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Andrea Grimes
@andreagrimes
writer / texan / bitch kraken / she/her abortion news + essays + hollering: andreagrimes.substack.com clips/bio: andreagrimes.com
Austin, TXJoined April 2007

Andrea Grimes’s Tweets

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(cn: pet loss) I hoped I would never write this but of course I always had to, because the universe gifted me 18 years with the best and sweetest and saltiest cat: I give you the ~ nice and accurate ~ story of Whiskey Bearcat, the 10,000 mile cat!
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When I talk about "objectivity" in mainstream/legacy journalism privileging established systems and doing activism in the name of the status quo, this is what I mean. There is no reason for the to let APD/DPS define the framing on this as if they're unbiased sources.
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There's just no reason to shutter the practically overnight. Not only does the magazine not lack "intrinsic value," as one board member reportedly said, but its particularly Texan brand of truth-telling is as urgent as ever.
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Are any former folks from days of yore interested in writing an open letter and/or petitioning the board to support the current staff (such as it is)? IDK if such a thing would be helpful, but if it's not already in motion, I'm up for helping organize.
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UPDATE: a former staffer has launched a GoFundMe to support the folks who are likely to lose their jobs this week but who are fighting to keep the magazine open, anyway. If they succeed, the funds will go back into the magazine.
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We are asking the board to allow the staff try to save this historic magazine, as well as our livelihoods, and to give us a chance to secure other sources of funding.
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UPDATE: the Texas Observer editorial team has sent a formal proposal to the board that oversees the organization. It outlines a number of steps to stave off the impending layoffs and closure of the Observer.
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An automatic death penalty is not a deterrent for people who know they’re either likely to get killed by police—as the shooter in Nashville was—or plan to kill themselves. Rick Scott has an A+ rating from the NRA, and he spouts nonsensical propaganda like this on their behalf.
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We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters. Life in prison is not enough for the deranged monsters who go into our schools to kill innocent kids & educators. Pray for all facing the unimaginable in Nashville. This is horrible & must stop. twitter.com/AP/status/1640…
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ANYWAY there is a not-entirely-dotted line between the "gosh didn't Austin used to be weird" mindset and the kinds of Texas liberals who will just shut down a 70-year-old magazine overnight
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This happened either shortly before or while the board treasurer, fully shitfaced, was having an extremely loud meltdown delivering what-for to a staff member, which apparently was just a regular thing at magazine events where alcohol was involved.
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My peak Texas Observer memory: late late during a Final Friday party at our place, the chain-smoking board president sat down at my picnic table and absolutely unloaded every piece of the magazine's dirty laundry on me, a lady who at the time was merely married to a staff member
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A fitting tribute to a mighty fine kitteh. 😍😍
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(cn: pet loss) I hoped I would never write this but of course I always had to, because the universe gifted me 18 years with the best and sweetest and saltiest cat: I give you the ~ nice and accurate ~ story of Whiskey Bearcat, the 10,000 mile cat! andreagrimes.substack.com/p/whiskey-bear
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This is very good and I hope the Board takes them up on this.
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Texas Observer editorial staff have offered a counter proposal: Have the board members who voted for closure resign while top editors will work voluntarily and be given the chance to try to raise funds. They've also asked for a staffer to be added to the board as a voting member.
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Texas Observer editorial staff have offered a counter proposal: Have the board members who voted for closure resign while top editors will work voluntarily and be given the chance to try to raise funds. They've also asked for a staffer to be added to the board as a voting member.
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NOW: "Our board is committed to reinventing the Texas Observer...our strategy for now is a hiatus...the Board agreed yesterday to try to avoid making this a funeral...but we can't engage in dialogue now..." Full time staff were just given what appears to be five days notice.
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The TxOb's biggest problem is that it was a progressive magazine that looked perpetually backward — to the days when Texas was blue, to the Molly days, to the Duggar days. I thought I saw the magazine starting to pull out of that mindset in ~2020; maybe it was too late by then.
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I only know/suspect small parts of the bigger story; I wrote a column for a few years and only worked there full time for less than 18 months. But IME, the TxOb was extremely not an organization that was prepared to transition to the leadership of journalists of color.
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Just really fixating on the fact that that the Texas Observer was consistently able to publish genuinely excellent work despite being more or less aggressively mismanaged for, IDK, decades
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Between this and watching Succession before bed last night, real weird dreams last night. Woke up mad!!! They didn't even try to find a buyer, or alternate mgmt structure??? ONE WEEK of notice to staff???
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