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andreagrimes.substack.com

Mar 24

(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!

Whiskey Bearcat, Aggressive Cuddler and Feline Traveler Extraordinaire, Takes His Final Journey At...

The Bearcat's low tolerance for canine fuckery became the stuff of legend, while behind the scenes he changed the cuddling game for humans and felines alike.

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"No intrinsic value" on the open market but the

Save the Texas Observer and aid laid off staff, organized by James Canup

staff raised over $103,000 in ... 9 hours

gofundme.com

The Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent of the Texas Observer… James Canup needs your support for Save the Texas Observer and aid laid off staff

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

@statesman

to let APD/DPS define the framing on this as if they're unbiased sources.

10h

There's just no reason to shutter the

andreagrimes.substack.com

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.

We Can't Afford to Lose the Texas Observer

Staff at Texas' oldest progressive magazine learned from media reports that they'd be losing their jobs in a matter of days.

102

Nancy Cárdenas Peña

@ncardenastx

Big fucking yikers

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Austin Sanders

@daustinsanders

12h

Mayor Kirk Watson collaborated with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick over three days on an agreement that will allow Texas DPS troopers to patrol the City of Austin for an indefinite period of time. How many state cops will be deployed and where are still being worked out

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like, the fuck is a person doing even serving on the board of an organization they think has no intrinsic value

There's just no reason to shutter the

andreagrimes.substack.com

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.

We Can't Afford to Lose the Texas Observer

Staff at Texas' oldest progressive magazine learned from media reports that they'd be losing their jobs in a matter of days.

102

Enby Witch King of Austin

Ash Hall

@LGBTActivist

11h

Look at all the Texans who came out to support their trans neighbors. This is the Texas I know and love. It loves me, us, back.

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@thebossenova

13h

@LGBTActivist

372

1,889

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.

Amy McCarthy

@aemccarthy

11h

i for one am not shocked that the workers at a publication have better ideas for saving it than the people in charge of it

UPDATE: a former staffer has launched a GoFundMe to support the

Save the Texas Observer and aid laid off staff, organized by James Canup

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.

gofundme.com

The Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent of the Texas Observer… James Canup needs your support for Save the Texas Observer and aid laid off staff

Texas Observer @TexasObserver.Social

12h

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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12h

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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1,344

Leah McElrath

@leahmcelrath

13h

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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Rick Scott

@SenRickScott

14h

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…

Lauren McGaughy

@lmcgaughy

13h

This rally for #LGBTQ rights and against bills that would specifically restrict transgender youth access to medical treatment has now ballooned to several hundred people. They’re chanting, “two four six eight, don’t assume your kids are straight.” #txlege #hb1686

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Mx. Kit O'Connell @Kolektiva.Social

@KitOConnell

The Princess Bride (8/12) Movie CLIP - Miracle Max (1987) HD

Texas Observer, current status: Mostly dead, which is maybe slightly alive. Stay tuned for potential GoFundMe and other nnews.

youtube.com

The Princess Bride movie clips: http://j.mp/1EaShBhBUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/1EaShkZDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTI...

Gabriel Arana (he/him/his)

@gabrielarana

Edit leadership offered countless times over the last few months to come together to fundraise & were met with radio silence. We’ve asked the board members who voted to quit to resign and allow those of us who want to see the legacy continue do the work. Will have more soon. 2/2

174

Gabriel Arana (he/him/his)

@gabrielarana

The

is not like a Walmart that can just be shut down—esp. by a board president who resigned weeks ago and a divided board that has no journalists on it. It’s an idea in the minds of our readers, of the people who work here now and have worked here before. 1/x

311

Dr. Annie Andrews

@AnnieAndrewsMD

3 Children Dead in Shooting at Nashville Christian School, Hospital Says

IT’S THE FUCKING GUNS

nytimes.com

The shooter died after police officers responded Monday morning at the Covenant School, the authorities said. Details remained sparse.

278

1,450

Adam Sternbergh

@sternbergh

like writing for Vanity Fair in the 90s

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Morning Brew

@MorningBrew

18h

Keanu Reeves said just 380 words in "John Wick: Chapter 4," and he reportedly made $15 million. Trusting reports of his pay, that's $39,473 per word.

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read image description

ALT

552

Olivia Messer

@OliviaMesser

I’ve never talked about this publicly, but I’ll admit it now: It was a fluke that I even got my first journalism fellowship at

The ‘Shameful’ End of a Crucial Texas Muckraker

; here's a piece mourning my favorite storied institution, feat.

& more

It’s no exaggeration to say that without The Texas Observer, which will abruptly shut down this week, corruption will flourish in the Lone Star State.

Jane's Due Process

@JanesDueProcess

UPDATE: Jane's Due Process is looking for our next executive director. If you're a visionary leader who trusts teens' with their reproductive health decisions, join us: janesdueprocess.org/executive-dire

guess this will be a newsletter post

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

Dr. Katherine Haenschen

@KathTX

16h

Replying to

I enjoyed reading the Observer, I attended my share of Final Fridays back in the day, but it really was an Old White Lefty Boomer club and that's not... where the energy is these days.

16h

Reader, I later took a $10,000 pay cut to work there. 🤣 I have no one to blame but myself

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.

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

A fitting tribute to a mighty fine kitteh. 😍😍

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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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247

913

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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546

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.

It wasn't a stellar place to work as a woman, either, but I don't know that it was significantly worse than other men-led newsrooms on that front.

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.

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

Evil MoPac

@EvilMopacATX

The real ones know that very non-weird McDonald's closing was sad only because of the lost parking spaces for Peter Pan ⛳️

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Parker Sewell

@parkersewell1

19h

I remember when Austin was truly weird, back when we had a McDonald’s on south Lamar

435

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???