March 30, March 31, April 1 -- weather 2021 transitions -- chance of snow flurries

 from WNDU S. Bend, Notre Dame meteorologists (Weather First Alert)

Tuesday March 30 - Wed. March 31 - Thursday April, 1, 2021

TUESDAY NIGHT: Showers move in after 6 pm with most of the area seeing scattered showers throughout the evening and overnight hours. Just light scattered showers as the breeze will lighten as the cold front passes early Wednesday morning. Temperatures begin to cool. Low of 34.

WEDNESDAY: A few light sprinkles with a few mixed flurries ends early in the morning. Temperatures will be very chilly throughout the afternoon, highs only reaching the middle 40s. The potential for a few snow flurries late in the day with partly to mostly cloudy skies. High of 43.

THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy and chilly. High in the middle 30s with winds coming off the lake from the northwest. This will create the chances for some lake effect rain and snow showers through the early afternoon. High of 35.

Will there be Academy Award nominations in 2021? Award Ceremony by April 30, 2021? YES

April 25, 2021 at Los Angeles Union Station www.oscar.com/ 

 part of Hollywood reporter coverage (web article)

David Fincher's Mank led the pack with 10 nominations as the 93rd Oscars were announced Monday morning.

The 1930s-set film, which centers on alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish Citizen Kane, will compete against The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7 for best picture.

Husband and wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas announced the nominations in all 23 Oscar categories from a remote feed in London. In addition to the nominations, it was revealed that the April 25 Oscar ceremony will take place at both L.A.'s Union Station and the Dolby Theatre, the dual locations marking a first for the Academy. Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh are producing the telecast.

There were few surprises in a year in which the film industry was rocked by the global coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted moviegoing worldwide and thrown into question the future of the theatrical experience. The most notable shocker was the inclusion of Another Round helmer Thomas Vinterberg in the best director category. The category also made history with the inclusion of two female directors — Nomadland's Chloé Zhao and Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell. They became only the sixth and seventh women to compete in the category, with Zhao becoming the first woman of color. Fincher and Minari’s Lee Isaac Chung also will vie for the directing honors. Chung and Zhao's nominations also marked the first time two Asian directors will compete for the statue in the same year.

Six films tied for the second-most nominations — six — including Searchlight's Nomadland, which has been named best picture by a number of bellwether groups heading into Monday's nominations and is seen as the frontrunner. The other films nabbing six nominations are Sony Pictures Classics' The Father, Warner Bros.' Judas, A24’s Minari, Amazon's Sound of Metal and Netflix's Chicago 7.

Given that the pandemic has resulted in theatergoers being largely relegated to their couches for much of the year, it should come as no surprise that the streamers dominated. Netflix was the only distributor that scored two nominations in the best picture category for Mank and Chicago 7. Amazon also fared well with the performance of Sound of Metal, which earned nominations for Riz Ahmed (best actor) and Paul Raci (supporting actor), among other mentions. 

Spring Weather expectations (Old Farmer's Forecast)

 www.almanac.com/ 

WHAT WEATHER WILL SPRING BRING ACROSS THE UNITED STATES?

• This spring, we’re expecting to see warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the northern United States, from the Northeast through the Midwest and into the High Plains.
• Warmer-than-normal temperatures are also predicted for parts of the Intermountain region, Desert Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii. 
• From the northern half of the Intermountain region to the Pacific coast, as well as across much of the southern U.S., we’re predicting that near-normal to cooler-than-normal temperatures are in store for the spring season. 

Hopefully, by the time Easter arrives on April 4, we’ll have left wintery weather far behind us!

Wind Advisory March 26 from 12:01 a.m. until 10 a.m. (Berrien County, Michigan)

 from WNDU dot-com

• Berrien, MI

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 10 AM EDT FRIDAY... 

* WHAT...North winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected. 

* WHERE...Berrien County. 

* WHEN...From midnight tonight to 10 AM EDT Friday. 

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. 

Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

Best Documentary Feature Film category awarded March 2021: NAACP Image Award

 Outstanding Documentary (Film)

“John Lewis: Good Trouble”

The film explores Georgia representative's, 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration.

Director:

 Dawn Porter

96 minutes, length -- segments are in both Color and B & W

Full worm moon March 27, 2021

from old farmer's almanac

There are quite a few names for the March Moon that speak to the transition from winter to spring. Some refer to the appearance (or reappearance) of certain animals, such as the Eagle Moon, Goose Moon (Algonquin, Cree), or Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe), while others refer to signs of the season:

• The Sugar Moon (Ojibwe) marks the time of year when the sap of sugar maples starts to flow.
• The Wind Strong Moon (Pueblo) refers to the strong windy days that come at this time of year. 
• The Sore Eyes Moon (Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine) highlights the blinding rays of sunlight that reflect off the melting snow of late winter. 

March’s full Moon often plays a role in religion, too. Specifically, in Christianity, this Moon is known as the Lenten Moon if it is the last full Moon of the winter season (i.e., if it occurs before the spring equinox) or as the Paschal Full Moon if it is the first full Moon of spring (i.e., if it occurs after the spring equinox).

In 2021, March’s full Moon occurs after the date of the spring equinox (March 20), so it is also the Paschal Full Moon. 

 from USA Today article

Get ready for the full "worm" moon, which will rise Sunday evening, March 28, 2021 in the eastern sky.

The name likely refers to the earthworms that appear in the soil as the weather gets warmer, inviting hungry birds to feed on them.

For millennia, people across the world, including Native Americans in the eastern and central USA, named the months after nature’s cues. According to the Old Farmers' Almanac, each full moon has its own name.

"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon," the almanac said. "Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred."

The Old Farmers' Almanac said that another explanation for the worm moon name refers to a different sort of “worm” – beetle larvae – which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time of the year.

"Hash Bash" 2021 -- University of Michigan event is protest of marijuana laws

 from M Live dot-com

ANN ARBOR, MI – Hundreds of protesters, pot tourists and marijuana enthusiasts were at the University of Michigan Diag Saturday afternoon April 3, 2021 for a smoke-in protest in conjunction with the 50th Hash Bash rally.

The annual smoke-in was a protest of marijuana laws, including the prohibition against smoking in public, according to Adam Brook, a past organizer of Hash Bash. Current organizers are holding the event virtually for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ANN ARBOR, MI — For those planning to attend the Ann Arbor Hash Bash smoke-in protest at the University of Michigan Diag on April 3, 2021 UM offers a word of caution.

“We always support the free-speech rights of citizens to gather in public spaces,” UM’s public affairs division said in a statement Thursday, March 25, 2021. “At the same time, we do not condone the use of drugs on our campus. It is important that we provide a safe environment for everyone on our campus, especially in the midst of a pandemic.”

May 8 Special Session of General Conference (U. Methodist denomination worldwide) cancelled -- UM Communications coverage

 from umnews.org/ 

The United Methodist Council of Bishops has canceled its call for a special virtual General Conference on May 8, 2020.

The bishops made the decision to cancel during a March 22 online meeting that was closed to the public.

The bishops also announced that they plan to use their regularly scheduled April meeting to discuss results of listening sessions and discern a possible new timeline.

“Much has been learned over the past few weeks and the extended timeline will allow for even deeper listening by the bishops at the general church level but also in our residential settings,” Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, Council of Bishops president and leader of the Louisiana Conference, said in a press statement after the meeting.

Last month, the bishops called the special one-day session on the same day the Commission on the General Conference announced that COVID-19’s threat had forced the postponement of the global denomination’s top lawmaking assembly a second time. The full General Conference, originally set for May 2020, is now set for Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 2022. The meeting venue is still Minneapolis. 

The commission appointed a technology study team to consider ways to hold the global conference virtually while ensuring full participation of the nearly 900 voting delegates from four continents.

Ultimately, the team concluded and the commission agreed that no virtual solution could overcome barriers that include a 16-hour time difference across the denomination, inequities in internet access and the need for vote security.

The bishops had planned for the May 8 General Conference only to be long enough for a quorum of delegates to suspend the rules so delegates could vote by mail on 12 legislative items. The items mostly dealt with administrative functioning amid the General Conference delay, and the bishops planned to announce the results of the votes on July 13. Not on the agenda were any proposals to split the denomination along theological lines. Those proposals, including the much-endorsed Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, will be before the full General Conference in 2022. 

The decision to cancel the one-day meeting means that plans to retire U.S. bishops and elect new bishops in the central conferences — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines  — also are on hold for now. Harvey said the Book of Discipline, the denomination's law book, does not allow for bishop retirements or elections until after General Conference.

"It's to be continued," she told United Methodist News. 

Plans for a virtual one-day meeting faced some of the same logistical challenges the General Conference commission identified in considering a virtual 10-day gathering. 

Of the 862 delegates elected to the coming General Conference, 55.9% come from the U.S., 32% from Africa, 6% from the Philippines, 4.6% from Europe and the remainder from concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church.

The bishops’ plan for a special General Conference already was facing pushback across the denomination, including from delegates concerned they would be cut out of the deliberation process.

The advocacy group the Africa Initiative sent questions to the Council of Bishops citing the General Conference commission’s finding that internet and even electricity is not readily available in some areas where United Methodists are located.

Passover this Spring begins when? and continues until what last night?

 from hebcal.com/ Pesach article

Pesach 2021 / פֶּסַח 5781

Pesach (Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread) 

for Hebrew Year 5781 begins in the Diaspora 

at sundown on Saturday, 27 March 2021 

and ends at nightfall on Sunday, 4 April 2021.

Michigan Statewide Severe Storm Awareness - March 2021 events and emphases

 from michigan.gov/ 

 remind residents that severe weather season is approaching. 

This includes tornadoes, flooding, high winds, and other weather patterns 

that could disrupt our daily lives. While we are practicing social distancing, 

we do not encourage you to congregate in groups for drills,

 but ask that you review what your plan is in the event of severe weather. 

Disasters don’t plan ahead, but you can!

Severe Weather Awareness Week will be held March 21-27, 

with the Statewide Tornado Drill being conducted on Wednesday March 24 at 1 p.m. 

Lynching & Local Justice: Legitimacy & Accountability in Weak States (March 30, 2021) - Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute

Lecture: "Lynching and Local Justice: "Legitimacy and Accountability in Weak States"

Time: Tuesday March 30, 2021, 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

 

Location: Virtual event

Dara Kay Cohen

Ford Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School

What are the social and political consequences of poor state governance and low state legitimacy? Under what conditions does lynching – lethal, extralegal group violence to punish offenses to the community – become an acceptable practice? This talk by Dara Kay Cohen is based on her new coauthored book of the same name, published by Cambridge University Press (2020) in the Cambridge Elements in Political Economy series. Drawing on original survey and interview data from Haiti, the book explores how lynching emerges and becomes accepted, revealing a relationship between weak formal institutions and support for collective vigilantism. Her talk will shed light on the practice of lynching as well as why institutional weakness is so difficult to combat. 

Registration required. Please register here to attend. 

www.nd.edu

Lectures and Conferences

 

Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute.

Father Sorin (founder of Univ. of Notre Dame) - translation + digitization project

Translating the Founder: The Sorin Translation Project and Digital Exhibit - Presenters: Sonja Stojanovic and Fr. Gregory Haake.

Friday March 26, 2021, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

 https://notredame.zoom.us/j/3245683322

In 2014, the University Archives at Notre Dame launched a major effort to digitize the writings of Father Edward Sorin, the founding father of Notre Dame. Part of that effort is the translation and digitization of his letters between the years 1839-1893. On March 26, Sonja Stojanovic and Father Gregory Haake will talk about the project and present the digital archive collection.

ROLL faculty

https://cslc.nd.edu/news-and-events/events/2021/03/26/digital-translation-project-of-some-notre-dame-old-documents-presenters-sonja-stojanovic-fr-gregory-haake-katherine-brown/

 

Wind Advisory (Michigan counties) March 18 from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. Details

 from WNDU weather web page announcement

• Berrien County
• Cass, MI
• Hillsdale, MI
• St. Joseph, MI

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM EDT THIS EVENING... 

* WHAT...Northeast winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph expected. Gusts to 50 mph are possible southeast of U.S. 24. * WHERE...Portions of northern Indiana and northwest Ohio. * WHEN...From 8 AM EDT /7 AM CDT/ to 11 PM EDT /10 PM CDT/ Thursday. 

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

Cave of Horrors (Dead Sea Scroll - new discovveries) -- Book of 12 fragments (Times of Israel dot-com)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bible-scroll-fragments-among-dazzling-artifacts-found-in-dead-sea-cave-of-horror/

In a stunningly rare discovery, dozens of 2,000-year-old biblical scroll fragments have been excavated from Judean Desert caves during a daring rescue operation. Most of the newly discovered scroll fragments — the first such finds in 60 years — are Greek translations of the books of Zechariah and Nahum from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and are written in two scribal hands. Only the name of God is written in Hebrew in the texts.

The fragments from the Prophets have been identified as coming from a larger scroll that was found in the 1950s, in the same “Cave of Horror” in Nahal Hever, which is some 80 meters (260 feet) below a cliff top. According to an Israel Antiquities Authority press release, the cave is “flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff.”

 Looters and archaeologists alike have combed the Judean Desert since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls some 70 years ago. Aside from two silver scrolls engraved with the biblical Priestly Blessing (from the late 7th to early 6th century BCE) discovered in Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered the earliest known copies of the biblical books and span from circa 400 BCE to 300 CE.

The latest identified finds, two dozen 2,000-year-old biblical scroll fragments from the books of Zechariah and Nahum, were discovered in clumps and rolled up in the Cave of Horror. The conservation and study of the fragments was conducted by the IAA’s Dead Sea Scrolls Unit under Tanya Bitler, Dr. Oren Ableman and Beatriz Riestra.

The team has so far reconstructed 11 lines of Greek text that was translated from Zechariah 8:16–17, as well as verses from Nahum 1:5–6. They join nine, much more extant fragments that were discovered by Yochanan Aharoni, who first surveyed the Cave of Horrors in 1953.

On the new fragments, as well as in the Greek translation scroll discovered by Aharoni, only the name of God appears in Hebrew. It is written in the Paleo-Hebrew script used during the First Temple period, as well as by some adherents of the Bar Kochba revolt (132–136 CE), including on coinage, and in the Qumran community.

Among the academic fruit already born of the new discovery is the realization that the “new” Greek translation is different from the traditional Masoretic texts.

“These differences can tell us quite a bit regarding the transmission of the biblical text up until the days of the Bar Kochba Revolt, documenting the changes that occurred over time until reaching us in the current version,” said the IAA.

March 15 - Ides of March 2021 means "wintry mix"

 National Weather issues from 4 - 6 p.m. a Weather Statement for Berrien County (Niles, MI)

Description

...Wintry Mix of Precipitation Mid Afternoon to Early Evening... A wintry mix of sleet, freezing rain, and snow will develop from southwest to northeast this afternoon into early this evening. Light icing is possible, especially on elevated surfaces, such as bridges and overpasses. Light and snow and sleet accumulation is possible too, especially those that are untreated. This may have some impacts to the evening commute. Persons planning travel across the area this afternoon should be prepared for locally hazardous travel.

New Dates for upcoming Summer Olympic Games -- official announcement also Paralympics dot-Org

July 23 - August 8, 2021

Paralympic Games August 24, 2021 - Sept. 5, 2021

Andrew Parsons, the President of the IPC, commented: “It is fantastic news that we could find new dates so quickly for the Tokyo 2020 Games. The new dates provide certainty for the athletes, reassurance for the stakeholders and something to look forward to for the whole world. When the Paralympic Games do take place in Tokyo next year, they will be an extra-special display of humanity uniting as one, a global celebration of human resilience and a sensational showcase of sport. With the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games 512 days away, the priority for all those involved in the Paralympic Movement must be to focus on staying safe with their friends and family during this unprecedented and difficult time.” 

Expansion of valid Vaccinators: March 2021

 from CNBC dot-com

The Biden administration will allow a wider array of medical workers, including dentists, veterinarians, EMTs and medical students, to begin administering Covid-19 shots as part of its “war-time” effort to get the nation closer to normal by midsummer.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using its authority under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to authorize more medical professionals and qualified students to administer the shots. . .

Drive-thru event (Maple Syrup making) - Northern Indiana 2021

 

MAPLE SYRUP DRIVE THRU SALE

Saturday March 20th, 2021

 8:00 a.m. - Sunday 21st 3:00 p.m.

Maple Wood Nature Center, 4550 E 100 S, LaGrange, IN 46761, USA map 

Drive-Thru Syrup Sale is March 20, 8-3, March 21, 11-3, at Maple Wood Nature Center, LaGrange IN. There is special Two-Day Pricing! There are maple suckers and maple cotton candy and more. Cash, Check, Credit Card. For more details contact Maple Wood Nature Center, 260-463-4022.

No parade tomorrow (S.Bend, IN) -- weekend before St. Patrick's Day 2021

 from DTSB (S.B.) DowntownSouthBend dot-com

The 2021 St. Patrick's Parade has been canceled due to COVID-19.

​

When is day to SPRING Ahead? - Daylight Savings Time

 Sunday March 14, 2021 (2 a.m.) move your clock ahead

1 HOUR !

Team LeBron versus Team Durant (Sunday NBA All-Star Game)

Winning team was that of LeBron James 170 while Team Kevin Durant scored 150

Sunday March 7, 2021 in Atlanta, GA 

Wind Advisory - March 10, 2021 - Berrien County, MI and Northern IN counties

 In Michigan, Berrien County

Description

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM EST Wednesday AFTERNOON TO 1 AM EST THURSDAY... WHAT...South winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts 40 to 50 mph expected. WHERE...In Indiana, La Porte, St. Joseph IN, Starke, Pulaski, Marshall, Fulton IN, White and Cass IN Counties. In Michigan, Berrien County. WHEN...From 1 PM EST Wed. March 10,2021 to 1 AM EST Thursday. IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

NBA All-Star Game - benefits for HBCU's -- March 7, 2021

 The game played at Atlanta, GA begins at 8 p.m. (television coverage on TNT and TBS)

The NBA and the players union are donating more than $3 million to aid historically Black colleges and universities, much of it decided by the outcome of the game.

Team LeBron will play on behalf of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, while Team Durant represents the United Negro College Fund.

Both organizations will receive $500,000 to start.  Another $450,000 will be divvied up based on the winners of the first, second, and third quarters.  Finally, the team that reaches the target score to win the game will ensure $300,000 for its cause.

Pray for the people and churches of the U.K. and Ireland - week of March 7 - 13, 2021

 https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/prayer-cycle/ireland-united-kingdom-england-northern-ireland-scotland-wales

#WCC World Council of Churches

Zoo Day March 6, 2021

Noon - 3 p.m. 

Potawatomi Zoo, South Bend IN

Visit the Zoo in winter to see what the animals are doing!

Winter Days are noon to 3 pm (last admission at 2:30) 

Weather permitting, the train will be running. Tickets are available at the Zoo entrance.

Admission for Winter Days is free for Zoo Members, 

and $5.50 per person for everyone else (babies 2 and under are free).

Safer ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (March 17 annually) during COVID-19 era

 from CDC dot-gov

Safer Ways to Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day

Attending gatherings to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day increases your risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. The safest way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year is to gather virtually, with people who live with you, or outside and at least 6 feet apart from others.

• Decorate your home in St. Patrick’s Day colors, shamrocks, and leprechauns.
• Celebrate by making Irish–inspired recipes.
• Have an outdoor neighborhood St. Patrick’s Day celebration with everyone at least 6 feet apart and wearing masks.
• Watch a virtual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

If you plan to celebrate with others, outdoors is safer than indoors.

Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN Zoom Lecture on Spirituality, Ethics, & Health Care

 Event on ZOOM -- saintmarys.edu

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021

7:00 PM

REGISTER

The 2021 Spring Endowed Lecture Series is focused on “Spirituality, Ethics and Health Care.” COVID-19 has rapidly changed the way we live and the way we respond spiritually and ethically to those in need. This series will look at questions of Catholic bioethics in light of the pandemic, global health and human rights, spirituality and the option for the poor, and human dignity in light of racial disparities in health care.

The Center for Spirituality is pleased to welcome Paul Farmer, MD, PhD and Jennie Weiss Block, OP, DMin for this virtual lecture.

Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world’s poorest people. He is co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that, since 1987, has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Farmer holds an MD and PhD from Harvard University. He is the Kolokotrones University Professor and the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. His most recent book is Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History.

Dr. Seuss titles (to be discontinued because of hurtful portrayal of ethnic peoples)

 from NPR dot-org

Dr. Seuss Enterprises will cease publishing six of the author's books — including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo — saying they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." The books have been criticized for how they depict Asian and Black people.

The decision to stop publishing and licensing the books follows a review by a panel of educators and other experts, according to Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that controls the author's books and characters. The other four titles that will be permanently shelved are McElligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat's Quizzer.

The company says the decision was made last year, in an effort to support "all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship."

CODE SWITCH

Dr. Seuss Books Can Be Racist, But Students Keep Reading Them

First published in 1937, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is the book that propelled Theodor Seuss Geisel's career to new heights, as he pivoted from working in advertising to writing children's books as Dr. Seuss.

Several of Geisel's later books overshadowed Mulberry Street. But over the years, critics and readers have struggled to reconcile the open-hearted and clever tone of it and other Seuss classics with the small-minded caricatures of minorities they also contain.

As NPR's Code Switch team has reported:

"In And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, for example, a character described as Chinese has two lines for eyes, carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice, and wears traditional Japanese-style shoes. In If I Ran the Zoo, two men said to be from Africa are shown shirtless, shoeless and wearing grass skirts as they carry an exotic animal. Outside of his books, the author's personal legacy has come into question, too — Seuss wrote an entire minstrel show in college and performed as the main character in full blackface."

Article continues after sponsor message

Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced the plan to halt publishing and licensing the six books on Read Across America Day, a celebration of children's books that has long been linked to Dr. Seuss — the March 2 date is also Geisel's birthday. But the National Education Association says it no longer partners with the Dr. Seuss company for Read Across America, its year-round push for parents and families to read.

Discussing Read Across America and the Dr. Seuss books on its website, the NEA says, "Students need books that provide both windows and mirrors if we are going to create more readers, writers, and people who feel included and recognized, and who understand that the world is far richer than just their experiences alone."

Beyond today's announcement, Dr. Seuss Enterprises says, it will do more to promote diversity.

"Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises's catalog represents and supports all communities and families," the company says.

Blog Traffic (daily visits/views) March 1 - 31, 2021

 March 1, 2021 = 23 page visits

March 2 = 37 page views

march 3, 2021 = 44 page views

March 6, 2021 = 31 page views

March 7, 2021 = 40 page views

March 9, 2021 - 87

March 10, 2021 = 365

March 11, 2021 = 267

March 13 = 47 page views

March 15 = 25

March 17 = 52 page visits

March 18 = 25

March 21 = 71 page visits

march 22 = 28

march 24 = 30

march 26 = 27

March 27 = 32

march 28 = 23 page views

monday 3/29 = 25

March 30 = 41 page views

3/31/2021 = 29 page views

Mass Vaccine inoculation clinic (March 26 - 27, 2021) Notre Dame Univ. Campus Ice Arena, Angela Blvd.

 announced 3/2/2021 University website nd.edu/ 

In partnership with the Indiana Department of Health and the St. Joseph County Health Department, the University of Notre Dame will stand up and implement a mass inoculation clinic on campus in late March to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to eligible Indiana residents throughout the region.

“When the state of Indiana was deciding where to locate a mass COVID-19 vaccination center in northern Indiana, it asked Notre Dame. We welcomed the opportunity to help,” University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. “We are grateful that state health officials recognized Notre Dame as a potential partner in this strategic deployment of vaccines for our region. The Notre Dame community remains committed to doing our part to help fight the pandemic on campus and beyond.

“I could not be prouder of the University for making it possible to help our local community combat this persistent disease.”

Similar clinics will be opened at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Ivy Tech Community College in the south-central community of Sellersburg.

In making the announcement, Gov. Eric Holcomb said: “Getting tens of thousands of vaccines in arms in a matter of days is a huge undertaking that requires incredible partnerships. We are incredibly grateful to IMS, Notre Dame and Ivy Tech for their willingness to meet this challenge head-on to help save Hoosier lives.”

Notre Dame’s clinic at the Compton Family Ice Arena will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 26 and 27 and will be available to Indiana residents throughout the region. An additional day may be added depending on demand and vaccine availability.

The one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be provided to those who meet the state’s age and other eligibility guidelines at the time. The ice arena is on the south side of the Notre Dame campus along Angela Boulevard and is easily accessible to the public.

The initiative, announced today by the state health department, is part of a statewide effort to quickly administer vaccinations to as many Hoosiers as possible. All clinics will require advance registration through https://ourshot.in.gov or by calling 211. The mass vaccination clinics are listed as sites that eligible Hoosiers can select when making an appointment. No walk-ups will be permitted. Indiana’s Area Agencies on Aging, AARP and nearly 70 libraries statewide also can help people schedule appointments.

The mass inoculation clinic is apart from a previously announced administration site for the Notre Dame community that the University is pursuing separately with the state health department.