Sesame Street posting techniques for comforting children during traumatic world events feels so fucking dystopian but here are the slides they posted just in case you or a loved one has any little critters at home right now
No one is doing well right now, but being a little critter right now has got to be terrifying. This is such a crushing series of images, especially considering PBS’s funding got slashed. While I’m happy Sesame Street continues to keep the wellbeing and education of children as a major priority, there’s a certain amount of innocence that Sesame Street represents and this is giving me such a visceral feeling rn
The company budsies, which specializes in making custom stuffed animals and making duplicates of old or lost plushies, is currently offering to recreate the beloved stuffed animal of any kid who lost theirs in the LA wildfire, free of charge.
Their instagram post said to share this, so please spread this around so that families who've lost everything can receive just a little bit more hope in their lives 🥺
this could actually really help the morale of the people over there. People often underestimate how much of the damage caused by fires is emotional (as opposed to purely financial). Comforting blankets, photos, books, stuffed animals, all the familiar things children and even parents derive a sense of security and comfort from ripped away from them for no good reason. this may not be much, but getting a kid a little stuffed animal to hug while his parents try to find a place to live... the emotional benefit is enormous. And if they aren't able to find a place to live, this might be all they have for a long time.
'Oh, sleep. Nothing else could ever bring me such pleasure, such freedom, the power to feel and move and think and imagine, safe from the miseries of my waking consciousness.'
‘The difference between life and death could be as simple and as uncomfortably slight as a step you take in either direction.’
Maybe in Another Life - Taylor Jenkins Reid, page 107.
Rating: 3.5/5
Fluff: 💋💋💋💋
Spice: 🌶🌶
It is no secret that I absolutely adored Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I was so excited to delve into one of her earlier narratives.
Now, as a general rule, chicklit and books where romance is the primary theme are not my cup of tea, but TJR has created a truly captivating work
The novel follows our protagonist, Hannah, in concurrent storylines and explores the consequences of her actions following a night at a bar. In the first ‘world’, she decides to leave the bar early with her best friend, Gabby, and in the second, she decides to remain at the bar with an old ex-boyfriend.
I thought the concept and execution of the dual storylines was incredibly captivating. TJR explored the entire spectrum of the human condition — the transience of life, the joy and heartbreak that comes with relationships, and the tenacity of humanity.
As to be expected from a book with a dual storyline, I definitely had a ‘world’ I preferred to follow. Despite this, both storylines were well written, and neither of them were unrealistic for the life Hannah was experiencing.
I have a few gripes with this book.
The first being that it was very easy to lose what had happened in each storyline and which one you were currently reading if you put the book down and were coming back to it several hours or days later.
The second was the repetition. Despite the differences in Hannah’s worlds there are some elements which remain the same. For the most part, I thought the repetition of these moments worked really well. Unfortunately, there were times where I thought the repetition of the overarching theme would’ve worked significantly better than having dialogue, thoughts, and concepts, repeated word for word.
[MINOR SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH] And finally, I have a more personal issue than a literary/stylistic one; I abhor the unplanned pregnancy trope, and even more so when it is the primary source of conflict between a couple. It’s very difficult to not fall into cliches when writing a trope like this, and there were many times in the ‘ex-boyfriend’ storyline that the plot felt predictable.
'Which means that I am here today, alive today, because I made the right choices, however brief and insignificant they felt at the time. I made the right choices.'
Maybe in Another Life - Taylor Jenkins Reid, page 108.
'I always think to myself that knowing your kid doesn't need you may hurt, but knowing your kid did, and you weren't there ... it's absolutely unbearable'
Maybe in Another Life - Taylor Jenkins Reid, page 126
'I know there may be universes out there where I made different choices and they led me somewhere else, led me to someone else. And my heart breaks for every single version of me that didn't end up with you.'
Maybe in Another Life - Taylor Jenkins Reid, page 329.
