Drawing: Faces 1933 — Conversion therapy orientation

By Jack Brumet

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Poem: [Let the blue turtle go]

By Jack Brummet

Let the blue turtle go

Train your eyes
Like a bobcat

Leave the knife beneath your cloak
Let things pass
Because all things must pass

Awareness of danger

Brings fortune

As you cross the cold cold sea

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What the night sky will look like in five million years

ESA’s Gaia mission's scientists created this simulated animation of how the Milky Way will evolve over the next 5 million years.

Via Kottke.org:

"Stars in the Galactic Plane move quite slow and faster ones appear over the entire frame. This is a perspective effect: most of the stars we see in the plane are much farther from us, and thus seem to be moving slower than the nearby stars, which are visible across the entire sky."

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The Slender Thread movie with Anne Bancroft and Sidney Poitier

By Jack Brummet

We have an annual screening of the film The Slender Thread at the Crisis Clinic, and I finally made it for the showing tonight. It is a pretty amazing movie on a topic (suicide) that was not really talked about in the 60s. Or the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and even now. Anne Bancroft, Telly Savalas (and his brother George), Sidney Poitier, and Ed Asher are the lead actors. Bancroft and Poitier—the suicidal woman and the phone worker—are the focal points of the story. A lot of it is outdated and nothing like how we work now, but it is still fascinating and touching if you have ever done this kind of work. The movie, directed by Sydney Pollack, was based on the Seattle Crisis Clinic, which was one of the first hotlines in the country.

I worked on a crisis line in 1971-72, and the movie is pretty realistic about that era. We were flying by the seat of our pants, without a lot of professional help from shrinks/MSWs, etc. When I returned to this work a couple years ago, it was much more buttoned-down and professional (and effective). When I was on the Kent crisis line, we had four hours of training provided by the Seattle Crisis Clinic (where I work now): two hours on active listening and communications skills and two hours on suicide work. The next time around, it was 80 hours of training, with four days of in-service training each year, and continual ad hoc feedback on your work.

As corny as it was at times, the movie was moving. They got a lot of it right, which, for Hollywood, is pretty good. It's an almost noir looking black and white movie with footage (including aerial) of 1960's Seattle. Another reason this really hit home was that the woman committing suicide lived a few blocks from us in Ballard, and a lot of key moments occurred at Golden Gardens, just down the hill from my house.

I don't know if it is available streaming, but the DVD is for sale on Amazon.

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The smell of books ("Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours")

If you're a "bookie," you'll love this scholarly article on the smell of books by Cecilia Bembibre and Matija Strlič. The chart of smells is fantastic. The article appears here.

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Drawing: Faces No. 1932 — NSA Trajectory and Ballistics Analysts

By Jack Brummet

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Sean Spicer's latest flub

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Drawing: Faces No. 1930 — The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) field team

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge or save

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Mayor Ed Murray

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

In the 90's, the press published graphic descriptions of The President's private parts based on depositions and news reports. With our Mayor, we now have a callback to those days. Read the article from The Washington Post here.

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The real Rock and Roll High School

By Jack Brummet

This is kind of a mindf***er. Staples high school in Westport, Connecticut, in the early days of US touring rock, had concerts over two years by:

• Sky and The Family Stone
• Cream
• The Doors
• The Animals
• The Yardbirds
• The Rascals

A documentary is on the way:

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Lennin's red hand

Over the last couple of years, I've seen Lennin's hand in Fremont painted red more often than not.

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Drawing: Faces No. 1928 — eHarmony match #3

by Jack Brummet

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