40s, queer, bi lesbian, agender, they/them. Archivist/librarian, tailor, goth, trash goblin. Converting to Judaism. Socialist. Social Justice Rogue. Usually bored and surly. Full of profanities, snark, salt, politics, and whatever fandoms I'm currently into. Fash and exclusionists of any stripe can fuck right off back to whatever dumpster fire you crawled out of, post haste.
Jane Yolen was a Jewish-American children’s author, poet, and young adult novelist. Yolen wrote more than 400 books for children and adults,
If you didn’t become acquainted with the work of Jane Yolen as a student being assigned her famous, award-winning Holocaust time travel nove
If you didn’t become acquainted with the work of Jane Yolen as a student being assigned her famous, award-winning Holocaust time travel novella “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” it’s likely you will once you become a parent, reading one of her many, many, many books for kids. My young boys are especially partial to her “How Do Dinosaurs?” series with its captivating, realistic dinosaur illustrations and snappy, funny text (and yes, there’s a Hanukkah “How Do Dinosaurs” book).
The prolific children’s book author, who was the recipient of multiple children’s book awards and six honorary doctorates, passed away this week at age 87. She was just about to release her 450th book. “Monsters of Fife: Terror Birds” will come out posthumously on July 14.
Yolen wasn’t raised particularly Jewish, and her exposure to religion was mostly at relatives’ homes, she recounted in a piece for the Jewish Book Council. As a teen, she did become fascinated with Jewish texts and traditions, getting confirmed at her local Reform synagogue; she was one of the first girls to read from the Torah on the bimah at that temple. And she minored in religious studies at Smith College.
But it took a while for Judaism to become part of her children’s book-writing career. In fact, she was two decades into her career when she got “noodged” into writing Jewish tales.
It all happened in the 1980s, she wrote in her essay for the Jewish Book Council: “One of my editors, who happened to be a rabbi’s wife, asked me why I had never written a Jewish book. And I had to think long and hard about that. And she noodged. Boy! Was she an expert noodge. The result was ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic.’ And then the Jewish stories began to tumble out.”
The books that came tumbling out were as gripping and wonderful and magical as the rest of her oeuvre.
There came magical stories about Jews and dragons and golems (co-written with her son, Adam Stemple).
She published illustrated books about Miriam and other biblical women (and even the children’s book adaptation of the famous “Prince of Egypt”).
She came up with her own twist on the tales of the Wise Men of Chelm.
She perhaps became most known for her three young adult tomes that tackle the Holocaust in novel ways. She wrote the “Sleeping Beauty” inspired “Briar Rose” and the “Hansel and Gretel”-esque “Mapping the Bones.” And of course, she penned the Nebula Prize Winning “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” about a Jewish teen who finds herself transported to 1942 Poland, which continues to be taught in schools to this very day, even as one Texas school district pulled it out of the curriculum for AI-detected “DEI content.” The book was famously turned into a 1999 film starring Kirsten Dunst, Brittany Murphy, Paul Freeman and Mimi Rogers.
Yolen also wrote books about Jewish holidays: “Milk and Honey,” and the lovely “Jewish Tale Feasts” (with her daughter, author Heidi Stemple), a book that my Jewish food-loving family adores.
Heidi, Adam and their brother Jason were all by their mother’s side when she “passed gently with no pain or stress,” Heidi shared on Instagram. Adam was playing his music while Heidi read from her mother’s book “Owl Moon.”
“As you all probably know, she had one of the most brilliant creative minds of our time,” Heidi wrote of her mother. “She has mentored, inspired and nurtured so many authors and illustrators through her words both on the page and off. But, beyond that, she was our mother and grandmother.”
May Jane Yolen’s memory be for a blessing; her books will certainly remain part of our lives for a long, long time.
Kneading bread dough is the most grounding thing for me. So I decided to make some rolls to relieve some stress and make something nice.
@stealingyourbones has made some delightful food abominations, which taught me I can replace the water in bread with almost any liquid.
So I tried Miso.
The yeast loved it and frothed up super fast. Mixing miso broth with the egg and oil smelled funky. The dough didn’t rise any fluffier than usual but the texture feels good. Then I decided to roll in some black garlic and green onion. I’d add nori crumbled up but I ran out.
This is amazing. It tastes like if miso soup was solid. The flavor is immaculate. It’s just missing the nori flavor. I can add that next time because I am 100% making this again.
- mix in slowly with a fork until it’s hard to stir with the fork, then stir together with hands until it stops sticking to your skin when you rub your hands together.
- knead the dough about 10min until it starts pushing back (it gets springy)
Let the dough rest for 30min.
(I make a redneck proof box by microwaving a cup of water and quickly replacing the water with the dough bowl and shutting the door to give it a warm place to nap. Do not microwave the dough itself by reflex.)
Roll out the dough and add any flavors you like. For the miso soup bread I chopped up a couple black garlics, and a handful of green onion. Roll it up like cinnamon rolls, cut into 12, and roll each into a ball shape.
Stick in a greased 9x13 casserole dish and let the dough rise to double size. (About 40min-1hr depending on how warm your kitchen is.) (the redneck proof box won’t fit my casserole dish so I stick the rolls on top of the oven while it preheats with a dish towel over it.)
Preheat the oven to 350 and when the dough looks nice and squishy bake it for 20min.
You can brush butter on top if you want. That would look pretty and help a sprinkling of furikake stick after you pull it out of the oven. If you wanna up the miso taste you can also spread a very thin layer of miso paste in before you roll it up with the other fillings. I’m gonna try that next time.
Bake! Eat! Enjoy! Knead all your frustrations into the bread then cleanse it with fire! Lemme know how yours turn out 💕🍀✨🥖
your daily reminder that kafka was a jew watching in real-time as jews became society's ungeziefers and were relegated to ghettos. Your daily reminder that ungeziefer is not just a bug, but vermin.
Hot take: people having an interest in niche crafts/activities does not automatically make them autistic. People having deep knowledge of niche crafts/activities does not automatically make them autistic. Can we please stop calling complete strangers autistic simply because they have hobbies?
Saint John of The Cross, A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ.
Caravaggio, Saint Francis in Ecstasy (1595)
Stephen D. Moore, God’s Beauty Parlor.
Florence & The Machine, Big God | Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (1611)
Peter 5:6
Gaspar De Crayer, Saint Augustine in Ecstasy (1638) | Psalm 63:1
First three sections from ‘Spiritual experiences and altered states of consciousness…’ by Charlotta Carlström | Drummer, issue 1 (1975) | Flyer for the archival group ‘Lives of Secular Saints’ (c1990s)
Things have gotten so P.C. nowadays that you can't even call a forklift a forklift. Suddenly, every piece of "power lifting equipment" in your shop needs a special name. Even the mutant bullshit like telehandlers don't want to be called something cool like zoom-booms anymore.
The other day, the intern and I are out at Subway. Van saying "lift trucks" comes by. Picture on the side? You guessed it. Forklift.
"Skip," my intern explains - I don't like to be called boss, and he's nice and doesn't do that - "that's what the manufacturers want us to call them now. A forklift is too reductive, obscures nuance. Imagine if you had a huge shop full of these things, you'd need to know the difference between a reach truck and a stacker."
He makes an excellent point, which I admit by silently chewing on my Mesquite Chicken Power Bowl. I have ordered it meticulously, in order to accommodate my unique dietary needs. Some people think that's unimportant, and I should just get one of the combos and not explain myself to the Sandwich Artist every time. They're wrong, it's critical that I be recognized for who I am. Safer for everyone, too.
Even though it draws so much embarrassment when I misname the things, I just can't get over how every forklift insists on its own special name. My grandfather never had to put up with that kind of nonsense. He'd just get out there in the morning, lift up a car with whatever he had on the jobsite, and steal the catalytic converter. Then he'd go to the bar, and sob in the bathroom for a couple of hours at home by himself without ever explaining to any of us what was going on. Probably saw all this coming.
okay, so, I know it's an annoying question but I trust you far more than I trust myself when it comes to research on Israel and Palestine. Mostly because I'm incredibly ADHD and because I have the tendency to go into utterly unrelated rabbit holes.
I was wondering if you know where I can find an exhaustive list of events before 1948, that prove peace was never truly a thing? I know of the Arab revolt and Hebron massacre, but I'm almost certain there were others, but idk how to even look these up. (I'm quite bad with that stuff).
I can later look these up and find sources about them, but idk where to start is my problem.
Thanks in advance!!
I also want to thank you, from the depths of my heart, for helping me learn more about this history!! You're so well-versed and you carry yourself in arguments/debates and express yourself with such elegance and eloquence. Thank you!!
Attacks by Arabs against Jews in Israel pre-dates Israeli settlements, pre-dates Israel's so-called 'occupation,' and pre-dates the establis
On October 7, 2023, a pogrom took place in Israel for the first time since the creation of the Jewish state.
so my pet american buffalo had a baby boy, and now that he's all grown up he's decided for himself that he likes more than one gender. in fact, really grown. he's got a son of his own now. and even he's about to go off to college. i'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about the moment. my bison's bi son's "bye son."
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