While woodworking when I was four or five, my dad got a deep splinter in the pad of his index finger, and he asked for my help. He was in pain. It was the first time I ever saw him vulnerable. He squeezed his finger as hard as he could to try to bring the splinter to the surface of his skin. He asked me to try to pluck it out with my little fingers. I got it out easily on the first try. And he thanked me. I remember turning away and smiling to myself, trying to hide my smile because I was so proud. I'm 47. Why do I still remember that like it was yesterday? Does it serve some evolutionary purpose? The things we hold onto...

A great one from @ExpatLitJ by @JohnBiron90196 "Land to fight for, his father had told him. But what kind of fight is this? For what kind of land? I couldn’t understand it. We were nothing to this ground. The grass blew in the wind the water swirled leaves rustled without a second look. It was uncaring and unkind to us all our lives and all our parent’s lives. You kill for it. Does it care now? Are you expecting congratulations, Jack? Or is it your long dead kin, those bones buried deep under Kinsbury soil, supposed to lap up the blood and grin? If it’s all you have. Its pride. It’s the scorching pride. It makes you wrong if you don’t treat it right. If you don’t think right about it. If you kill a lady on it and that clouds you or maybe you were always clouded. Delusions of grandeur, pa had said once. It’s when you believe yourself to be greater than you are, or believe a cause to be greater than it is, or a place more meaningful. Maybe it fits here. Maybe the inferno’s right. Throwing it all away in desperation. Then desperation’s just a kinda twisting road to glory. This can’t be glory. Was it ever?" expatpress.com/kinsbury-pari…

Sublime.

I need an universal block button for crypto-enthusiasts and onlyfans creators.

I just had one of those spider-killing husband moments that makes you feel like you slayed a dragon. The relief in my wife’s eyes somehow makes me taller.

Good story by Naeem Murr in @GuernicaMag From "Bye-Bye Palestine": "As we crest a hill, we encounter a troop of about a dozen Jewish women soldiers. One says in Arabic, “Are you running away, out of the country?” We say yes. It’s strange. They’re holding rifles and look so happy and so pretty; and as we go by, one of them, giddy with excitement, repeats, “Bye-bye, Palestine. Bye-bye, Palestine”; and it’s awful and humiliating but it’s almost as if she’s being nice, as if we were leaving her house after dinner. I glance back at Haifa’s tumble of pale buildings in the bright sun, the Mediterranean exhaling and inhaling its gentle waves, plumes of smoke everywhere, gunfire crackling. This is the last time I’ll ever see it." guernicamag.com/bye-bye-pale…

Brilliant start.

I need book suggestions for a three-year-old boy. We’ve already done every Dr Seuss, Shel Silverstein, ninja life hacks and a ton of Berenstain bears, Chris Van Dusen and Sherri Duskey Rinker books. He can’t get enough books. Please recommend favorite individual books or, preferably, series of books for 3-4 year olds.

Inspiring.