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Chalk this up to things not widely known: America's first female mortician, Henrietta Duterte, turned her house into a stop on the Underground Railroad and used coffins to smuggle fugitives across Pennsylvania.

From an essay about Duterte by novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge: 

At 14, my deepest desire was to become an undertaker. This career choice was met with puzzled looks from my mother and exasperated sighs from my guidance counselor, but during a school-sponsored internship week, they agreed to let me try.

Nov 13, 2017
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Despite all my years of studying brain disorders, for the first time in my life I realize how profoundly unsettling it is to have a brain that does not function.

After brain cancer affected her behavior, a neuroscientist comprehends mental illness in new ways.
↩︎ Quartz
12h
Tom Scocca: We plan our families without regard to the one fact we refuse to discuss: We're gong to die, sooner rather than later.
↩︎ Hmm Daily 16h

I waded into the water and it was very soft on my skin and refreshing, a little bit cool but not too cold... Daddy was begging me to rush so he could watch the World Cup final, but I like to take my time about things so I ignored him.

The eight-year-old Swedish girl who pulled an ancient sword from a lake writes about the experience, and she is amazing.
↩︎ The Guardian
17h
The 19th-century maps of Emma Willard—possibly the first American female cartographer—charted Native Americans' dispossession.
↩︎ Atlas Obscura 18h
The founder of a company that ships abortion-inducement medication to your home launches a new service that delivers to the US.
↩︎ The Atlantic 19h
US Fish and Wildlife tells staff to be less transparent in FOIA responses, in order to avoid fueling endangered species lawsuits.
↩︎ The Guardian 19h

It’s coming from the same place. Some kind of dog-whistle or some shit. Like, “Can we make it more authentic?” I’m often accused of not being “authentic” enough, and people don’t even realize how vile of a thing that is to say.

Open Mike Eagle on the enduring realities of Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle and the marginalization of black actors.
↩︎ Vulture
20h
The Guardian's experiment in memberships is working: It now gets more revenue from readers than from advertisers.
↩︎ Digiday 20h
If you've joined TMN as a Supporting Member, and/or made a donation, thank you. We really appreciate your help.
↩︎ TMN Membership 1d

For example, if it is desired to make a record to guide the driver from Chevy Chase to the Treasury Department, the record among other things would contain the directions ‘U street turn to the left.’ 

From a 1916 patent for a phonograph in your car to play audio recordings to help you navigate.
↩︎ Futility Closet
1d
The south-western Chinese city of Chengdu plans to launch an illumination satellite, or fake moon, in 2020.
↩︎ The Guardian 1d
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