“We ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?”
— Franz Kafka, “Letter to Oskar Pollak (27 January 1904)” (via philosophybits)
The auxiliary water pump on my car broke (the plastic rotted and cracked so it was spewing coolant everywhere) and the mechanic wanted me to pay $300 for a $150 part.
I went to an auto store and bought the part for just under $150 and was gonna have the mechanic install it until I called them back and they said they don’t install customer parts.
So I figured if they won’t install customer parts, they’ll at least fix existing problems with the vehicle.
So, naturally I poorly installed the new part myself, then took it to the mechanic saying I had coolant issues and wasn’t sure what the problem was. They fixed the problem in under 20 minutes and only charged me $30 for the labor.
Ho l y
Imma try that last one
I went to my doctor’s office and asked if they had any slots open for that day. They told me they don’t take walk-ins, you have to call ahead for an appointment.
So I pulled out my phone and called the office. The other receptionist answered the phone and the first one literally WATCHED ME say “I’d like to make an appointment today if you have any slots available.”
He said to me (on the phone) all they had available was for 9:00, could I make it in time?
I said “Yep, I’m standing right here.”
He didn’t understand what I meant and happily put my appointment down.
I hung up and said to the original receptionist, “Hi, I have an appointment in five minutes.”
She (very angrily) entered me as arrived and gave me my forms.
Bela Lugosi’s history as a union organizer and anti-fascist activist
Lugosi took part in the Hungarian Communist Revolution in the March of 1919, leading a demonstration of the country’s actors and had a key role in the organization and creation of the Free Organization of Theatrical Employees, which was later expanded to include film actors, becoming the National Trade Union of Actors. He was forced to flee when the Hungarian Soviet Republic was overthrown in August 1919 and the brutal white terror swept through the country.
Was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild of America, and served on the union’s advisory board during it’s early years.
He unionized the sets of a number of his films, most famously the production of The Black Cat alongside SAG founder Boris Karloff.
When the Hungarian dictator Miklos Horthy allied with the Nazis, Lugosi founded the Hungarian-American Council for Democracy, an organization of Hungarian Americans dedicated to establishing democracy in their home country.
Was a life-long anti-Nazi and anti-fascist. In his keynote speech at a rally in 1944, he demanded Washington ease immigration restrictions in order to take in Jewish-Hungarian refugees and put increased pressure the Nazi puppet regime in Hungary.
Even at the end of his career, when he was struggling to find work, he would frequently use his name-recognition in print and on the radio to speak out against fascism.
On this day, 4 January 1960 thousands of council tenants in St Pancras, London began a rent strike against rent increases by the Conservative council. As in most rent strikes, women played a leading role. The strike lasted 8 months and culminated in pitched battles with hundreds of police against evictions. Eventually Labour and the Communist Party persuaded tenants to change tack and instead elect a new Labour council who would reverse the increase - but they never did. However, concessions were achieved in the struggle.
This is a detailed history of the events: https://libcom.org/history/rent-strike-st-pancras-1960https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/1891129507738857/?type=3
