05/15/23

Good morning! It’s Monday, May 15th.

National chocolate chip day! Did you know that chocolate chips weren’t created until 1938. They’re young! Younger than me!

Also – chocolate chip cookies are the official cookie of Massachusetts.

Just wait until you hear more state cookie facts at the end of the episode! You’re gonna love it. Come for the news, stay for the cookie facts.

And now, the news.

Shooting in Yuma, AZ

-via CNN

We start how we start here in America – with two dead and three injured after a shooting at a house party in in Yuma, AZ on Saturday night. The victims range in age from 15 to 20, with the three survivors having non-life threatening injuries.

As of this recording, the suspect has not yet been taken into custody.

This is the 33rd mass shooting… OF THE MONTH.

At least the 215th of the year.

Writers Strike Continues

-via Hollywood Reporter

The writers strike is entering week three with no end in sight. Which is wild because like… labor wins. The writers are going to win this strike.

On that note, following the lack of a waiver from the guild, the Tony’s will not air on June 11th as originally planned.

Anyway, that is still happening and you know… as always… solidarity baybee.

MTV News and Buzzfeed News Say Goodbye

-via Hollywood Reporter

MTV News has joined Buzzfeed News and Vice as the latest news outlet to fold.

MTV News launched as a single show in 1987 and went on to see more than 6 million visitors to their site each month. This is a significant bummer because 6 million people a month to the site? That’s not nothing. Where will they go? Twitter, where news outlets are basically being de-platformed? I mean, they’re welcome here. I’ll take 6 million listeners a month – do you know how many Cariuma ads I could do with 6 million monthly listeners?!

NYC Turns Hotels into Shelters

-via AP News

In preparation for an influx of asylum seekers in New York City, hotels like the Roosevelt, which was closed three years ago, are being converted into shelters. The Roosevelt alone with provide up to 1,000 rooms for the expected migrants.

This is a fantastic idea… can’t quite say why it’s taken so long, and such a series situation, for it to come to fruition (I mean I can but)… anyway, great first step.

Ron DeSantis Finds a New Low

-via Newsweek

-Brittany Packnett Cunningham’s The Cost of White Discomfort

Ron DeSantis has hit a new low – as he boosted the fundraising efforts of Daniel Penny, the former Marine who was taken into custody ten days after he killed Jordan Neely.

Penny, like Rittenhouse before him, is being lauded as a “good Samaritan” after killing Neely who did nothing wrong but whose refusal to hid his discomfort (Neely, who was experiencing homelessness at the time of his murder, was talking about being hungry and thirsty when he was attacked) was enough for Penny to decide he gets to decide who lives and who dies.

These people are not heroes. They are not good Samaritans. And the quickness with which this story is being reframed should not surprise us. But it should make of furious. Because Jordan Neely did not deserve to be killed. And Daniel Penny does not deserve a heroes rewrite.

I’m putting a link to it in show notes because you should read the whole article, but I’m going to finish this segment with a piece on The Cut from Brittany Packnett Cunningham called: The Cost of White Discomfort:

“Intellectually, I know how we got here. But the fire in my chest forces me to wonder what our alternative future could be, if only we were more uncomfortable with the conditions in which Jordan was forced to live than with his expressions of need. If only white America were as disquieted by the evil on which its comfort is built as it is by our demands to be treated humanely.  If only your comfort were not so damn expensive for the rest of us.”

And I’ll leave it there.

That’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of chocolate chips. They’re good! I like to keep the mini ones in the freezer for a cute little sweet treat.

Also, so Massachusetts has the chocolate chip cookie but they’re not the only state with an official cookie. New Mexico also has one – their official cookie is the bizcochito – they’re thin cookies flavored with sugar, cinnamon, and anise.

California should get our own cookie.

But to get back on track… more than cookies! Because Massachusetts and New Mexico might be two in 50, but you are one in a million… I’m proud of you.