly) It’s my thermos! From work!
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Her: (reaching towards me) Well, uh, the line work is certainly..
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Me: (slaps hand away) Don’t touch the thermos tat.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nanduraj2021"> /u/nanduraj2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6zneq/see_to_prove_im_not_some_boring_house_dad_i_went/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/u6zneq/see_to_prove_im_not_some_boring_house_dad_i_went/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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