A news report with heart - from Portland Maine: The C. Love Cookie Project

"The goal is to make people feel welcome," says Katherine Slevin.

This article was reported in the October 21, 2019, The Free Press, the student newspaper published by the University of Southern Maine. 

Heart of Portland Maine:  Cookies (the sweet kind!) With a Cause
by Tyler Tripp, a staff writer

Local Baker Donates to the Immigrant Community

“Portland is a little city, but it certainly packs a punch”, Katherine Slevin said with a smile. The same could be said about Slevin and her small business startup, The C. Love Cookie Project.
The C. Love Cookie Project is a Portland, Maine-based company that was incorporated in 2017, with the goal of providing aid to the immigrant community that now calls Portland home. 

In fact, the company donates 21 percent of its sales to three local charities in three different stages, according to Slevin. In 2018, her cookies began popping up all over Portland.

Slevin is a classically trained pastry chef who has worked all over the world, as well as Portland. “I have had extensive baking and pastry training throughout my entire career. I have worked in incredible kitchens and under some amazing chefs, like Standard Baking Co.”

However,, Slevin put her life on hold in 2016, to pursue a cause that was bigger than herself.

She moved to the island of Lesvos to volunteer at the Moria refugee camp during the Syrian refugee crisis to help displaced people start a new life in a foreign country. “I was like, I need to go. It was very, very crowded, with thousands of refugees coming to Moria. It was extremely difficult.” According to Slevin, she was tasked with clothing distribution for the entire camp, and quickly became one of the lead volunteers, meeting with representatives of humanitarian aid organizations and the Greek government frequently.

“There were only a couple hundred volunteers to literally thousands of refugees. I would come home at the end of the day feeling discouraged that I didn’t help enough people. It changed my life and the trajectory of it.”

When Slevin came back after months of volunteer work in Greece, she decided that she would do what she could to help people struggling and suffering in her own community.

“Having had that experience in Greece, I knew that I had to do something to help in a more organized way than just donating money to immigrants and internationals.”

Cookies for a Cause- Love Chocolate Chip

Slevin realized that she could use her skill set to bring people together through one common bond…cookies. “I’m a simple person, and cookies are approachable,” she said “Every culture has their own type of cookie and they cross cultural boundaries; they cross age boundaries. My almost 80-year-old father loves them just as my 3-year-old niece loves them.”

Slevin would not stop at just making cookies and selling them to the community. She decided to bring the community into her kitchen by instructing baking and pastry classes.

“The goal is to make people feel welcome. Kitchens are such a welcoming space,” she said. “When you are at a gathering at someone’s house, everyone always seems to be hanging out in and around the kitchen whether there is a beautiful dining room or living room. That idea, with people coming from all over the world, especially many women, that is their comfortable place. I want that to be the feel; make people feel welcome no matter what, where they come from, whether or not they speak English or not…that’s it.”

Slevin brings a variety of different cookies to the table and is not shy about the rich ingredients that she uses in her product line. “I’m obsessed with butter,” chuckled Slevin. “People who don’t even know me come up to me and say ‘someday your gravestone will say, this woman loves butter’.” She paused. “Yeah, I want that.”

Her trademark cookie is the classic chocolate chip, but her flavors also include a line of “Dude” cookies, inspired by snickerdoodles. “I get bored with cinnamon, so I decided to come up with a line of some of my favorite flavors like Coffee, Lavender, Nutmeg, and Vanilla,” said Slevin.

Slevin is most proud of her “Dope” cookie. It is an homage to a list of positive affirmations and reflections that she wrote in a journal while in Greece, which Slevin refers to as “The Dope and Nope List”. Also, keep an eye out for her new Summit cookie with dark chocolate and dried cherries.

Slevin said she has high hopes for her business’ mission and faith in the consumers who purchase her cookies regularly. “As long as a business is honest about their cause, I think it is a really important movement and shows that people in our generation actually do [care],” said Slevin.

Memories: A "wedding lovely" tribute to Representative Elijah Cummings

A "Let's Write" memory essay published in Know Your Value.

Usually, a wedding article brings out the best attributes for the bride and groom.  This "Let's Write" article is another creative point of view.  In this essay, the author Mika Brzezinski, who happened to be the bride, writes a loving tribute to the man chosen to officiat her marriage to Joe Scarborough.  Nice. 

Remembering Elijah Cummings: Why Joe and I asked him to officiate our wedding

Rep. Cummings' words at Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough's wedding left a lasting impression.

"Go out there, and create wonderful memories. Because one day, that’s all you will have. The memories,” said Cummings.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were married at the National Archives in Washington in November 2018. The ceremony was officiated by Rep. Elijah Cummings. Miller Hawkins

By Mika Brzezinski
Joe and I wanted our wedding to be small and private. The setting needed to be connected to who we are and how we came to this place in our lives.

We picked the National Archives in Washington, D.C., believing that it would be the most fitting place to celebrate our most important moment together.

When we were trying to decide who would marry us, the process became a bit more difficult. The person needed to match the moment, understand the context, and most importantly, be a unifying presence for our children.

It was not long before we all seemed to simultaneously arrive at Elijah’s name as the answer to this daunting question. We knew that if we could be so lucky to have him officiate our wedding, it would be beautiful, meaningful and genuine. Elijah made sure that it was.

Most have heard the story about how Donald Trump offered to marry us. Trump became especially bold about the offer after hearing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, make the same offer in jest. Over lunch at the White House, Trump bombastically said to Jared, “Why would they want YOU to marry them; I’m the president!”

The relationship with Donald Trump continued to deteriorate, but that’s a story for another time. In light of Elijah’s passing this morning, I feel moved to note the sharp contrast between the president and Baltimore’s congressman. 

Joe and I have known Elijah for years, and we have always loved him. He was always a picture of kindness, empathy, compassion, grace, dignity and love. That example was shown through his remarkable record of public service and an innate ability to reach out to those with whom he disagreed.

Elijah saw the humanity in every person who crossed his path. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. Whether I was watching him on television, chatting privately with Joe in the halls of Congress, or listening to him to speak at our wedding dinner, I was always moved to be a better person by what he said.

Which brings us back to our wedding. Elijah discovered at the last minute that no toasts would be made at the wedding dinner other than his. We explained that we wanted the evening to be about making the kids comfortable and expressed our concern that endless toasts would seem tiresome and forced.

I’ll share just a small portion of what he said.

“And to the children I want to say to you as one who has six brothers and sisters. Believe me ... As you get older and older, you value your brothers and sisters more and more ... for they are the people who will be there with you when you go through difficulties ... they are the ones who will cry with you at difficult times. To Joe and Mika, we thank you for bringing us together. Go out there and create wonderful memories." 

"Because one day, that’s all you will have. The memories.”

Senator Susan Collins "We expect you to listen to us!" Constituent

Senator Collins has supported the right wing cult caucus that votes in lock step with Donald Trump. #taxcutsfortherich #BrettKavanaugh 

Maine resident Erik Mercer placed a second ad this week chastising Senator Susan Collins for ignoring him and his fellow constituents.
Here is the Go Fund Me Link here.

One of Sen. Susan Collins' (R-ME) constituents has placed another full-page ad in a local newspaper, calling her out for refusing to answer his questions during a recent encounter at the airport, and for refusing to respond to his first ad last week.

Maine resident Erik Mercer placed the second full-page ad in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

"Senator Collins, you had an opportunity to answer my questions," the ad read. "I am still waiting — and it turns out I am not the only one."

Mercer originally placed a full-page ad in last week's Portland Press Herald, summarizing an interaction he'd had with the senator at the airport in Washington, D.C., prior to a flight to Portland, Maine. Mercer said he tried to broach several topics with Collins, including foreign interference in U.S. elections and her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, despite several allegations of sexual assault against him.

Collins declined to respond. "We parted agreeing to disagree," Mercer wrote at the time. But, he said, "on the jet bridge, I heard you comment to someone that a constituent had just been very rude to you."

He said it had been his intention to "have a thoughtful discussion across ideological lines," something fellow passengers who witnessed the interaction thanked him for later.

"I am still waiting for answers to my questions. They are still waiting too," he wrote.

For his latest ad, Mercer gave others the opportunity to sign his letter to Collins online. More than 200 people took him up on the offer.

In the new ad, Mercer outlined additional questions for Collins.

"Why haven't you held a town hall in over twenty years?" he wrote. "Are you interested in interacting with the people of Maine or is it only the big money donors who fund your campaigns that have your ear?"

The ad also commented on Collins' voting record.

"You voted for the tax bill that was a giveaway to wealthy people and big corporations. You took votes that threaten health care reform. You voted for judges that put a woman's right to choose at risk," it stated. "We expect you to listen to us, not Mitch McConnell, President Trump, and your wealthy, out of state donors."

On Twitter, Joe Sudbay posted the letter: "Visiting my parents in Portland this weekend so get to see another full page ad in Maine Sunday Telegram from Erik Mercer with questions for
@SenatorCollins. Looks like lots of people want answers"

The new ad claims Collins never responded to the questions he posed in their initial meeting, nor the first ad itself. Neither the Collins campaign nor Collins' senate office replied to repeated requests for comment.

The back-to-back full-page ads come as Collins faces one of the toughest reelection campaigns in her long Senate career. Recent polling in Maine shows Collins with lower approval numbers in the state than Donald Trump, as well as losing to a generic Democrat if the election were held today.

One of Collins' Democratic challengers, Sara Gideon, has also raised more than $1 million more than Collins over the past three months.  (Unfortunaately

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Writer's nonclinical analysis - Is this a Kafka upgrade?

Obviously, I'm not a literary theorist. Yet, this imaginative "Shouts and Murmurs" by Cirocco Dunlap, published in the September 16, 2019, The New Yorker, seemed "Kafka like", in my opinion.

How is it that insects can become metaphors, weirdly used to visually represent transcending life experiences? Kafka's bug was not delicate, it became too big to hide under a bed. The Metamorphosis  analogy (link here) probably represented the political monster that was brewing in Europe during the first decades in the 20th century. Dunlap's bug, on the other hand, hides in the ceiling, where life seems to be much simpler. 

Or, maybe, a bug is just a bug. 

Or course, Kafka was like Dunlap, both genuinely creative writers.So, I am posting Dunlap's essay for the readers to evaluate for yourselves:

Kudos to this literary creativity!

Title:  It's Not You

Cirocco Dunlap-  I woke up on Tuesday as a bug, and my boyfriend did not want to work through it.

“We have to break up,” he said, and I could feel the floating organ on my back, which had taken the place of my human heart, start to break.

“Can we try to make it work?” I pleaded, though it came out as a series of garbled clicks.

I should have seen it coming. He smelled different, you know? Clean and fresh, and there was little to no feces on him that I wanted to ingest. Isn’t that strange? When someone who once smelled like home suddenly repulses you with his lack of a feces scent? Love is brutal.

He said that, ever since that morning, I’d had “wandering eyes.” In fact, I had twenty-six wandering eyes, but they weren’t looking at attractive young pupae. They were looking at flying predators, at crawling prey, and, mostly, at him, the love of my life. But also mostly at danger, because everything in this new world wants to eat me.

“I’m not feeling supported in this relationship,” he offered by way of explanation, and I understood that to my core. Mainly because I was now a bug, and because he hadn’t even considered offering me a leaf.

I had concrete ideas about how we could make things better. We’d pile a few mounds of dirt on my side of the bed, and we’d make our relationship an open one so that I could have a colony. We’d turn the temperature up very high and leave rotted food around so that I could feel at home.

And I, for my part, would pretend that time didn’t move radically differently for me now, and that I could still understand television. I would sit for aeons in front of a screaming wall of light if it meant that I could stay with him. I would perch in his palm, and things would be different, maybe even better.

He nodded, considering my suggestions for a moment, before concluding, “That would be gross.”

He was kind but curt when he asked me to pack my things and go. I flew to the top of the bookshelf we’d assembled together, and he looked at me with impatience. But I will not be shamed for being a bug who is drawn to light bulbs and stares at them, transfixed, while my ex-boyfriend tries to use human language to get me to remember what we were light light light light light light.

Excuse me.

I stared at that light bulb for four hours before he turned it off. I mean, look, he was a terrific boyfriend in many ways, but it’s absurd that it took him so long to realize that he had to turn the light off. Get it together, Matt.

I had a lot of things at his house—I’d practically lived there when I had hands—but I couldn’t really use any of those items anymore. I mean, you don’t need a bike if you have wings, and you don’t need a man if you have both male and female bug genitals, which I do now. I was gentle when I told him that he could give my stuff away, but I guess it came out as a threatening screech, because he batted me away with a rolled-up magazine.

I understood. A jaded flea I met recently told me, “Don’t put all your eggs in one person.” But I still think that if you find the right human it’s worth shoving some eggs in him and seeing what hatches. So I took a few specks of dirt from a plant at my ex’s house and nestled them in my proboscis, just to have something to remember him by. Am I glad that I had this experience? No. Did I learn a lot? Absolutely not—my brain is so small now.

But, if you’re experiencing heartache and/or you’ve turned into a bug and are struggling to make it work with someone who isn’t interested in you, know that you are lovable and that you are not alone and that there are plenty of bugs in your house. ♦This article appears in the print edition of the September 16, 2019, issue.

Cirocco Dunlap is a television writer.

Marketing a language- selling books in France

Unfortunately, the French language has been categorized as being "Parisian French" and then a bunch of other variations that are lumped into various dialects, but that are otherwise "French".  

Yet, all French is "French".

This unusual take on the subject is described in an article summary, originally written by Montreal writer Catherine Lalonde, who works for the newspaper, Le Devoir. This story is about a weird way to create a market for Quebecois literature.  

Nevertheless, my question is this:  Who is the authority who claims to be the know it all about what is "Quebecois French"?

Attributed to Le Devoir
This abridged article was published in The Week, October 11, 2019.
Merci, Catherine Lalonde.

CANADA- Do we have to purge Quebecois lierature to remove local slang, just to reach an audience in France?  Publishers think so, said Catherine Lalonde.  Quebecois authors are eager to get their works read in France, where the market is bigger and the literary awards grander. But, editors worry that French readers will find our French-Canadian dialect archaic, so they often put our a Frenchified version. Benoit Virot, the owner of Paris-based publisher Le Nouvel ATtila, says he does this so that French readers won't be "locked out" of Quebecois literature.  His company released Kevin Lambert's 2019, Quebec best-seller, "Querelle de Roberval" (The Roberval Quarrel) with the title Querelle, because French readers won't have heard of the Canadian town of Roberval.  And, it made many other minor tweaks to the test, changing slang terms for "guys" and "vaginas,", for example, to the more familiar Parisian terms.  But, author Lambert said it would "tear his heard out" if the publisher altered the typically Canadian swear words- which tend to be related to Catholicism, like tabarnak and crisse- that his characters use. 

So, Virot kept those words when they appeared in dialogue, but with a Frenchified spelling.  The idea, Virot says, is to introduce Quebecois terms to the French, bit by bit, and book by book, until Parisians eventually "understand Quebecois without realizing it." 

(IMO- Mon Dieu c'est absurde!)

Foregiveness

DALLAS, Texas- Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger sentenced to 10 years for convicted murder of 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, on the night of Sept. 6, 2018, while he was eating ice cream in his apartment.  At the sentencing hearing, the brother of the victim said this to the convicted murderer:

Brandt Jean's statement:

"If you truly are sorry, I can speak for myself, I forgive and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. And I don't think anyone can say it, again I'm speaking for myself... but I love you just like anyone else. And I'm not gonna say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did but I presently want the best for you. And I wasn't going to ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you, because I know that's exactly what Botham would want you to do. And the best would be to give your life to Christ. I'm not going to say anything else. I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want you to do. Again I love you as a person and I don't wish anything bad on you. I don't know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug, please? 

"Please?" he said.

Brandt Jean then left the stand and embraced Guyger, who broke into tears as Brandt whispered something into her ear.

"An amazing act of healing," said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot later about the moment.