Rebecca M. Townsend

Agreed. And "rural bloodsuckers" is a tough phrase to read here. Oof.

Kraft Group agrees to help cover security costs of hosting World Cup Gillette Stadium announced Thursday that Kraft Sports and Entertainment committed to helping cover the security costs of hosting seven World Cup games at the venue this summer.

And how that news has been received....

www.wcvb.com/article/the-...

Excellent NYT video analysis finds that the bombing of scores of schoolchildren in Iran came amid other US strikes in the vicinity:

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...

One person sorry to see Stalin go was the great African American social scientist & activist W. E. B. Du Bois: "a great man," who "seldom lost his courtesy," "still the butt of noisy jackals and of the ill-bred men of some parts of the distempered West"
www.marxists.org/ref...

The western press on Stalin's death:

NY Times
Stalin Rose From Czarist Oppression to Transform Russia Into Mighty Socialist State
archive.nytimes.com/...

Sunday Times
Stalin Rose From Czarist Oppression to Transform Russia Into Mighty Socialist State
archive.nytimes.com/...

gray ticket with emblem of the USSR at upper left Whitney's name (WHITNEY THOMAS) is filled in by hand

view of the two-story reading room in Webster Hall, formerly the home of the biology department, now housing Russian and Asian studies numerous books around the walls on both stories, as well as a collection of samovars About | Amherst Center for Russian Culture | Amherst College https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/russian/acrc/description

5 March 1953: Death of Stalin
A ticket to his state funeral for Thomas Whitney. The diplomat, journalist, translator, & author collected an immense amount of material involving the history and culture of Russian and the USSR now at his alma mater Amherst College (link alt text)

5 March 1953: Death of Stalin
Jews were not sorry to see him go, either as he was about to launch a persecution that some have seen as genocidal www.jstor.org/stable...
That he suffered a stroke on the festival of Purim and dies soon afterward seemed an act of providence

Wow! This was truly surprising to me.

5 March 1953: Death of Stalin

As Vatnik Soup already put it: Happy anniversary to those who celebrate!

I know that #Poles and #Poland will: it is the anniversary of the date (1940) on which Stalin approved te NKVD proposal to execute thousands of POWs
enrs.eu/news/katyn-m....

What a harrowing situation for your friend. My goodness.

Thanks for this. It is something I've been wondering about for my personal/family history.

the thing about being part of a diaspora is that your culture is formed around diaspora and people who didn't leave may not share it, even if diaspora culture is a lot about the place from which you left.

At this time, I am speaking of Irish and Irish-American.

The whole "war on cars" whining is really the perfect example of, "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

Absolutely fascinating information about better city development.

BREAKING:

The Justice Department just posted online three FBI interviews that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files initially released.

They're related to unsubstantiated sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump.

DOC 1: www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

New news
#fifa #Foxborough
#WorldCup

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/05/m...

Phil Stewart • @phild... TRUMP: NO EVACUATION PLAN FOR EMBASSIES BECAUSE IT HAPPENED VERY QUICKLY David Weigel • @da... Hillary GIF

🎯

colored engraving in gold frame description of the composition and the way it works from Gilder Lehrmann Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770 | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/paul-reveres-engraving-boston-massacre-1770 from Metropolitan Museum Engraved, printed and sold by Paul Revere Jr. - The Boston Massacre, or, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment - The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/365208

amidst gray squares pavers brass circular metal band reading BOSTON MASSACRE SITE MARCH 5, 1770 with stars around the edge rows of cobblestones point inward to a star Boston Massacre Site | The Freedom Trail https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/trail-sites/boston-massacre-site

5 March 1770: Boston Massacre

as seen by Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/item/tod...

&

Mass Humanities
www.massmoments.org/...

Here's the Revere print, in the Old Boston State House near where the event took place: now marked by a large circular memorial in the pavement

It's genuinely crazy that FIFA and Trump want taxpayers from a town of 18k people to foot nearly $8 million for security for the World Cup.

Gone but not forgotten: say hello to the new Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas

Deadline set for FIFA’s $7.8m World Cup row with Foxboro, games at risk as town stands firm "Same bulls---" - A March 17 deadline has been set over a security-funding row that has put Boston's World Cup matches at risk

www.nytimes.com/athletic/708...

‘It’s not acceptable’: Will a small town be left $7.8m on the hook for the World Cup? At a meeting of the board that governs the World Cup stadium in Foxborough, promises were made if not accepted

"hyperlocal politics has mixed with a global behemoth of a sporting organization used to getting its way, with a dysfunctional federal government uneasily linking the two" www.theguardian.com/football/202...

No license yet for World Cup games as Foxborough asks for public safety funding up front “It’s not acceptable for us,” Foxborough Select Board Chair Bill Yukna told lawyers for the Boston hosting committee Tuesday night.

“We are 99 or 100 days away from hosting the largest sporting event in the world, and we can’t seem to find necessary funding for necessary equipment that’s been identified in over a year and a half of planning,” Foxborough Police Chief Michael Grace said. www.boston.com/news/local-n...

Meant to share this while it was still Purim; a few years ago, I wrote a jokey, but also sincere article about why prune hamantaschen are the best, and—for a while—Google AI plagiarized the funny parts as facts and ignored the sincere parts that actually talked about the cultural history of lekvar.

You brought back a good memory: my Aromanian grandmother, born in Greece, used to make apricot. They are my favorite cookie ever. Now learning of the safe for orthodontics version, I am curious about prune.

29 point swing towards Democrats in *Arkansas*. Texas Republicans should be gulping nervously, right now.
(Original image reposted with alt text)

Former Governor Roy Cooper wins the North Carolina Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and will face Michael Whatley, former chairman of the RNC, in the general election.

I've seen enough: James Talarico (D) wins the #TXSEN Dem primary.

WTAF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS