You’re reading The Husk's Friday edition, our Weekender, a countdown/roundup of miscellanea from Micronesia, Guam, and Earth.
It’s still Friday the 13th for some of you so these ominous headlines might be fitting. 1
…superstitions. I kind of really enjoy superstitions from the islands so I’d love to hear about superstitions you grew up with. Here are three that were instilled in me:
Did you have a dream of your teeth falling out? That means someone’s going to die. There are a lot of superstitions that I learned growing up as a kid that indicated someone would die which terrified me. So I harbor a fair amount of irrational fears, like dreaming about my teeth falling out.
For some reason, my parents taught me not to put luggage on the ground when leaving the house for a trip. So basically you had to haul it from the house to the car, similar to a game of the floor is lava. But once you get to the airport it’s fine to put on the ground because????? I am not entirely sure why this was prohibited in our household, but I have my suspicions. (Namely: We do this to prevent someone from dying.)
There’s this one bird I don’t know the name of but it has yellow feet and I learned that if you see it flying around your house, beware. Someone is going to die.
…climate change stories
A body in a barrel surfaced in Lake Mead in Las Vegas. Water levels have decreased, concerning climate scientists. Per the LA Times, investigators suspect the remains were from 40 years ago.
A new report from the U.K. Met Office came with harrowing news. Fortune wrote about the report. This is their headline: There’s a 50-50 chance we’ll exceed a doomsday climate threshold in the next 5 years
…yikes. Read the article without the paywall here: https://archive.md/tZvX0
…major paradox poor families on Guam are facing
Once again, The Guam Daily Post is doing the important work of reporting on the struggles of trying live on Guam.2 They’ve written about the increasing cost of living and this week published a report that, I think, should be sounding alarms for all island leaders. This is something to be frightened about on Friday the 13th.
Joleen Toves writes about families who avail of federal rent relief funds but who are evicted or turned away by landlords. A program that is intended to ensure people have a roof over their heads during this pandemic has, in effect, displaced them.
Thank you for reading!
Right? 😵💫 (This is, by the way, my new favorite emoji. Which is a very trivial point to make when the planet is on fire because of climate change. To which I respond, again, “😵💫”)
Yes, the phrase is “on Guam.”