It's really worth remembering, as news moves of Bessent calling Zelenskyy a "special-needs child," that we really did make a lot of progress against disability slurs. By 2019 Special Olympics had shifted the "end the word" campaign because it was so successful.

The news you probably missed was the Trump Admin issuing a memo that they don't have to enforce Olmstead rights. Not that they won't, but that they don't have to. A first move. More to come.

So either it’s new or I forgot it happened last year but if someone texts you “happy birthday” in Apple messages, you get a nifty balloon animation. (Also how am I 48? College feels like maybe 5 years ago.)

Decided to rewatch the last couple seasons of “Legends of Tomorrow” last week & this week before our summer school staff meeting & I know it’s Sara who keeps dying but my god Ava needs all the hugs in the world. (Also they did surprisingly well with the “main character is temporarily blind” trope.)

This dude is now in charge of special education 😭😭

This is extremely random but I was just reminded of my very favorite talking head from the entire nine seasons of “The Office” so I’m sharing it in case anyone needs a smile: “I don’t care what they say about me; I just want to eat. Which I realize is a lot to ask for. AT A DINNER PARTY 😑” 🤣🤣🤣

Coffee in any and all of its forms. But if you want to be strictly food, I’d say probably mushrooms (also in any and all forms).

Reskeet with a tweet you still think about. (About a year later, I stumbled on them live tweeting their way through Star Trek IV and we’ve been internet buddies ever since through MANY other shows. Also I would like Bluesky to improve their accessibility so they more easily can post here.)

Tony Bourdain taught us all that a place is full of good food, good people, and good experiences despite very shitty politics and I think it’s kind of classically American to have thought we were excluded from that Venn diagram

Is the accent objectively terrible? Yes. Is this an amazing movie anyway? Also yes. Is the score also amazing? Also yes.

Sure, there’s a giant wrestling (? Is it wrestling?) stage monstrosity thing in front of the White House but at least he hasn’t desecrated the people’s house by wearing a tan suit.

Bless the TT algorithm for bringing back the little girl with Down syndrome who dances at pow-wows for the second summer in a row. She’s so cute.

Billionaires shouldn’t be a thing, let alone trillionaires but I find myself thinking about how, during the last Guilded Age, there was at least some social pressure to, like, build a big concert hall or library. To do SOME good with unimaginable wealth. *sigh*

First 3D printing fail on a set of Not Touch Math Numbers (which are copyrighted) but Numbers That Happen To Have Counting Dots On Them as a gift for Teacher Bestie’s daughter, who long-term subbed as a para this year in my room but who is now moving onto student teaching. Oh well. Trying again.

So this is a sign, yes? TT wants me to watch this episode for the zillionth time just to see David beaming with pride, joy, and love in Stevie’s direction, right? “That’s my friend!” says the guy who had never once had a REAL friend before Stevie? 😭💗

I will forever maintain that this movie is (somewhat) unfairly maligned. Much like those moments where we can see what he could do with a good director, Shatner needed a cowriter to reign in the over-the-top stuff, but he understood the relationship between the main trio so, so well.

Do you think he even hears the booing or does he convince himself they’re cheering for him?

I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full Tony Awards (despite going on the occasional Broadway YouTube rabbit hole), but every once in a while, I remember the year there was a woman who uses a wheelchair who was nominated for something and they just…didn’t make a ramp.

If you don’t want to read my thread, this lady explains it beautifully. It’s not the choice. It’s how it’s being talked about. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sBxwkn/

Watching “Evita” for the first time in probably a decade and (1) Antonio Baderas has a lovely singing voice but (2) he cannot lip-sync (or ADR, I guess, depending on which part was recorded first) to save his soul.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to address the big Discourse this week about that influencer and the choice they made after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. I think my issue is not the choice but how it was communicated. The language was insensitive and

Never fails: first day of summer break and my body decides to sleep in a whopping thirty minutes 😑

A note: It's ok to judge people with big profiles who spread misinformation for spreading misinformation.

Year 23 ✔️ Image ID: four pictures of an empty and, if you’ll pardon the anthropomorphizing, lonely classroom

Got a message from one mom with a pic of a former student graduating middle school and a beautiful email from a parent whose child just graduated from high school thanking all of us elementary teachers for laying the foundation for who the kid is today. It was a good day.

In other news, my newly regrown hair (about 2/3 of it fell out last year from a combination of sepsis, anesthesia, and malnutrition) finally grew out enough that I could chop off the thin, straw-y, dry mess that was left after all of the above. It feels great 😊

Four really amazing kids are culminating tomorrow. Their successes might not be obvious to some people, but I could name 50 things each they didn’t know or couldn’t do when they came to my classroom, & 100 things each w/ their last teacher, & & &. There should be a word for “both proud and sad.”

It’s that time of year where your awkwardly wonder if the A part of LGBTQIA+ is “enough.”

Today’s background noise was “The Simpsons” so here is your semi-regular reminder that “The Raven” from the very first Treehouse of Horrors is perFECtion. “Take thy BEAK from out my heart and take thy form from OFF. MY. DOOR!!”

Holy cow, Jane Kaczmarek is in this.

For something like a month I’ve been trying to remember the name of a miniseries from the 90s in the style of the “War of the Worlds” broadcast and I finally remembered it was about an asteroid strike, not an alien invasion. I found it on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td3E... (1/2)

This. And this is why you will never, ever, ever convince me that the current era of Star Trek is anything other than a pure reflection of Star Trek’s ethos. After all, it’s worth remembering that humanity went through WWIII and the post atomic horror and STILL went on to found the UFP.

3d printed culmination gifts for my fifth grade students who are going to middle school. Going to have all their former teachers (on campus) and therapists sign in metallic sharpie. (Stars because my classroom is spaced theme.)

If I say I always knew “dumb” ends with a b, does that mean I get to be president? (I’ll pick a good VP and immediately resign.)

It’s been bugging me for months — I kept having the vague feeling I recognized Tarima from “Starfleet Academy.” I put on “Rings of Power” for background noise today and I have *finally* figured out who she reminds me of: Eärien.

It is time for the semi-annual Kutztown Birch Beer splurge! (There’s lots of good things about living in CA. Lack of access to good birch beer - or any birch beer, really - is not one of them.)

My brain: sometimes IEP meetings go south for reasons that have nothing to do with you, your competence, your ethics/values, your skills, or your teaching My heart: *vigorous raspberries towards my brain* In other news, I had an emotional support chocolate shake for dinner.

“Thoroughly Modern Millie.” It is sexist and very, very, VERY racist. And yet I still giggle when Millie orders flower for her boss to give her friend: “Two dozen. Long stemmed. Pink. ON THE FAT SIDE 😭😭”

When my brother was a six year old with language development affected by Down syndrome, the title “The Next Phase” meant nothing to him, but he *loved* the episode from the day it came out. Now it can have its true title. 😊

Not to inspiration 🌽 myself, but if my deaf ass can write a bunch of books in English, you don't need a murder bot to summarize your email for you.

Fun!

The question of the day: is that story you started more than a decade ago and randomly started polishing up *actually* ready for AO3 or are you spiraling from rescheduling an IEP for the fourth time since Tuesday’s fire cancelled it and in dire need of a dopamine hit?

TheDailyWav I now make my own sound bites (my brother calls them “talkings”) but I still have so many I downloaded from there.

Holy cow they just cancelled school the rest of the week in my district. How are we having fire closures in MAY and what’s gonna happen when there’s actual knock-you-over Santa Ana winds in the fall? 😬😬

I spent my unexpected day off watching season 2 of Percy Jackson and, uh, we have to remember how to make tv shows that come out every year if we’re going to make shows that adapt books that each cover one year of a kid’s life because what do you mean he’s supposed to be THIRTEEN in season 2?!

It’s been like 4 hours and I’m still giggling over our principal sending the whole staff an email to…check our email for an important email. Thus what I’m pretty sure is my first-ever use of this gif as I giggle some more.

Me, waking up this morning: gosh, I wish it were a three day weekend The universe: how’s about a brush fire (IN MAY!!!!) and no school Tuesday (never mind that often-rescheduled meeting you had scheduled for after school)? Me: THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!

Update: I have progressed to “it is in the ‘saved for later’ part of my shopping cart.” Name tags, storage boxes…labels…3d models of stuff to help comprehension…grids to help sort money (every Friday, they “trade money” as in “trade 5 $1s for a $5,” etc.). I’m caving….

Remember when a horse judge got to run FEMA under W? That was so much less embarrassing and quite possibly less dangerous to humanity.