The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

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Once again, thanks to Donovan Hunter for the find!

Thanks to Donovan Hunter for the find!

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Never forget that for this administration and its supporters, the cruelty is the point.

In case you need context:

• Want to know where this display is? See the LA Times piece, Claremont nativity scene depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees separated in cages.
• The New Yorker: A New Report on Family Separations Shows the Depths of Trump’s Negligence
• AP: US held record number of migrant children in custody in 2019
• Vox: The horrifying conditions facing kids in border detention, explained
• Time: Here’s What to Know About the Status of Family Separation at the U.S. Border, Which Isn’t Nearly Over
• Texas Tribune: Family separations aren’t over. As many as five kids per day are separated from their parents at the border.

Thanks to Chris Laco for the find.

Here’s the full text of the question:

I very much enjoy your column, and you are much kinder than I am. It may be my age, but my parents weren’t expected to pay for college when I came of age. I am, yes, a baby boomer. From reading your column it seems like lots of people of varying ages seem to believe that they have rights to an inheritance, often by virtue of being a DNA relative and, sometimes, by virtue of a marriage.

I disagree with this assumption. Please educate me. Are my somewhat scornful reactions a reflection of my own age or ignorance? Or can I or anyone else write a will leaving their estate to whomever they like — say a charity, or the kid next door, or their nurse — instead of their kids and spouse? What is the law and etiquette regarding wills and inheritance?

Wow. This isn’t the only surprising question that people ask The Moneyist. A sampling:

• My stepmother told me she wasn’t required to file my father’s will — then she left his house, cars and investments to her kids
• I discovered through Ancestry.com that my biological father is someone else — can I claim an inheritance as his heir?
• My friend asked me to be her maid of honor but didn’t invite me to her wedding — am I expected to buy her a gift?
• This woman’s husband sponsored her to move to the U.S., but he kept a $200K windfall and insisted she pay all the bills
• My husband’s two children would toss me out of the house if he were to die before me — what can I do?

Thirty years ago today — December 6th, 1989 — some asshole went into École Polytechnique de Montréal (“Polytechnic School of Montreal” in English, an engineering school) and fatally shot 14 young women who were studying to be engineers. The asshole, who himself had failed to gain admission to the university, shouted, “You’re all a bunch of feminists and I hate feminists!”

I was an engineering student at Queen’s University at the time of the tragedy, and I remember the day — and the debates — that happened then. As a techie who grew up in Canada, I’m making it a point to remember the names of the women who lost their lives that day — all because they simply wanted to be engineers:

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In memory of this event, Canada’s parliament declared December 6th the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in 1991. Let’s not forget what happened then, and let’s remember that even today, thirty years later, will still have to contend with people who hold women in the same low regard as the asshole who opened fire on that classroom.

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Recommended reading

• How engineers of the Montreal Massacre generation are changing the world: Accomplished women share thoughts on their engineering careers and impact of the tragedy.
• 30 Years Later: “To commemorate this tragic event and to promote the outstanding work of female engineers across Canada, Engineering Deans Canada invited each of the Canadian engineering schools that offered an accredited engineering program in 1989 to put forward the story of an engineering alumna who graduated within three years of the massacre (1986-1992), and whose career exemplifies the value that women bring to the engineering profession and to society.”
• ‘Hate is infectious’: how the 1989 mass shooting of 14 women echoes today. The massacre at Montreal’s Polytechnique school, fueled by misogyny, is not a horrifying memory confined to a bygone era – rather it seems like a foretelling of things to come
• Polytechnique: These women scientists are too young to remember the massacre, but it changed their lives. It has been 30 years since the deadly massacre at École Polytechnique – a time today’s young students don’t remember because they weren’t yet alive. However, the murders on Dec. 6, 1989 of 14 women, targeting them in an act against feminism, changed Montreal as a whole and sparked a greater conversation about women in science.
• In the thirty years since École Polytechnique: Seeing the connections between thirty years ago and today.
• Herstories: Book honours 14 women killed at Polytechnique 30 years ago. “But 30 years later, how much do we know about the women who died in the shooting at École Polytechnique? What did each accomplish in her short life? What hopes and dreams did she leaved unfulfilled when she was gunned down on Dec. 6, 1989? As a sombre anniversary dawns, these are among the questions addressed in a new book by journalist Josée Boileau. Ce jour-là: Parce qu’elles étaient des femmes [In English: That day: Because they were women] revisits a dark day in history.”
• Violent misogyny is a threat to half our population. We need to call it what it is: Terrorism. “The Montreal massacre of 1989 was just one in a long line of mass killings motivated by hatred of women. What would happen, and how many lives could be saved, if we treated them as a pattern of hate crimes?”

Why I don’t refer to the shooter by name, but just as “some asshole”

I wish it was my idea, but it came from Justin Pierce’s webcomic Wonderella:

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Here’s some context, just in case you missed the news or are reading this years later, when Orange Julius Caesar is a distant memory and object lesson in what not to do.

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With the slogan “The microbrew of hummus”, they’re probably trying to say “It’s really, really good”, or “It’s made with care and natural ingredients in small batches,” or even “Cooler than your average hummus”.

But it could also be interpreted as:

• “Made by skinny white guys with really huge beards who ride unicycles who listen to too much Bon Iver.”
• “You’re supposed to put this in a preciously tiny bowl as part of a hummus flight.”
• “We took a strong-tasting ingredient that normally goes into it, and then used too much.” For microbrew, it’s hops — what would it be for hummus? Garlic?
• “We added something that normally doesn’t go into hummus.” I really can’t complain about that. I enjoyed 7venth Sun’s peanut-mole stout the other night, and there’s some pretty nice dessert hummus on the market these days.