Meanderings, 30 November 2024
It’s true. The weather outside (has turned) frightful, but the fire inside (whether you have a fireplace or not — we don’t) delightful. Winter’s wall of icy chill hit us Friday here in Chicagoland. Ooftah. I’d prefer a slow chill instead of sudden blast.
Photo by Jessica Johnston on Unsplash
Big Ed on a Big Thanksgiving: (by the way, Big Ed’s is one of our favorites)
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The Thanksgiving spirit was alive and well in Waukegan where a team of volunteers was hard at work handing out free Thanksgiving dinners.
On Thursday, Big Ed’s BBQ & Bar delivered in a big way. The restaurant prepared and handed out free Thanksgiving dinners.
Hundreds of people lined up outside the restaurant, which is located in the 4000 block of Northpoint Boulevard, to grab a plate, with some waiting as long as two hours.
The line stretched a half mile down the road for most of the afternoon, but after finally reaching the restaurant, many were excited to see what was on their plate.
The generous effort was made possible thanks to dozens of volunteers who gave up time on their holiday to assemble plates for everyone who showed up.
“It brings me joy helping people and giving them these meals and it’s a lot of fun,” volunteer Kelly Callen Magallon said.
Eddie Nero, the owner of Big Ed’s said he started preparing food on Monday to make sure there would be enough to go around.
Australian lawmakers on Thursday approved a landmark ban on social media for children under 16 in some of the world’s toughest such controls.
The ban, which aims to address the impact of excessive social media use on children’s physical and mental health, affects social media platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit, but not YouTube.
The platforms, which bear sole responsibility for enforcement, have one year to figure out how to implement the age limit, which is the highest set by any country. If there are systemic failures to keep children from having accounts, the platforms are liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million).
Senators debated the legislation late into the night on the last day of their parliamentary session, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor government had targeted as the deadline for it to pass. The bill, which is also largely supported by the opposition Liberal Party, passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 102 to 13.
Supporters of the ban have cited the effect of harmful depictions of body image on girls and the effect of misogynistic content on boys. Its passage comes after a series of Australian teenagers died by suicide over what their families said was online bullying.
“The basis for this is that there is a feeling amongst the majority of Australians that social media does more harm than good,” said Rob Nicholls, a senior research associate in media and communication at the University of Sydney.
A YouGov poll released Tuesday found that 77% of Australians support the ban, up from 61% in August.
America has an unlikely breed as its new national dog champion.
For the first time in at least two decades, a pug has been crowned best in show at the 92nd annual National Dog Show Presented by Purina.
The pug, named Vito, is the No. 1 pug in all show systems and the No. 2 toy dog in the U.S, according to a release. He claimed best of breed at this year’s Westminster Dog Show in New York City and best of breed at the AKC National Show last year.
In total, Vito has racked up 25 best-in-shows, even though he is only 2½ years old, said his co-owner Carolyn Koch of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
"I'm so proud of him," Koch (pronounced Cook) said in an interview. She called pugs "her breed" and said she was thrilled Vito was resonating in the show-dog world.
Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton, former strangers who met eight years ago in a mistaken text message exchange, are reuniting for their ninth Thanksgiving celebration this week.
Hinton shared an Instagram post Monday, ahead of Thanksgiving, with a collage of photos of him and Dench over the years, writing in the caption, "Excited to announce that I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year for Wanda and I! 🦃✨ Looking forward to a day filled with good food, great company, and lasting memories. Year 9 coming soon!🖤"
The happy announcement comes one month after Dench revealed in a message shared to Hinton's Instagram and social media pages that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
While reflecting at the time on their unexpected friendship and how it has positively shaped their lives, Dench shared that a CT scan for bronchitis unexpectedly uncovered a mass in her breast, leading to a diagnosis of breast cancer after further testing. Dench shared her surprise at her breast cancer diagnosis, noting that cancer doesn't run in her family and her previous mammograms were always clear. …
Dench and Hinton's friendship began in 2016, after Hinton received a Thanksgiving text from Dench meant for her family.
After confirming the mistake, Hinton lightheartedly asked if he could still join Dench for dinner, to which Dench replied, "Of course you can. That's what grandmas do ... feed everyone."
The pair quickly became friends and their story subsequently went viral. The two have spent every Thanksgiving together since then.
Eric Metaxas unhinged (again):
Relatives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who have criticized Eric Metaxas are “Jew-hating lunatics,” Metaxas told Glenn Beck Nov. 23.
On his podcast, Beck asked Metaxas about criticism of his portrayal of Bonhoeffer — a German pastor who resisted Hitler and was executed by the Nazis — by 86 Bonhoeffer descendants. Those relatives issued a public letter Oct. 18 saying: “We are horrified to see how the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is increasingly being distorted and misused by right-wing extremists, xenophobes and religious agitators.”
They singled out Metaxas as a primary agitator and expressed concern about a new Bonhoeffer film that portrays the pastor as a spy and assassin.
Metaxas, a Christian nationalist who wrote a controversial biography of Bonhoeffer, laughed out loud when Beck asked about the family’s criticisms.
“Oh, yeah, distant relatives who are guaranteed pro-Hamas lunatics,” he responded. “So these are Jew-hating lunatics claiming to speak for the man who died for the Jews of Europe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I mean, let’s be clear: So relatives of Bonhoeffer wrote that he would never have seen himself anywhere near the rightwing extremist — yeah violent movements — that are trying to appropriate him today.
“Yeah, oh, the violent movements. What’s the violent movement? What are we talking about? What’s the violent movement — antifa? Oh, sorry, that’s the Marxist left. Who are we talking about””
Then Metaxas explained to Beck: “Look, these people — you’ve dealt with them longer than I have — they’re unhinged. There’s no talking to them. They have their view. It’s a free country but they’re crazy.”
The Bonhoeffer family and most Bonhoeffer scholars think Metaxas is the one who’s daft.
“In the book, he ignored the historical context and misrepresented Bonhoeffer as a fundamentalist evangelical,” the family said in their letter. “Metaxas, now a right-wing Trump supporter, regularly compares U.S. President Biden to Hitler, speaks of ‘total war’ and posts photos of a gun on a Bible: ‘So we can now finally clearly see that Biden is our Hitler. … See my Bonhoeffer book for details.”
The "word of the year" for 2024 has an unexpected Chicago connection.
Dictionary.com revealed its top pick for word of the year Tuesday, saying the short list of options "capture pivotal moments in language and culture" -- and this year's winner was no exception.
"These words serve as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year. The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year," the website stated.
This year, that word is, unsurprisingly, "demure."
The word "experienced a meteoric rise in usage in 2024," credited largely to TikToker Jools Lebron, whose viral phrase "very demure, very mindful" became a staple both on and off social media.
Lebron, who is Chicago based, even filed to trademark the phrase.
Ahhhh !!!! I look forward to reading your Saturday morning meanderings. They make me either very happy or challenging me to really think about topics you write about.