Leon Litwack, a leather-jacket-wearing, blues-loving historian whose pioneering books on slavery and its aftermath demonstrated how Black people thought about and shaped their own liberation, even as they were constrained by racism in American society, died on Aug. 5 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 91.
His wife, Rhoda Litwack, said the cause was bladder cancer.
Professor Litwack, a son of left-wing immigrants from Russia, brought an ethos of patriotic dissent to both his teaching and his scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, insisting that the historian’s job is to give voice to the marginalized and to make the well-off uncomfortable. He sought to teach students, he said in a 2001 interview, to “feel the past in ways that may be genuinely disturbing.”
Beginning in the early 1960s, a time when many historians still treated enslaved and freed Black people as passive actors in their own narratives, he cut a different path, immersing himself in the archives to discover Black voices and their stories and show how they thought about, and struggled against, oppression.
One notable fruit of that effort was “Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery” (1979), which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
If anyone's a fan of citrus desserts, I made this orange polenta cake earlier this week and it was phenomenal. It has gotten better every day since -- more moist and orangey the longer it sits.
I did not glaze it, but instead split the cake and frosted it (middle and top only) with this orange buttercream in which I subbed cream cheese for half the butter, and used only about half the powdered sugar.
does anyone need any prep style knives (vegetable style, butcher style, fruit style) or anything for gardening tools and even along the lines of bbq cutlery, cookware, or silverware? I've got you guys covered if you have any inquiries.
I don't get the snack munchies until 10 pm....remnants of years of restaurant/bar/retail management jobs and not eatings until later. It really sucks, and makes losing weight in my mid-40's a challenge....
The latest culprit is an insatiable hankering for peanut butter, at like 10:30...FML
Today, so far, a ProMeal bar. 9 g protein, 190 cal per serving. which is bullshit as the package says two servings per bar. They are not so large that you split them into two.
I'm trying hard to avoid snacks at the moment, but if I do, it's generally a peach or some cherries. Not sure how this is going to go in the fall when we're all out of good produce.
Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.
I had a thought over the weekend that Petit Ecoliers would probably make excellent s'mores. Dark chocolate McVities could be a contender as well, but the larger amount of chocolate on the Petit Ecoliers I think would make them a winner. Might have to do a test.
Just saw the local school system's approach for keeping schools open - it's pretty comprehensive. They're even going to offer pool testing for K-6 students to try and stay ahead of localized outbreaks. Who knows, it could work.
San Francisco announced yesterday that proof of full vaccination will be required to dine in a restaurant, drink in a bar, work out in a gym, or be in any indoor venue with more than 1,000 capacity. Negative tests not good enough.
Also I hated running on the treadmill with a mask during the previous mask mandate, even the nice Under Armour exercise masks. I was going to 24 hour fitness because No 1 was in town and 24 hour fitness allowed bringing in buddies for a year due to the covid shutdown. Now that he's back in Philly I may just start running outside again.
I could never do it. I never run at exactly the same speed and I always weave right and left a little bit. This time it was better. I stayed more or less in place but did have to pay attention to my speed.
I also started having some Plantar Fasclitis so I also thought the treadmill might be easier on my heel. Not really.
1 Month until we move back and I get to finally head to Santa Clara. My prediction will be that we have a smooth year (there is a vaccine requirement) aside from December and January where we might have online classes for a few weeks on either side of Christmas break.
Does Santa Clara have any mask mandates? Santa Cruz recently announced masks required indoors. Same with Vandy, though Vandy did say if the classroom is large enough for everyone to socially distance, masks are not required.
That is a major problem that needs to get some attention.
The pet population, does significant damage to the environment by killing local native animals and the amount of land that is spent to grow food to make cat and dog food doesn’t help.
I can confidently state that no matter how good of a hunter one of my dogs thinks she is, she has never, and I believe, will never catch a lizard in our back yard.
So I have 2 bird dogs...the 14 y.o. vizsla (1 of only 2 red things I own) that I road tripped with last summer is no longer really interested in birds or bunnies, etc. My 7 month old Brittany spaniel puppy, however, is obsessed with ALL airborne things...birds, bees, butterflies, moths, flies, airplanes, anything...he can chase moths in the back yard for an hour...it's borderline ridiculous.
Our lizard “hunter” has caught a bee before (she regularly hunts and kills house flies) and was promptly stung on the roof of her mouth, leading to a hilariously plump snout for a couple hours. We now refer to bees as spicy flies.
Of course, any attempt to solve that issue would be met with cries of "They're coming to take your dog! They hate America's farmers!" from the same crowd.
Just read that Shoeless Joe Jackson was the first Chicago player to hit a walk-off to beat the Yankees. Last night's walk-off by the Sox was their 15th against the Yankees.
The field/setting and game itself were great, both better than I expected. The announcing crew got tiresome. By the third inning I was tired of hearing over and over about how meticulous the grass looked or how "individual moments will be forgotten but everyone will remember the experience of playing here." The crew was too saccharine.
I spent 12 years in the Adirondack region, plus another 6 summers at Lake George, fighting an always-uphill battle v. the monstrous East Coast bias that pervades the area. I still owe some d-bag $20 for claiming Darren Lewis would be a better ball player than Bernie Williams…oops.
Our proximity to MA meant that along with the obnoxious Yankees fans, the now-newly entitled Red Sox fans also must be tolerated, & they became insufferable. The Mets were a complete afterthought in my time there.
Re: Mets as an afterthought, boy, does that ring a bell. My experience was similar. The Mets were to be pitied or derided at every turn. Usually, no one cared.
Yes, this! Any game the Yankees lose is a good one!!
The home plate ump was awful, which has been par for the course this year across MLB...it's an epidemic...ball/strikes calls have been abysmal ALL season, regardless of the crew. Surprised Kopech didn't get run...
The Oakland A’s started scoring early on Thursday and never stopped, resulting in a 17-0 blowout over the Cleveland Indians. The A’s completed a three-game sweep at Progressive Field, and ran their win streak to seven games, and they did so in style with the most lopsided shutout victory in franchise history.
In each of the first two games in this series, Cleveland took a lead in the opening innings and then Oakland waited until the last minute to strike back. That did not happen this afternoon. The A’s scored a few in the 2nd inning, then a bunch more in the 4th, 5th, and 6th, and then even more in the 8th and 9th just for good measure. Meanwhile the Indians managed only three hits and never crossed home plate a single time.
Remarkable that 17-0 is the most lopsided shutout win, given how far back the Giants go, and how many good teams they have had. But then baseball used to have more of a trend of not running up scores once it got near a double digit lead.
Logan Webb is not the ace of the San Francisco Giants staff, but he might just be the ace of the Giants staff at this particular moment.
Webb has now made 10 straight starts without allowing more than two runs, and he’s given up one or fewer earned runs in eight of those 10 starts. Right now he is not particularly hittable ... except when he’s the one wearing the hard hat and standing in the batter’s box.
The young righty was dominant on the mound on Thursday against the Colorado Rockies, but was also one of the Giants most impactful offensive players.
The pitching did their job but the offense took the day off, as the Dodgers dropped the series finale to the Phillies, 2-1. For the game, LA recorded only three hits, all of which were singles.
The offense had a few chances to put runs on the board, but they couldn’t capitalize. In the first inning, they had runners on first and second with two outs. Instead of getting some early runs, Corey Seager struck out to end the inning.
Bryce Harper came out of his two-game slump, hitting a home run in the bottom of the first to put the Phillies on the board. Harper proved to be the difference maker in the game for Philadelphia. He reached base with a walk in the fourth inning and ultimately came in to score. His two runs scored were all the Phillies needed on the afternoon.
The Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC are engaging in high-level discussions about an alliance, sources tell The Athletic.
Talks have centered around not just a scheduling alliance in football but in broader cooperation, according to sources in the three conferences. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips have been having conversations for several weeks.
“I’ve been in frequent and regular contact with all of the other A5 commissioners the last few weeks about the complex issues that are facing the industry,” Kliavkoff said, adding that there’s “nothing to report on this specific matter at this time.”
Hopefully the whole team will be vaccinated by the start of the season. Since Wilcox says "almost all" of the players are vaccinated, I wonder if there will be any holdouts,
Blargh: Re-key the building to stop package thieves, and of course, it's the cluster-fuck it always is.
I need a beer.
Nice obit of Leon Litwack in yesterday's NYT (that URL should allow you to read the article even if you don't subscribe).
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/us/leon-litwack-dead.html?smid=em-share
Leon Litwack, a leather-jacket-wearing, blues-loving historian whose pioneering books on slavery and its aftermath demonstrated how Black people thought about and shaped their own liberation, even as they were constrained by racism in American society, died on Aug. 5 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 91.
His wife, Rhoda Litwack, said the cause was bladder cancer.
Professor Litwack, a son of left-wing immigrants from Russia, brought an ethos of patriotic dissent to both his teaching and his scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, insisting that the historian’s job is to give voice to the marginalized and to make the well-off uncomfortable. He sought to teach students, he said in a 2001 interview, to “feel the past in ways that may be genuinely disturbing.”
Beginning in the early 1960s, a time when many historians still treated enslaved and freed Black people as passive actors in their own narratives, he cut a different path, immersing himself in the archives to discover Black voices and their stories and show how they thought about, and struggled against, oppression.
One notable fruit of that effort was “Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery” (1979), which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
[...]
Thank you for sharing this. He is one of the reasons and a big one of why I decided to double major in Poly Sci and US History.
DBD Test Kitchen
If anyone's a fan of citrus desserts, I made this orange polenta cake earlier this week and it was phenomenal. It has gotten better every day since -- more moist and orangey the longer it sits.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/orange-polenta-cake
I did not glaze it, but instead split the cake and frosted it (middle and top only) with this orange buttercream in which I subbed cream cheese for half the butter, and used only about half the powdered sugar.
https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/orange-buttercream-frosting-2
Wow sounds good,.
oooooh
does anyone need any prep style knives (vegetable style, butcher style, fruit style) or anything for gardening tools and even along the lines of bbq cutlery, cookware, or silverware? I've got you guys covered if you have any inquiries.
Snack
Just finished a snack of melon (Crenshaw?) and blueberries. Totally rocks.
I don't get the snack munchies until 10 pm....remnants of years of restaurant/bar/retail management jobs and not eatings until later. It really sucks, and makes losing weight in my mid-40's a challenge....
The latest culprit is an insatiable hankering for peanut butter, at like 10:30...FML
Boy, do I get the late night snacking on peanut butter. A teaspoon or two around 8:00 PM; not too close to bedtime.
That's not a snack, that's dinner time.
When it's less than an hour to bedtime, it's a snack. At least it is for me.
Today, so far, a ProMeal bar. 9 g protein, 190 cal per serving. which is bullshit as the package says two servings per bar. They are not so large that you split them into two.
thanks to my older daughter, I have decided that the gluten free Oreos are actually better than the regular oreos
Better meaning they taste better? or are they actually healthier for you?
I think they taste better. I reject the idea of "healthy" oreos as being beside the point
Currently on my friend's couch in Cincinnati, eating her chips.
I'm trying hard to avoid snacks at the moment, but if I do, it's generally a peach or some cherries. Not sure how this is going to go in the fall when we're all out of good produce.
You'll have to switch to apples, pears, etc.
Honeycrisp apples and Taylor Gold Pears.
Mid-afternoon peach.
Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.
None anymore, zero, nope, nada.
Trail mix is usually my go-to snack. Or dried pineapple.
I haven't had dried pineapple in ages, but I can taste it now just thinking about it.
Leftover Chinese from last night.
Dark chocolate Digestive biscuits. Hell yeah.
I had a thought over the weekend that Petit Ecoliers would probably make excellent s'mores. Dark chocolate McVities could be a contender as well, but the larger amount of chocolate on the Petit Ecoliers I think would make them a winner. Might have to do a test.
I'd have thought the digestives might be too "biscuit-y" for s'mores but I bet the Petit Ecoliers would whip ass for that use
hot cheetos, chips, and occasionally the dessert like item but that's par for the course for college students
Today in Covid
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/13/children-hospitalizations-covid-delta/
I gotta stop reading about this...
I don't have to read anything more than the URL. So fucking depressing that children are fighting for their lives because of adult stupidity.
Just saw the local school system's approach for keeping schools open - it's pretty comprehensive. They're even going to offer pool testing for K-6 students to try and stay ahead of localized outbreaks. Who knows, it could work.
We have given out enough carrots to promote vaccination, time to bring out the sticks.
San Francisco announced yesterday that proof of full vaccination will be required to dine in a restaurant, drink in a bar, work out in a gym, or be in any indoor venue with more than 1,000 capacity. Negative tests not good enough.
I find it a relief.
The 24 hour fitness in Moraga has a mask mandate. I wonder which is better, given that someone can provide a fake vaccination document.
You're going to have both in the city.
Also I hated running on the treadmill with a mask during the previous mask mandate, even the nice Under Armour exercise masks. I was going to 24 hour fitness because No 1 was in town and 24 hour fitness allowed bringing in buddies for a year due to the covid shutdown. Now that he's back in Philly I may just start running outside again.
Running on a treadmill is the worst. I can't fathom what it would be like with a mask.
I could never do it. I never run at exactly the same speed and I always weave right and left a little bit. This time it was better. I stayed more or less in place but did have to pay attention to my speed.
I also started having some Plantar Fasclitis so I also thought the treadmill might be easier on my heel. Not really.
The Under Armour mask helps a little bit, but the problem for me is that I sweat a lot so it gets wet when I breathe.
1 Month until we move back and I get to finally head to Santa Clara. My prediction will be that we have a smooth year (there is a vaccine requirement) aside from December and January where we might have online classes for a few weeks on either side of Christmas break.
Does Santa Clara have any mask mandates? Santa Cruz recently announced masks required indoors. Same with Vandy, though Vandy did say if the classroom is large enough for everyone to socially distance, masks are not required.
Santa Clara County is one of the Bay Area counties with an indoor mask mandate.
Ahh...so SCU was forced into it. Makes sense though.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
I don' know. Today is the day Trump was to be reinstated and time is getting short.
Trump PAC hires Iowa staff as war chest builds ahead of 2024
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/12/trump-pac-iowa-2024-504294
I thought Ferentz & crew was safe in Iowa City ;-)
If you want to feel slightly dumber, listen to Louie Gohmert
https://twitter.com/mount_bees/status/1425831903085711360?s=19
Wait 'til they hear about how much damage housecats do to the local bird population...
That is a major problem that needs to get some attention.
The pet population, does significant damage to the environment by killing local native animals and the amount of land that is spent to grow food to make cat and dog food doesn’t help.
I can confidently state that no matter how good of a hunter one of my dogs thinks she is, she has never, and I believe, will never catch a lizard in our back yard.
So I have 2 bird dogs...the 14 y.o. vizsla (1 of only 2 red things I own) that I road tripped with last summer is no longer really interested in birds or bunnies, etc. My 7 month old Brittany spaniel puppy, however, is obsessed with ALL airborne things...birds, bees, butterflies, moths, flies, airplanes, anything...he can chase moths in the back yard for an hour...it's borderline ridiculous.
Our lizard “hunter” has caught a bee before (she regularly hunts and kills house flies) and was promptly stung on the roof of her mouth, leading to a hilariously plump snout for a couple hours. We now refer to bees as spicy flies.
pqtm.
Of course, any attempt to solve that issue would be met with cries of "They're coming to take your dog! They hate America's farmers!" from the same crowd.
Some people shouldn’t be pet parents, let alone human parents.
I work in a rural area and I see a lot of stray dogs and cats that cause all sorts of problems in the community.
"Some people shouldn’t be pet parents, let alone human parents"
Ain't that the truth. Unfortunately they aren't very good at realizing that about themselves.
"slightly"? That's self lobotomization
PRO
Field of Dreams game. Any thoughts?
"Hey, look! A baseball game!"
And that's about the nicest thing I can say about the game itself.
If MLB has to resort to a gimmick to buck up interest in the game, the Lords of Baseball have no damned business being the Lords of Baseball.
If you want more background, please see my critique of the Field of Dreams Game in yesterday's DBD.
Just read that Shoeless Joe Jackson was the first Chicago player to hit a walk-off to beat the Yankees. Last night's walk-off by the Sox was their 15th against the Yankees.
The field/setting and game itself were great, both better than I expected. The announcing crew got tiresome. By the third inning I was tired of hearing over and over about how meticulous the grass looked or how "individual moments will be forgotten but everyone will remember the experience of playing here." The crew was too saccharine.
Well let's see who the announcers were...Joe Buck...check. Makes sense.
I hate Joe Buck almost as much as I hate the Dodgers.
Holy shit
I hate him as well. He is slightly tolerable with MLB but absolutely terrible calling a NFL game.
The one thing I will say was I did enjoy hearing him call the 3rd out of the 2010, 2012, and 2014 Word Series'...he was almost tolerable then.
Joe Buck should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell...(would you like a cookie?)....and now, I look up, and he's the current Jeopardy guest host....FML
Last night (or was it the night before?) Mrs Slug said, "Why is he shouting?"
"Reversion to his typical announcing style," said I.
"This isn't a baseball game, a$$hole!"
At least he is only the guest host. He could be the third permanent host of Jeopardy.
The White Sox old time uniforms were awesome. Yankees, not so much.
And yet, the Yankees have worn that road uni since 1915, it seems.
I forgot about that. They were nice.
One of the most entertaining games of the season. 8 balls into the corn fields. (Actually 9, but one was foul, but still deep in the corn.)
It would have still been special even without a good game, but with a great game, it was the resounding success MLB can really use.
Already looking forward to next year's edition.
It was an exciting finish. Yankees lost, so I think it was a success.
When I lived in Jersey, I was a big Yankees fan even though I still rooted for the Giants and the A's.
I spent 12 years in the Adirondack region, plus another 6 summers at Lake George, fighting an always-uphill battle v. the monstrous East Coast bias that pervades the area. I still owe some d-bag $20 for claiming Darren Lewis would be a better ball player than Bernie Williams…oops.
Our proximity to MA meant that along with the obnoxious Yankees fans, the now-newly entitled Red Sox fans also must be tolerated, & they became insufferable. The Mets were a complete afterthought in my time there.
Re: Mets as an afterthought, boy, does that ring a bell. My experience was similar. The Mets were to be pitied or derided at every turn. Usually, no one cared.
Part of the impetus for this transplant fandom was that I hated the Reds almost as much as the Dodgers.
Yes, this! Any game the Yankees lose is a good one!!
The home plate ump was awful, which has been par for the course this year across MLB...it's an epidemic...ball/strikes calls have been abysmal ALL season, regardless of the crew. Surprised Kopech didn't get run...
Yankees losing always makes things better.
I think the only time I’ve ever rooted for the Yankees to win was during the Civil War.
Heh
Game #115: A’s complete sweep with 17-0 win over Indians
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/8/12/22622450/oakland-as-game-115-cleveland-indians-score-result
No comeback necessary this time.
The Oakland A’s started scoring early on Thursday and never stopped, resulting in a 17-0 blowout over the Cleveland Indians. The A’s completed a three-game sweep at Progressive Field, and ran their win streak to seven games, and they did so in style with the most lopsided shutout victory in franchise history.
In each of the first two games in this series, Cleveland took a lead in the opening innings and then Oakland waited until the last minute to strike back. That did not happen this afternoon. The A’s scored a few in the 2nd inning, then a bunch more in the 4th, 5th, and 6th, and then even more in the 8th and 9th just for good measure. Meanwhile the Indians managed only three hits and never crossed home plate a single time.
Great win by the Raiders over the Browns.
That's what I thought.
Me to wife when I came home yesterday from work: "I see the A's scored two touchdowns and a field goal against Cleveland today!"
Mrs Slug laughed.
Remarkable that 17-0 is the most lopsided shutout win, given how far back the Giants go, and how many good teams they have had. But then baseball used to have more of a trend of not running up scores once it got near a double digit lead.
Impressive game.
Logan Webb states his stance on the designated hitter as Giants shut out Rockies
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/8/12/22622975/san-francisco-giants-rockies-recap-logan-webb-lamonte-wade-jr
Logan Webb is not the ace of the San Francisco Giants staff, but he might just be the ace of the Giants staff at this particular moment.
Webb has now made 10 straight starts without allowing more than two runs, and he’s given up one or fewer earned runs in eight of those 10 starts. Right now he is not particularly hittable ... except when he’s the one wearing the hard hat and standing in the batter’s box.
The young righty was dominant on the mound on Thursday against the Colorado Rockies, but was also one of the Giants most impactful offensive players.
Logan Webb hit the longest single I have ever seen last night. He missed a Grand Salami by about 6 inches.
Giants just inked Crawford to a 2 year, $32 M extension...
Dodgers offense goes ice cold in loss to Phillies
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/8/12/22622260/los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-news-recap-cody-bellinger
The pitching did their job but the offense took the day off, as the Dodgers dropped the series finale to the Phillies, 2-1. For the game, LA recorded only three hits, all of which were singles.
The offense had a few chances to put runs on the board, but they couldn’t capitalize. In the first inning, they had runners on first and second with two outs. Instead of getting some early runs, Corey Seager struck out to end the inning.
Bryce Harper came out of his two-game slump, hitting a home run in the bottom of the first to put the Phillies on the board. Harper proved to be the difference maker in the game for Philadelphia. He reached base with a walk in the fourth inning and ultimately came in to score. His two runs scored were all the Phillies needed on the afternoon.
CAL
Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC in discussions about forming alliance: Sources
https://theathletic.com/news/big-ten-pac-12-acc-in-discussions-about-forming-alliance-sources/1Fv1mfs4guai
The Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC are engaging in high-level discussions about an alliance, sources tell The Athletic.
Talks have centered around not just a scheduling alliance in football but in broader cooperation, according to sources in the three conferences. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips have been having conversations for several weeks.
“I’ve been in frequent and regular contact with all of the other A5 commissioners the last few weeks about the complex issues that are facing the industry,” Kliavkoff said, adding that there’s “nothing to report on this specific matter at this time.”
Go Bears!!!
hopefully we don't have to forfeit games due to the new Pac 12 COVID rules.
Hopefully the whole team will be vaccinated by the start of the season. Since Wilcox says "almost all" of the players are vaccinated, I wonder if there will be any holdouts,
Still have to consider those breakthrough cases if they pop and the subsequent contact tracing (I'm more worried about this from a football POV)