Erik McDonald
@erikmcdonald.bsky.social
1.1K followers 3.8K following 270 posts
Russian teacher in Minneapolis xixvek.wordpress.com
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Reposted by Erik McDonald
dbrauer.net
If I’m reading Kyle right, Frey admits failing to issue 100 housing vouchers *that are funded this year because he wants to kill the program next year.* (This is not Stable Schools, but for single folks.) This is unallotment Trump-style, especially since county/MPHA are in.
Friction point: In August, to remedy Stable Homes Stable Schools' $3.2 million projected shortfall, Frey proposed canceling another promising anti-homelessness initiative to provide 100
emergency housing vouchers for chronically unsheltered individuals and families. • Many City Council members believe this is needed just as urgently, and the council earmarked the funding last year to revive the pandemic-era program "that had incredibly successful outcomes at long-term housing stability," Ward 2 representative Robin Wonsley
wrote in a newsletter. Yes, but: No vouchers have been issued yet, so Frey administration officials decided it would be irresponsible to begin a new anti-homelessness initiative - promising though it may be - with
an existing program short on funds.
Reposted by Erik McDonald
dorothyjberry.bsky.social
relaxed saturday evening reading through "women designers of book plates (1902)" and flipped past a couple of beautiful professional designs only to see this perfect plate by a young Miss Page
an open book with a hand-drawn bookplate on the right side. the top of the plate has "A. Helen Page" written in tentative cursive. below that is a child's drawing of a girl with wavy hair and a triangle skirt. at the bottom, in tentative print "HER BOOK 1899"
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
This one still makes me worried about calling 911 for a medical emergency, and I doubt the people who ignored actual hypoglycemia suffered any professional or legal consequences. They assumed the man must be on drugs after being accurately told he was diabetic and suffering from low blood sugar.
'It was hell:' Ketamine shot sends Minneapolis man into intensive care, renews calls for investigation
Partner says giving man sedative put him in ICU.
www.startribune.com
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
We should both hire people who care about the lives and comfort of those who are at their mercy while detained, and make it so people who callously ignore medical emergencies never work in these fields again.
Reposted by Erik McDonald
Reposted by Erik McDonald
stano.bsky.social
There was a massive difference in the life of the average German between 1925, 1930 and 1935. That difference was not because the Nazi Party became more fascist over that period, but because a fascist movement was gained control over more state functions.
radiofreetom.bsky.social
If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means.
mouthfulofcavities.bsky.social
the regime is zip tying toddlers and ripping them away from their mothers unclothed... calling it fascism upsets this neo-con.
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
"Sad marble angels brood like hens
over the grassy nests where nothing hatches.
(The angels could just as well be described as *vulgar*
or *pitiless*, depending on camera angle.)"
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Not sure why it came up when I was searching for an 18c novel, but it's amazing that the Five Find-Outers and Dog series has been translated into Russian
Cover of Russian version of an Enid Blyton novel for children, Пять юных сыщиков: Тайна ограбления в театре, on an audiobook app
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
“‘I got so much done. I got so much policy passed, I got really good budgets passed. I embedded some key racial equity things that it took a long time for Jacob to undo,’ [Betsy Hodges] says today, reflecting on her term.”
'Call It the Clown Car': An Oral History of Minneapolis's 35-Candidate 2013 Mayoral Election - Racket
Thirty-five candidates. Three dozen debates. Two unrelated pirate-centric elements. The first real test of ranked-choiced voting and, finally, a new mayor.
racketmn.com
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
This whole thread is interesting!
delafina777.bsky.social
And that monologue is also something that I think is completely dependent on the actor to carry it, because "How dare you come to me now, when I am this?" is... awkward.

Don't get me wrong, that's something a real person might say. But generally, we don't want to hear actual realism.
Reposted by Erik McDonald
hannahmross.bsky.social
This is the guy on the credentials committee that ousted me as a delegate for being an “outside agitator.” He lives in WAYZATA. I live in Ward 2. This is outrageous. Ward 2 needs new leadership, stat.
taylordahlin.com
suitor questions wall, asking where he lives. says he has a couple residents but his primary residence is in wayzata

HE JUST CAUCUSED IN WARD 2
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
"The older you get, and the worse your hearing gets... the more adventurous you are with rhyme... So in that way, the old brigade have an advantage, if they cared to use it" (42:34)—Pushkin translator Antony Wood
Antony Wood "On Reading and Translating Pushkin” -- December 7, 2020
YouTube video by READ RUSSIA
youtu.be
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
On why matrimony is different from patrimony (answers are in the comments)
Matrimony. : languagehat.com
languagehat.com
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
I'll believe it—I heard it go by in a scripted show from ~2018, used by a kind of over-the-top aging criminal character
Reposted by Erik McDonald
jamesrball.com
The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s.

Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!
tom-clark.bsky.social
Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds

open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
I think copaganda would be more effective if more of it was police officers deciding who takes the station guinea pig Ivanych home
Five men sit at a table with a guinea pig in the middle
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Без копья = "without a spear," or in informal Russian "without a cent, broke"
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Word of the day: raccourci. "En raccourci" can mean "foreshortened (visual arts)" or "in summary." Or "shortcut," like an Excel keyboard shortcut. And apparently in one context "wrinkle."
French movie poster with the title "Un Raccourci dans le temps"
Reposted by Erik McDonald
dbrauer.net
Endorsements! In ranked order (key races):
Mayor: Davis, Fateh, Jazz
BET: Bernstein, Brandt
Parks At-Large: Olson, Wilson, Frederick
W2: Wonsley
W4: Haynes
W5: Burnett
W7: Cashman
W8: Stevenson
W10: Chughtai
W12: Chowdhury
Parks D1: Englehart
D3: Deshpande
D4: Garcia
D5: Carvajal Moran
D6: Jourdain
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Plus a grim picture, even if it's a joke.
Colorful chalkboard that says "message from the barista: leave a review on Yandex cards so the boss gives me back my passport!!!" in Russian
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
"For every degustation spot for fine wines, or craft beer popups in Moscow suburbs, there’s a ‘Red and White’ booze discounter. Red and White has over 21,000 little stores across the country. That’s twice as many outlets as there are McDonalds in the US."
‘Spiritual values’ of the booze shops. Russia’s convenience economy as part of the soft administrative regime, Part II
Consumption according to station is a moral virtue – achieving some kind of comfort and habitability becomes an ethical marker, rather than a purely socio-economic one
postsocialism.org
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
"Imagine for a moment how odd a time the first half of the 20th century was, how dizzying its noise...A distinguished officer who in the 1910s made a lasting impression on two literary giants was by 1938 appearing as 'Professor Von Stupor' in the Three Stooges short 'Violent Is the World of Curly.'"
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Reverso used to be so much more useful (though tbf if you scroll far enough you get better results)
Russian and English sentences where the word "rotaprint" is incorrectly translated as "rosary," then "roads"
erikmcdonald.bsky.social
Word of the day: подвох, usually 'mean trick, attempt to deceive someone' or 'catch' as in "there must be a catch," but whimsically used as a shortening of ПОДВодный ОХотник 'underwater hunter, spearfisher' by spearfishers.