Female employees of Woolworth’s holding sign indicating they are striking for a forty-hour work week, 1937. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
• The legacy of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. (Vox)
• On the Sabbath Alliance and the nineteenth-century fight for the two-day weekend. (Jewish Currents)
• “A manual flush toilet, dating back 2,400 years, has piqued the interest of archaeologists who are trying to find out what people ate during that time by analyzing soil samples collected from it.” (China Daily)
• “Two scholars in England and Ireland have identified what may be the first-known ancient Roman dildo. For forty years, the second-century wooden object was considered a sewing and knitting tool.” (Hyperallergic)
• On the plans to revive, or reinvent, Lake Texcoco. (MIT Technology Review)
• “AI, unencumbered by a conscience or sense of decorum, is proficient at bringing to light the horrible human tendencies at which most people simply hint. In other words, the emergence of artificial intelligence has created a digital doppelgänger of the Marquis de Sade.” (Wired)
• “After years of opposition and delay, Waco has finally posted a historical marker about the 1916 murder of Jesse Washington.” (Texas Monthly)
• On the historical figures offering poorly sourced advice and reviews of New Jersey at the Jon Bon Jovi Service Area. (Defector)
• This week in obituaries: Tom Whitlock, Sal Piro, Richard Belzer, John Macrae III, Barbara Bosson, Donald Spoto, Simone Segouin, Thomas Donahue, Glória Maria, Eileen Sheridan, Roger C. Schank, Istvan Banyai, James Joseph, Rick Newman, William Greenberg Jr., John Motson, Stella Stevens, Dickie Davies, Margaret Heagarty, Eileen Fitt, Red McCombs, Alan Evans, Friedrich Cerha, Paul Berg, and Henry McDonald.