NPR inter­viewed Pales­tin­ian Amer­i­can Quak­er Sa’ed Atshan. He talks about the three stu­dents recent­ly shot last month in New Hamp­shire, two of whom he men­tored, and also Quak­er wor­ship. Very thought­ful and well done.

Quak­er Stud­ies has a spe­cial issue out on John Wool­man. I’ve writ­ten about this well-known Friend, many times, nat­u­ral­ly, includ­ing a three part series back in 2006, but it’s great to have aca­d­e­mics share the lat­est takes. As guest edi­tor Jon Ker­sh­n­er writes in his intro­duc­tion, “The fresh ground cul­ti­vat­ed by these authors demon­strates that there is much still to say about Wool­man.” Best of all, this is open access! I think it’s real­ly trag­ic that so much good aca­d­e­m­ic writ­ing today is com­plete­ly inac­ces­si­ble and I’m not sure why, as I don’t think the authors are get­ting much of the mon­ey. I hope new aca­d­e­m­ic pub­lish­ing mod­els start to win out, as it’s impor­tant for lay Friends to think about his­to­ry in a more thought­ful way. I’m a big stan, as the kids say, of Jean Soder­lund, and am devour­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to this spe­cial edi­tion.

I looovvee Goldie’s, the Philly Israeli-American veg­an falafel mini-chain, so I’m not just appalled but per­son­al­ly upset that some pro-Palestinian pro­test­ers accused its own­ers of geno­cide. Once again peo­ple: it is pos­si­ble to be against vio­lence on all sides and also to not scape­goat any side. It sounds like own­er Michael Solomonov’s response has been mut­ed and under­stand­ing: good for him. I do hope this dies down. Pro­test­ers on all sides say stu­pid things in the heat of the moment and it sounds like they were there for less than four min­utes. Can we move on?

Also, chef’s kiss to the writer of The Inquir­er head­line, Berks Coun­ty woman named Time’s 2023 Per­son of the Year.