Newsletter: Snapshots, Great Depression, Siege Humor


No Kings Protest in Mt. Washington Valley

Posted Oct 18, 2025

Just saw a Maine lobster at the protest—along with many dogs, two dinosaurs, and many hundreds of humans of all ages, from babies to humans powering their own rollators. There is a group all in yellow, too.

 

Posted Oct 18, 2025

A Few Snapshots from the Protest

View from one corner looking across to the other. Protester are filling the sidewalk on that side, just as they are on my side. Protestors on my side of the road, mainly facing away from me. This choice was deliberate, to protect privacy.
A human embodying a Maine lobster, seen from behind with her claw around a man next to her her.

I'm guessing some 500 people were there, but it could have been more.

Posted Oct 18, 2025

You get repeated turnouts like this in rural New Hampshire, and you know authoritarianism’s foundations are wobbly.


Posted Oct 9, 2025

Photograph of Young Man on Relief in 1940

Hayward, California [1940]. Youth on Relief. Looking in his pocket for his surplus commodities card. 'Not having a job is bad enough, but you keep goin' down and purty soon you're here and the spirit is gone. I turn my face when somebody I know real well comes along the sidewalk. It takes the spirit when you're in here and then you haven't anything left.'
Black and white photograph of three men and one woman at the front of a food bank line. The man at the very front is looking in his pocket. One arm and one shoe of a man behind the desk is visible, also a small box of some kind and some forms and ink stamps

This image stems from a federal food aid program during the Great Depression. For me, the quoted recipient of aid represents a familiar story about pride, dignity, shame, and fear that the self-righteous who reject the provision of such aid fail to grasp.

Photo and caption by Rondal Partridge for the National Youth Administration, April 17, 1940, from the series Study of Youth Photographs, Record Group 119: Records of the National Youth Administration, National Archives Catalog, NAID: 532121.


Posted Oct 13, 1993

Sarajevo Siege Humor

Black-and-white photo of part of a neglected window display in a show shop. Two single women's shoes are visible. Next to one is a light-colored leather pistol holster.

"Sarajevo siege humour, winter of 1992-1993: creamy leather gun holster displayed as a hot fashion item in the window of an erstwhile shoe shop."

Photo and caption by Christian Maréchal, 1993, Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 3.0.


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