Circle Time // 7.9.26

Occiptal neuralgia, first sungolds from the garden, men that need to get out of politics, explosive diarrhea parasites, miso corn rice with chili cod, and a great show you should watch.

It feels like a month has gone by in the seven days!

We had a record-breaking heat wave accompanied by massive thunderstorms that knocked out much of New Jersey’s power and so many trees, but that didn’t deter people in our county full of residential neighborhoods from setting off what could only be $10k+ of fireworks until 4AM on July 4th while it was still lightening and thundering galore.

In the midst of this heat wave, was moving day for my momma—who promptly lost electrical power for half a day at her new place, but it made me that much more grateful that she lives so close to me now for these kind of emergencies. It’s been a dream of mine to have her move out of her old place for nearly a decade now, and to have her so close to us, so that has been making everything else that happened this week more tolerable.

Much of my week on my end was spent incapacitated by occipital neuralgia pain, under a heating pad and on a cervical pillow. I would occasionally get it when sick if I had a fever, but I’d never had it so intensely and persistent for 5 days with no relief but from ibuprofen. I have an extremely high pain tolerance, so the pain itself wasn’t the problem so much as the completely unpredictable sharp shooting sparks in my head or not being able to turn my head on my neck without pulsating blood pressure in my head. Thankfully, acupuncture finally brought some lasting relief and I’m managing it ongoing— but damn hEDS is a never-ending ball of surprises, and y’all *climbs soapbox again * a reminder that viral infection like Covid and the flu, but especially Covid, very commonly leave nerve damage and neuropathy.

Aside from this, I’ve rolled my eyes so far into the back of my skull (maybe that’s where I’m getting my occipital neuralgia lolz) so many times over wildly preventable things happening in our world this week— explosive diarrhea over raspberries and lettuce and herbs (we’ll get to that), and more improperly vetted men being men who seem to think their problematic behavior shouldn’t stop them from seeking power. Bring on the matriarchy!

• First Sungold tomato harvest from the garden! Got some Super Sweet 100’s en route too, but Sungolds are my favorite. Some of my pollinator-magnet wildflowers are starting their first blooms, like my cosmos, zinnias, scabiosas, and bachelor’s buttons. Nothing better than a scattering of these in bud vases around my kitchen for a spark of joy.

Lots to cover this week, will be keeping things as succinct as possible:

• The U.S. has resumed strikes in Iran, and the ceasefire is no more. Naturally, oil prices jumped (7%) and stocks went down. P.S. our nations oil reserves have hit a 4-decade low, thanks to this admin releasing so much to mitigate their losses from the Strait blockade and trying to appease voters ahead of midterms.

• Graham Platner, TLDR (CW: sexual assault, abuse):

  • In a Politico exclusive, another woman who came forward about being sexually assaulted, with a years-long paper trail corroborated by multiple people, including her therapist. Later that day, the Washington Post publishes a story on an ex-girlfriend who said Platner would remove condoms without her consent during sex. This is only weeks after a NYT piece came out with accounts from multiple women describing disturbing sexual and aggressive behavior. This of course is on top of the whole Reddit history and Nazi tattoo.

  • His endorsements by Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna, Elizabeth Warren were all pulled, and the Senate Dems have publicly called on him to drop out.

  • I’ve published some of my thoughts here, and Slade Wentworth’s piece on how the standard cannot be “better than Susan Collins,” is on point.

  • Maine has until July 15th to put a replacement Dem on the ballot for this crucial Senate race, but only Platner himself can drop out to make that possible. He is apparently trying to control who the replacement is (really doing well here at showing the world he doesn’t have a pattern of control-seeking behavior…) by refusing to drop out until he gets a say. Maine’s Dem party says, absolutely not.

• Where is Mitch McConnell?

  • We are in the 84-year-old’s 4th week of his hospitalization with no details being released of his condition, and his wife went to China 3 days after he was hospitalized because that’s really normal.

  • The morning McConnell was hospitalized, first responders went to his D.C. home, where revealed 911 audio leaked saying that a person was found “unconscious” after suffering “cardiac arrest.”

  • Governor Beshear has formally called on McConnell’s office for transparency and details.

  • Most of the internet is pretty certain of his passing, and the reason his office would do this, is that Kentucky law shows that if there is a Senate vacancy before August 3rd, there must be a special election to fill that seat. Whereas if the vacancy occurs after August 3rd, the seat remains vacant until midterms.

• Explosive diarrhea parasite is spreading, with no mitigation currently in place.

  • Cyclospora, a parasite that causes month-long diarrhea and GI distress, is spreading. This parasite is not new, but this is a much higher case count than usual, and there is still no answer on where it’s coming from. Historically, it has been found on fresh herbs, berries, bagged salads, and lettuces, but because it is a parasite that comes from contamination of fecal bacteria, it’s not about the specific food.

  • It is a parasite, not a bacteria. Washing your produce will not kill this parasite, only cooking above 158º will.

  • It’s harder to trace, because symptoms can show up up to 2 weeks after consuming the contaminated food.

  • Outbreaks are high in Michigan and NY, but 15 states so far.

  • A reminder that this administration’s CDC stopped screening for 6 out of 8 common foodborne illnesses last July — and now only screens for two. One of the illnesses eliminated? Cyclospora.

  • This lack of proper source tracing and mitigation of an outbreak like this is made much worse by the CDC staff layoffs that normally would have been on top of this.

• In an island of Mississippi, a park ranger discovered the body of 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells, in a search for him after he disappeared during a July 4 boat trip. Nolan was a Black child in the company of white children (who all deactivated their social media accounts before his body was found and said they didn’t “remember” what happened) and the details of the incident are still under investigation, but I highly recommend watching this video by Raeshanda Lias. Black children deserve to grow up, and we have a sickness in this country that will never improve until people get over their own discomforts around confronting the realities of race and talking about it.

• The reflecting pool is being drained for the second time in three months, with another no-bid contract being handed to the same company that painted it blue to…repair what they already messed up on.

WATCH