Tag Archives: stories

Kwame Alexander’s Resistance Reading

by TabathaMoen630 Posted on April 15, 2017

Mother Jones

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Courtesy of Kwame Alexander

We asked a range of authors, artists, and poets to suggest the books that bring them solace or understanding in this age of political rancor. Two dozen or so responded. Here are the thoughts of Kwame Alexander, whose novel-in-verse The Crossover won the 2015 Newbery Medal, the highest honor in young people’s literature.

Latest book: Solo (with Mary Rand Hess; out August 1)
Also known for: The Crossover
Recommended reading: Literature is instant access to humanity. It’s the one art form that allows us to walk in someone else’s shoes for a while and experience lives we might not otherwise understand. It also allows us to find mirrors of ourselves, of our best selves, in times when we feel alone and unsure of the world. And right now the world feels a little crazy. Books are these worlds within a world—safe places to tramp in anxious times and return gently to our own living world, more aware, more fulfilled and hopefully more inspired and courageous. And that is why Mary Rand Hess and I set out to write books like Solo, taking readers on a character’s life-changing journey for the sake of the experience, for the sake of humanity. This is rock and roll and redemption, baby! These are the journeys that run deep, and the ships we take come early and often. We can take as many ships as we like, as often as we like. We only need to choose the right ones.

There are so many incredible books that speak to our times, stories that take place in the past, present, and future. Stories that connect us to our ancestors or people who lived like our ancestors, or to the people who paved the way for our world today—stories like The Underground Railroad, All The Light We Cannot See, Freedom Over Me, March. Stories for adults, teens, and children. Stories that grab hold of us and show us all the pain and beauty that races through and weaves between covers—books like Speak, Pax, Brown Girl Dreaming, Radiant Child, Bridge to Terabithia, As Brave as You, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Tale of Despereaux. Selected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (and Langston Hughes and Pablo Neruda). The Crossover and The Playbook (you know I had to mention those, right?) and so many more. Books that will stick with us, comfort us, and strengthen us, long after we’ve read them. Books that will connect us to each other.

P.S. Read Rumi!
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So far in this series: Kwame Alexander, Margaret Atwood, W. Kamau Bell, and T Cooper. (New posts daily.)

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Kwame Alexander’s Resistance Reading

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Cooks, Illustrated: Why So Many Chefs Have Tattoos

by HWWSabinardfi Posted on December 16, 2016

Mother Jones

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When it was time for sailor and cook Mandy Lamb to get a tattoo, she decided on two arrows arranged in an “X” on her forearm. They remind her, she says, of a painful lesson learned on her first boat: “Don’t fall in love with the captain.”

Fishing-boat cook Mandy Lamb

Lamb’s is one of more than 65 illustrated vignettes (and probably my favorite) on display in the artful book Knives and Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos, by BuzzFeed books editor Isaac Fitzgerald and prolific illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton, who appeared on our latest episode of Bite. The duo previously worked together on the 2014 book Pen and Ink, which was inspired by their popular Tumblr blog of the same name and portrayed tattooed people of all professions.

But for Knives and Ink, they zeroed in on cooks and chefs, a breed well known for sporting body art. Fitzgerald, who had a short stint as a sushi chef in San Francisco, says one reason for the propensity for tattoos is that chefs want a symbol for their “dedication to the craft.” Some chefs feel they’ve landed in a career perfectly suited to their talents—and that getting a tattoo is a way of publicly dedicating their lives to the craft. Fitzgerald explains:

For a very long time, being a chef is one of the very few industries where you could just be covered head to toe, tattoos on your face, it didn’t matter as long as what you were making is good. It’s this idea of, ‘If I tattoo my neck, if I tattoo my knuckles, I can’t just walk away from this and start selling cars or just go work in a business or put on a suit or sit in a cubicle. This is going to be my life.’

Personal Chef Roze Traore; Chef Timmy Malloy

MacNaughton, who learned to cook while working on a cookbook project a few years ago, points to another reason for kitchen tattoos: “Chefs are preparing food for a lot of people, but it is about their distinct dishes and their distinct flavors and they’re expressing themselves in everything they do,” she says. “I think that the marks on their body are also manifestations of the same thing, the stories and experiences that are meaningful to them.”

The tales in Knives and Ink range from sentimental to flippant, sometimes revealing deep truths about a chef’s past, sometimes simply revealing her favorite seasoning. When asked about the most popular tattoo inked by the cooks they interviewed, Fitzgerald and MacNaughton were unequivocal: the pig. “It seems to be the official or unofficial logo of professional chefs,” MacNaughton says. Sure, the quintessential butchering diagram showing a quartered hog is a favorite, but Fitzgerald found fascinating the extent to which some chefs had “tried to one-up this classic pig tattoo design” with neck tattoos of pig skulls or a gory image of a zombie ripping up a pig from the inside. If that isn’t a reason to check out this delightful book, you’re sure to enjoy the recipes or artistic renderings of favorite ingredients accompanying many of the portraits.

Sous Chef Catherine Doyle

Bite is Mother Jones‘ new food politics podcast, out every other Friday. Listen to all our episodes here, or by subscribing in iTunes or Stitcher or via RSS. Please rate us and write us a review—it helps get the word out!

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Cooks, Illustrated: Why So Many Chefs Have Tattoos

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American Farmers Need a Strong RFS

by Posted on October 20, 2015

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American Farmers Need a Strong RFS

Posted 20 October 2015 in

National

Earlier this month, the National Farmers Union and the National Corn Growers Association released a white paper detailing the dramatic toll that uncertainty over the Renewable Fuel Standard has taken on rural economies. Projections for American farmers’ net cash income in 2015 show a 26 percent decrease from peak levels in 2013.

The RFS, which is the only federal law on the books combating climate change, has driven sustainable growth in renewable fuel for a decade. The renewable fuel industry sparked an economic revolution that raised farm incomes across sectors while creating jobs in rural communities. U.S. farmers increased their production by investing in better technology and sustainable acreage expansion.

But the EPA’s failure to release the rules for 2013, 2014, and 2015 has caused net farm income to likely fall more than 50 percent in only two years. When the farm community loses, the whole country loses.

By sidestepping its responsibilities on the RFS, the EPA is putting American jobs, investments, and innovations at risk.

Fuels America News & Stories

Fuels
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American Farmers Need a Strong RFS

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Here Is a Video of Sarah Palin Interviewing Donald Trump. It Is Bonkers.

by KevinLeighton Posted on August 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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Hahahahaha.

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Here Is a Video of Sarah Palin Interviewing Donald Trump. It Is Bonkers.

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Winners & Losers? Changing the Equation at the Pump

by Posted on March 27, 2015

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Winners & Losers? Changing the Equation at the Pump

Posted 27 March 2015 in

National

Opponents of the commonsense, bipartisan Renewable Fuel Standard like to say that Washington “shouldn’t pick winners and losers” when it comes to energy policy.

It’s hard to make this argument with a straight face, however, especially since Washington has been favoring oil companies with special tax breaks, an oil spill bailout fund, and other favorable policies for more than a century.

It was, after all, President Woodrow Wilson who signed the “percentage based depletion allowance” into law back in 1913 … a tax break which is, incredibly, still on the books after more than 102 years. In contrast, the ethanol tax credit expired in 2012.

The dominance of oil companies has given them a near monopoly on the marketplace and the power to use exclusive supplier/distributor contracts to dictate which fuels retailers can and cannot make available to consumers. There is a long, well documented history of oil companies exerting this control to prevent consumers from having access to a wider range of renewable fuel options — higher octane options that deliver better engine performance but cost less and cut into their bottom line.

The Renewable Fuel Standard changes that equation, and ensures that homegrown, American made renewable fuel has a chance to access the marketplace. It is providing new fueling options for American consumers and creating market certainty so that businesses are investing billions of dollars in next generation technologies like cellulosic ethanol production. Without it, that investment would quickly shift overseas, and America would become ever more dependent on foreign oil.

Gutting the RFS means allowing oil companies to prevent competitors from accessing the market. Now THAT is picking a winner … the same winner Washington has been picking for a century.

Fuels America News & Stories

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Winners & Losers? Changing the Equation at the Pump

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Recap: Fuels America Responds to Toomey/Feinstein Bill

by Posted on February 27, 2015

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Recap: Fuels America Responds to Toomey/Feinstein Bill

Posted 27 February 2015 in

National

Yesterday, members of the Fuels America coalition held a conference call to address a new bill from Senators Feinstein and Toomey that would devastate the renewable fuel industry and the rural communities that rely on it. That legislation, the Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act, would change the way the EPA administers the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The bill would also harm progress on second-generation biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol — the cleanest motor fuel in the world.

During the call, Fuels America also released a letter calling on President Obama to ensure that the EPA’s new multiyear rule for the RFS supports growth for existing and new biofuels technologies and lives up to the original intent of the bipartisan law.

Listen to the conference call.

Read the letter to President Obama.

Fuels America News & Stories

Fuels
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Recap: Fuels America Responds to Toomey/Feinstein Bill

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American Drivers Can Save $0.61 Per Gallon by Choosing Renewable Fuels

by Posted on June 18, 2014

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American Drivers Can Save $0.61 Per Gallon by Choosing Renewable Fuels

Posted 18 June 2014 in

National

As the situation in Iraq comes home to motorists paying higher prices at the pump, more and more Americans are choosing less expensive, homegrown fuels as opposed to reliance on the volatile market for foreign oil. In fact, an analysis of data covering the past year from E85prices.com shows that drivers with “Flex Fuel” vehicles in the U.S. can pay an average of $0.61 less per gallon by filling up with E85, which contains up to 85 percent American ethanol.

As you probably know, ethanol is a higher octane fuel that improves engine performance. That’s why it has been added to gasoline for decades and is now being blended at higher levels into the fuels used throughout professional auto racing. Prices for American-grown renewable fuels like ethanol and advanced biofuels have just gotten better and better thanks to America’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which ensures that homegrown renewable fuels are available as an option to American consumers.

The analysis of data from “E85 Prices” also showed how drivers nationwide have at times saved as much as a whopping $0.76 per gallon at the pump over the past year by filling up on E85. And because ethanol increases the available fuel supply, it helps to drive down the price of gasoline for all drivers regardless of whether they choose a higher blend fuel like E15 or E85. And you’ve probably already heard that in addition to saving American drivers money, the RFS has helped to support 852,000 jobs and $184.5 billion in economic output in the U.S.

Meanwhile, violence in Iraq is driving high gas prices even higher than predicted. Mere worries about oil supply issues have already helped drive world and U.S. prices to their highest levels since September. Americans could see prices for regular gasoline jump more than $0.20 per gallon over the next couple weeks as violence in Iraq continues.

Our analysis coincides with a Fuels America advertising campaign to highlight the consumer savings the RFS and the renewable fuels industry deliver for Americans. This week, the coalition is running digital ads that ask Americans why we should “let Big Oil pump us dry,” and call on our leaders to “invest in affordable, homegrown renewable fuels” by protecting America’s Renewable Fuel Standard.

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American Drivers Can Save $0.61 Per Gallon by Choosing Renewable Fuels

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Fuels America Highlights How the Oil Industry Rigs the Tax Code

by Posted on June 3, 2014

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Fuels America Highlights How the Oil Industry Rigs the Tax Code

Posted 3 June 2014 in

National

The Fuels America coalition launched a significant, targeted digital advertising campaign to highlight over a century of sweetheart tax breaks for oil companies at working Americans’ expense.

The ads are running around The Woodlands, Texas, where oil companies are holding their annual forum to discuss industry strategies around taxes – a celebratory day for an industry that takes billions in subsidies out of taxpayers’ pockets to repurchase their own stocks and pay their CEOs tens of millions of dollars.

The advertisements, which warn viewers not to “let Big Oil rig the tax code,” links to a page on the Oil Rigged webpage that highlights the over $470 billion that’s been injected into oil industry coffers at Americans’ expense, just so oil companies can turn around and rig the system to block competition from America’s homegrown renewable fuels.

“While the oil industry enjoys a gusher of income from a rigged tax code, you pay more at the pump – and Big Oil enjoys outsized profits,” says the Oil Rigged page. “Don’t let Big Oil keep rigging the tax system against homegrown renewable fuels – which save money at the pump, burn cleaner, and create jobs at home.”

While the oil industry reaped $93 billion in profits last year and continued dodging the tax burden the rest of us have to shoulder, renewable fuels generate $14.5 billion in tax revenue every year.

Fuels America News & Stories

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Fuels America Highlights How the Oil Industry Rigs the Tax Code

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Cellulosic ethanol comes of age in 2014

by Posted on November 7, 2013

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Cellulosic ethanol comes of age in 2014

Posted 7 November 2013 in

National

From Iowa Farmer Today:

It’s looking like 2014 could be a big year for the fledgling cellulosic ethanol industry.

Three full-fledged cellulosic ethanol-production facilities are slated to open, and at a fourth site a corn ethanol plant is adding a bolt-on bit of cellulosic technology.

Construction crews are busy today at the site of the new DuPont cellulosic ethanol plant here. A few hours away in Emmetsburg, crews are also at work putting up another cellulosic ethanol production facility at the POET plant.

In the small community of Galva, the planners are taking a different approach to cellulosic ethanol as they make changes at the corn ethanol plant.

In Hugoton, Kan., construction is under way at an Abengoa bioenergy plant.

The Abengoa project is expected to use wheat straw as a primary feedstock while the Galva project, at Quad County Corn Processors, will use new technology developed at that location to use corn kernel fiber in the existing ethanol process.

But, the other two projects will use corn stover as the primary feedstock.

“Corn stover is a whole new commodity. Historically, we don’t use it,” says Jeff Taylor, a farmer from Gilbert and chairman of Lincolnway Energy in Nevada, which is next door to the new DuPont facility.

Read the full story here.

Fuels America News & Stories

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Cellulosic ethanol comes of age in 2014

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New analysis proves safety, performance of E15 renewable fuel

by Posted on October 11, 2013

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New analysis proves safety, performance of E15 renewable fuel

Posted 11 October 2013 in

National

After carefully reviewing 43 studies on the effects of E15 on engine durability, emissions, and other factors, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issued a report finding that the available literature “…did not show meaningful differences between E15 and E10 in any performance category.” With respect to the Coordinating Research Council’s (CRC) controversial engine durability study, NREL found “…the conclusion that engines will experience mechanical engine failure when operating on E15 is not supported by the data.”

The objective of the NREL review was to assess the research conducted to date applicable to the effects of E15 use in model year 2001 and newer vehicles, including the aspects that were not a part of EPA’s considerations when approving E15. Specifically, NREL reviewed 33 unique research studies, as well as 10 related reviews, studies of methodology, or duplicate presentations of the same research data. Further underscoring EPA approval of the safety and efficacy of E15, NREL experts found that 2001 and newer vehicles are well equipped to adapt to the ethanol content in both E10 and E15. The engine performance and durability expectations from the materials compatibility and emissions test results (for E15) are confirmed by studies of fuel system, engine and whole vehicle durability. The fact that there are 33 unique studies focused on materials compatibility, engine and fuel system durability, exhaust emissions, catalyst durability, effects on on-board diagnostics and evaporative emissions seems lost on the emphasis placed on one refuted study.

Read more from the Renewable Fuels Association or click here to read the full report.

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New analysis proves safety, performance of E15 renewable fuel

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