Links are at the end.
Took an hour to clear the smoke out of my apartment. What you see on the corner was what you’d see in the domicile.
Two hikers stuck overnight on Aiea trail after fireworks prevent rescue
Last night was was saturated with unofficial aerials, in this case along the flight path of the rescue helicopter. The crew were able to pluck one of the group off the trail but couldn’t fetch the other two, who were expected to hike out on their own this morning.1
Our writer recommends はしご酒 (hashigo-zake | lit. "ladder alcohol"), which is the Japanese word for bar hopping.
I won’t be in Tokyo next visit, but here’s a lovely guide to finding and enjoying local bars in Shinjuku. Below is the writer talking about his two favorite bars, both of which are open 24 hours.2
If you go for a drink on a different day of the week and at a different time of day, not only are the staff on duty different, but the clientele changes as well, so no matter how many times you go, you will always have a "fresh and fun" experience!
There's also a well-stocked food menu, which changes daily, including homemade dishes such as rice and noodle dishes.
If you can read Japanese, you can check the shifts of the staff at the two restaurants on their Twitter account.
You can find your favorite staff member or visit at a time slot you've never tried before.
Our writer always has so much fun that he often loses track of when to leave. Sometimes it takes a strong will to say, "I'll be home on the last train!"
Indeed.
The story has some good pictures of Shinjuku alleys.
"It's almost resembling a sort of autoimmune-like process in the nose."
Covid is known for stealing peoples’ sense of scent, and researchers think they’ve discovered why.3
After a detailed analysis, the researchers observed the widespread presence of T-cells, a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight off infection. These T-cells were driving an inflammatory response within the nose.
However, as with many other biological responses, the T-cells apparently do more harm than good and damage the olfactory epithelium tissue. The inflammation process was still evident even in tissue where SARS-CoV-2 wasn't detected.
"The findings are striking," says Goldstein. "It's almost resembling a sort of autoimmune-like process in the nose."
While the number of olfactory sensory neurons was lower in the study participants who had lost their sense of smell, the researchers report that some neurons seem capable of repairing themselves even after the T-cell bombardment – an encouraging sign.
They also think their findings here can help with identifying and treating other long Covid symptoms. Some of mine seem to have come around again, which is unpleasant.
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo . . .
Sora News has discovered some new places to eat. In my (very limited) experience, you can’t find a more reliable guide than Mr. Sato.4
We’ve been eating off the beaten path recently, enjoying a taste of staff food at cafeterias that serve employees but are also open to the public.
These hidden gems are usually only known by people who work and eat there, but we’ve been sharing our secret finds with you and now we have another great discovery, over at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Tokyo.
As the administrative agency that oversees everything food-related in Japan, we had high hopes that this staff cafeteria would be one of our best finds yet, so we sent our reporter Mr Sato over to the ministry in Kasumigaseki to check it out.
He enjoyed the meal.
I keep returning to the Japanese press because they’re all pleasant stories today.
Management by Musk: there will be no toilet paper until the stack has velocity
Speaks for itself, I think, but you can read the story if you wish.5
The Bats
No connection with the band of that name in today’s musical selections. I assume this has been all over the teevee as an “Awww” closer, but in the event you’ve not seen it, the wildlife director at the Houston Humane Society rescued more than a thousand tiny furry critters from a cold snap that saw temperatures drop more than 40 degrees in the space of a few hours.6
Warwick returned that night to pick up another 50 frozen bats. Then she received a call from someone who had found 920 more bats in need of help.
At her home, Warwick sorted through the bats to determine which were still alive and which had died, from either the cold or the fall to the ground. She put them in incubators to raise their body temperatures and then administered subcutaneous fluids.
But caring for over 1,000 bats was overwhelming. So she reached out to Bat World Sanctuary, a nonprofit based in northern Texas. Bat World was unable to accommodate such a large contingent of bats, but they helped Warwick come up with a battle plan to care for the frozen creatures.
“We decided once I got them stabilized I could put them in my attic where it’s cool but it’s not freezing, and that would reduce their metabolism so they wouldn’t need to eat, but they would drink water,” she explained.
So Warwick divided the bats, using crates to keep each colony together, and left them in her attic to rest and regain their strength. Several other local citizens also called in bats that needed rescuing, bringing the total to 1,602 recuperating bats in Warwick’s makeshift bat hospital. They spent around three days total in her attic, she said.
The Melting Pot
I’m old enough to remember civics classes and the emphasis on America as the melting pot of the world, with immigrants in a starring role. Assimilation was a theme, but so was the lending of cultures and languages. Nobody mentioned the genocide perpetrated on Native Americans and the appropriation of their culture, or the horrors visited on Black people, but the general theme was welcoming. You don’t hear that so much these days.
“This,” the Illinois lawmaker says, “is very personal for me.”
It’s personal because if Congress doesn’t act, [Delia] Ramirez’s husband could be among hundreds of thousands of people facing possible deportation. And it’s personal because Ramirez herself is about to become a member of Congress.
She’s called this news conference, flanked by several of her fellow incoming freshmen lawmakers and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, to push for members of Congress to pass several key pieces of legislation while Democrats still control the US House. Among them: the DREAM Act, which would give a possible pathway to citizenship to some 2 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
“I am the wife of a DACA recipient. I am the daughter of Guatemalan working immigrants. I know firsthand the challenges and constant fear our families live every single day,” Ramirez tells reporters. “We have to end this.”
We do, we do we do.
Music to write by
The 1975, “Being Funny In A Foreign Language,”7 which we enjoyed; Griff, “One Foot In Front Of The Other;”8 The Aces, “When My Heart Felt Volcanic;”9 The Bats, "Blue Cabinet;"10 Caroline Polachek, “Pang;”11
I have to say that I couldn’t listen to The Aces album all the way through; they seem to have been produced by whomever produces everybody else.
Off We Go
That, comrades, is all I got. If you’ve not already subscribed, here’s your opportunity to be the first of the new year. It’s free unless you want to pay and your support is thoroughly appreciated.
Take care, be well.
I don't think citizenship by marriage is a thing, is it? He'd have to be naturalized.
Why isn't Congresswoman, Ramirez's, husband legal in view of his marriage to an American citizen?