International Woman's Day II: A DAY WITHOUT A WOMAN

I'm punchy today.I'm cheering on the Alexandria City Public School teachers for shutting it down. Go on with your bad selves, and thousands of VIP parents now have to figure out who's going to take care of their kids while they make dollars. Disrupt the system.As for me, I'm working. I've got no-union and a no-call-out job, I support a child with my income, and I think we're discovering the layers to this problem.BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY here's what I'll keep in my head today: Pasteur through Lister, god rest their man-souls, get the credit for the discovery of germ theory which is the foundation of the science behind the successes of modern medicine. This happened between the 1860s and the 1900s. Yes it arrived later in America because we are refractory to evidence, I digress... In 1854 FLORENCE "MY QUEEN" NIGHTINGALE was saving thousands of lives by cleaning up the literal shit. Check this piece out, and beware the unfortunate typo--it's 1854, not 1954. Blockheads.

The soldiers were poorly cared for, medicines and other essentials were in short supply, hygiene was neglected, and infections were rampant. Nightingale found there was no clean linen; the clothes of the soldiers were swarming with bugs, lice, and fleas; the floors, walls, and ceilings were filthy; and rats were hiding under the beds.¹ There were no towels, basins, or soap, and only 14 baths for approximately 2000 soldiers. The death count was the highest of all hospitals in the region. One of Nightingale's first purchases was of 200 Turkish towels; she later provided an enormous supply of clean shirts, plenty of soap, and such necessities as plates, knives, and forks, cups and glasses. Nightingale believed the main problems were diet, dirt, and drains—she brought food from England, cleaned up the kitchens, and set her nurses to cleaning up the hospital wards. A Sanitary Commission, sent by the British government, arrived to flush out the sewers and improve ventilation.

So keep talking about the end of the world. I'm going to be with every other person called woman getting it done.ALSO: Florence freaking invented data science and was a persuasive and prolific writer who though she was practically housebound in later years changed the GD world from her desk. *Spikes football*