Blue water, blue skies.

Yikes, now that was a weekend. Perfect weather both days, just in time for miserable weather arriving during the week, when we’ll be scraping the bottom of the 90s. Why do I live here, I will ask myself on days like that. The answer:

Blue water, blue skies. That’s why.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, bike ride to John’s Carpet House for some of the blues jam that happens there every Sunday, in season. It’s grown — considerably — since the last time I was there. It’s much more of a place to show out, but still friendly, and that’s what counts. I had a late lunch of two tacos from a place that was selling them for $2 each. The guy asked me what I wanted on them. I asked what he had. Cheese, sour cream, taco sauce, jalapeños or something he called “Kranch.”

“It’s so good on tacos, you won’t believe it,” he said.

OK, then — cheese and Kranch. Which turned out to be ketchup and ranch dressing, but he was right — it wasn’t half-bad, at least when you’re hungry, and I was. Plus two Modelos.

It was necessary to be outside this weekend to shake off the stench of current events. Which leads to some bloggage:

A profile of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that will definitely polish her brand as a possible presidential contender down the road. Washington Post, but the link is a “gift” link, so I’m hoping you all can see it. Anyway:

Whitmer is a woman, but she is also an attractive woman, and her use of executive power, when wielded broadly, seems to deeply trigger her male antagonists. The Republican leader of the state Senate, Mike Shirkey, bragged on a hot mic that he had “spanked her hard on budget, spanked her hard on appointments,” and also contemplated “inviting her to a fistfight on the Capitol lawn.” Another Republican lawmaker, Sen. Ed McBroom, complained that Whitmer had been “neutering” him and his colleagues, the cause of the legislature’s “emasculation.”

At the start of the pandemic, Whitmer urged the federal government to supply more equipment to Michigan. On live television from the White House press briefing room, Trump dismissed her as “the woman from Michigan.” She was in national headlines. Democrats called it a political gift. Joe Biden thought about making her vice president, inviting her to Delaware to talk about the job in secret.

But that’s also when the threats started. Hundreds that don’t make it into the media, she said. And then there were the armed protests. And then there was the hit list with her name on it, belonging to a man who shot and killed a former Wisconsin judge. And then there was the kidnapping plot, a saga that began in the fall of 2020 and stretched on into a trial this year. Four men were charged, their plans and fantasies spelled out in public court filings: hogtying the governor, laying the governor out on a table, shooting the governor in the skull, shooting the governor in her doorway. She tried not to follow the trial coverage, but the headlines always passed by on Twitter and in push alerts. How could she not look? “Like, for weeks that this trial was going … every day,” she said. “So even if I wasn’t reading those articles, I couldn’t get away from them.”

I’m glad she’s talking about it, because most of the state media do not. Whitmer is nakedly ambitious, but this is so obvious.

Here’s more WashPost content, and another gift link, actor John Turturro talking about his grandmother’s illegal abortion:

My mother, Katherine, the fourth of six children, was born in Brooklyn to immigrants from Sicily. Her mother, Rosa, took care of the family and worked as a seamstress from home; her father, Giovanni, earned his living as a shoemaker. They struggled as many poor families did, then and now, to feed and clothe their children. Then Rosa became pregnant with child number seven.

She was 40. She had a baby, a 4-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old, an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old. I imagine the method of birth control was rudimentary. Rosa’s older sister Margarita was distraught that Rosa would have another mouth to feed. Margarita persuaded her sister not to bear another child.

She was given a “special drink” by her sister. It didn’t go well:

My grandmother became feverish — most likely from an infection that turned into septic shock that evening — on fire from the poison, burning inside. Pennyroyal, I know now, can be toxic to the liver. My mom watched her mother stand up on her bed, pulling at her hair and asking God, “Why?”

Rosa Inzerillo was taken to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn on April 18, 1927. She died on April 25 at about 7 a.m.

I’m glad he wrote about this, because we know this is who most often gets an abortion — a woman who already is a mother and is struggling with the ones she has. The column goes on to describe what happens to a poor woman with six children who dies in 1927. It blew up her family, in every way imaginable. I won’t spoil it — just read.

And on a lighter note, ha ha, a NYT magazine story on why the future of opera may be unfolding in? Yes, Detroit. Another gift link. My friends who have seen the productions Yuval Sharon has done so far have raved about them. We’ll have to see one next season, if we can get seats after this.

With that, I believe I’ve got some recovering to do from all this sun. Funny how it knocks you flat, ain’a? But I’m thinking some pizza will be good medicine.

Let the week begin.

Posted at 6:53 pm in Current events, Detroit life |
 

33 responses to “Blue water, blue skies.”

  1. Deborah said on July 10, 2022 at 7:10 pm

    Now I’m suspicious of covid when anyone says something “knocks them flat”. Seriously that’s the biggest thing that has happened to me with this round of covid. That’s what I noticed the night before I tested positive and it has stuck with me through day 3. It wears me out to walk from one room to the other.

    Went to a friends house in Abiquiu a couple of weeks ago, they served some sauce to go with a sort of Asian frozen appetizer from Trader Joe’s that you bake until it’s crispy. They said the sauce was mayonnaise mixed with ketchup which I thought sounded horrible, but was actually quite tasty as a dip.

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  2. Suzanne said on July 10, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    Interesting article on the reality that back in the day, abortion was fairly common and often done to avoid the horror of childbirth.

    “In the 1700s and early 1800s, conception was considered a disturbance of a woman’s natural balance. Methods of “removing a blockage” or “restoring the menses” were sometimes necessary to reestablish the body’s balance, even if they induced a miscarriage. Abortions that occurred before quickening, which was understood as the time when a pregnant woman could feel the fetus move (usually around the fourth month), were both legally and morally acceptable.”

    https://theamericanscholar.org/safer-than-childbirth/

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  3. LAMary said on July 10, 2022 at 7:49 pm

    I know as a kid, listening to friends’ mothers talk to each other while the kids played, I would hear about D and C procedures. Even into the seventies when you could get an abortion a truck driver at one of crap jobs mentioned his wife was getting another D and C. That guy had six kids already.
    On a completely different note it’ a beautiful day here in LA and a neighbor across the canyon is having a party with live Mariachis. They’re very good. I’m betting the food is good too but from my deck I can’t tell which house it is. Sound tends to bounce around in canyons. There used to be more Mariachi and barbecue parties here but gentrification has driven out most of my Mexican American neighbors.

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  4. Deborah said on July 10, 2022 at 8:22 pm

    LAMary, you reminded me when I was a kid in Miami we had Cuban neighbors who would roast a whole pig in their backyards and have parties with cuban music that sounded like a lot of fun, and the aroma was divine. My parents complained along with many of our white anglo neighbors.

    I read online that Benjamin Franklin published a book or pamphlet informing women how they could use herbs and whatnot to end a pregnancy, it was common knowledge back then. I read that even Mormons espoused the quickening theory about when you could end a pregnancy. Quickening being the phase of the pregnancy when the mother can feel movement by the fetus, it was ok before that.

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  5. LAMary said on July 10, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    I’ve never complained about the music or the food. My former next door neighbors who spoke little English would always send one of the kids over to invite us their barbecues. I’d bring some beer or a watermelon. I’ve been to quincenaneras, baptisms, birthday parties where the carnitas and asada and elotes were abundant and the hosts had gone to Mariachi Plaza to hire a few guys to provide the music. I’ve been to a few fancier indoor quinceaneras too. When a girl baby is born the family starts saving up for that celebration and they get very elaborate. My sons have been invited to a few as escorts for the birthday girl or her friends. I guess my boys passed the requirements for manners. Today was a big day in downtown LA too. The sixth street viaduct, two years of construction, opened. The old sixth street bridge was in lots of movies and car commercials so you all have probably seen it. The new one connects Boyle Heights, a very old residential area, with the Arts District. The opening celebrations included Ozomatli providing the music. No cars allowed on the viaduct today. Just bikes, skateboard and pedestrians.

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  6. Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2022 at 9:57 pm

    Ketchup, Mayo, a little pickle relish, and you’ve got the poor man’s Thousand Island.

    We also ignored most of the news this weekend. Our son was in a concert at the newish fancy pants venue downtown. Concert was impressive, venue not. Ten minutes before it started we had to evacuate when a fire alarm went off. From two floors up, very fun with an 89 year old.

    The ceiling looked like it was supposed to be Chihuly glass but due to budget overruns they could only do a printed version. Classy.

    Hallway into concert hall was unlighted. Also fun with an 89 year old.

    Bathrooms had huge heavy doors with no entrance buttons for a person in a wheelchair. How can that even be legal, in such a new building?

    Also no parking anywhere near and no valets, so if you didn’t have someone to drop you, too bad!

    Anyway, the lad’s voice is still smooth as silk, with patented falsetto fireworks, so that part was good.

    Then today we celebrated an 85th birthday. And D gave some driving lessons to a 21 year old who finally decided it’s time to get his license. To which I can only say, huh?

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  7. alex said on July 10, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    One of our local eateries mixes tomato salsa with ranch dressing for its “southwestern” dishes and it’s kinda good.

    Heard from a friend today who got COVID a month ago and is only just now able to remain awake and alert beyond mid-afternoon. He has had all of his shots and boosters and been super-careful and yet this was his second bout, the first having occurred in spring 2021. This round really sapped his energy.

    The recent monsoons brought us some water infiltration and the culprit, we’ve decided, was our gutter guards. These perforated metal ledges don’t really do a good job of keeping debris out so much as keeping water out, which wicks up into our roof or cascades down over our windows. Wish we’d figured it out sooner.

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  8. Dexter Friend said on July 11, 2022 at 3:35 am

    Dilation and curettage, D&C, yeah, I remember how that procedure was commonplace because my first wife had to have that procedure 3 times, as her cycle was out of rhythm. She finally got straightened out and after our divorce had a child with another of a string of husbands.
    If some people used the D&C tag to disguise they had an abortion, this is news to me. My story here is 50 years old. https://www.reproductivefacts.org/news-and-publications/patient-fact-sheets-and-booklets/documents/fact-sheets-and-info-booklets/dilation-and-curettage-dc/

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  9. Jeff Borden said on July 11, 2022 at 10:23 am

    I know very little about religions other than the One True, but I’ve read several stories recently about how Judaism views the beginning of life, which starts with the first breath and ends with the last. Given how SCOTUS is giving top priority to religious beliefs –I’m still fuming over that asshole football coach winning his case for the right to pray publicly on the 50-yard line– how will it interpret the outlooks of other faiths regarding abortion? Man, what a Pandora’s box the court has opened!

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  10. Icarus said on July 11, 2022 at 12:08 pm

    I have to admit, I didn’t know much about miscarriages, D&Cs, and ectopic pregnancies until we started trying…but I also didn’t try to regulate anyone’s body ** checks notes EVER.

    I do believe, with the exception of a few dufuses, all politicians know better but in the grab for every vote possible, they appeal to the lowest common denominator.

    speaking of one of them, glad to hear this guy passed:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/04/todd-akin-dies-514988

    kids, it’s never too late for proper sex education.

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  11. Julie Robinson said on July 11, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    While they are used for abortions, there are legitimate medical uses for D&Cs, usually heavy bleeding that won’t stop. Mom had several in the hospital, me with medication. It’s the same meds as the abortion pills, so I fear for women with these conditions who live in the no-choice states. We’re talking severe blood loss, life threatening situations, and it’s honestly rather horrendous to go through. I am so grateful for science and medicine.

    The Turturro story is horrifying but not really all that unusual in those days. Women died in childbirth with great frequency; no wonder so many feared it. Fathers also died due to illness or accident, and many children didn’t survive to adulthood.

    Two of these from my own family were horribly tragic; a mother dying of “puerperal fever” (sepsis, likely from incomplete afterbirth or even poor doctor hygiene) and the baby dying five days later. Or the young father who died from a burst appendix, leaving a wife and two year old son. She couldn’t run the farm alone and was plunged into poverty and a hasty remarriage to a widower who treated her son as a second-class citizen. Your families have these stories too, whether or not they were discussed.

    See earlier sentence about science and medicine. I’d have died so many times without them.

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  12. ROGirl said on July 11, 2022 at 2:11 pm

    My father’s mother died in the hospital after a hysterectomy. I’ve always wondered if an abortion was involved.

    Isn’t the ultimate goal of the forced birth crowd to ban birth control?

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  13. Scout said on July 11, 2022 at 3:28 pm

    We escaped the hell that is Phoenix AZ in July and flew over to LA to visit the son and son-in-law. LA was lovely for us even though our hosts thought it was hot. It was so refreshing to be able to walk to outdoor dining spots and also hang outside on the patio at their house. We haven’t been able to do that here since mid-May. Special treats were a day trip to Los Olivos near Santa Barbara for a day of wine tasting and culinary delights on Saturday, and a visit to the Academy Museum on Sunday. Of course our return flight was delayed 3 hours last night and we got home this morning at 2:30 am, but it was worth it. We masked in the airports and during the flights and at the Academy Museum we were required to mask and show our vax cards to get in. Fingers crossed we stayed safe.

    So many people I’ve spoken with are not sure what Biden’s EO to protect repro rights covers; here’s what the estimable Professor, Heather Cox Richardson wrote about it:

    “Both the president and the Department of Justice have come out strongly for legislation to protect reproductive rights, saying that the government should not interfere in such a personal decision. Until the Democrats have enough senators to break a Republican filibuster in the Senate, though, Republicans will prevent any such measure from passing. In the meantime, Biden says he will use the power of the executive branch to protect women’s constitutional rights.

    The executive order requires the Department of Health and Human Services to protect and expand access to abortion medication that the Food and Drug Administration approved more than 20 years ago. It will try to ensure that all patients have access to emergency medical treatment and to birth control. It will work to inform people about their right to reproductive health services, and convene volunteer lawyers to protect the rights of pregnant patients to travel from one state to another for medical care.

    It will protect patient privacy by asking the Federal Trade Commission to fight the exchange of health-related data, including guiding consumers on how to protect their health care data on mobile apps.

    It will protect those seeking access to doctors and clinics and will provide an additional $3 million in funding for them. It will provide leave for federal workers who need to travel for health care, and will continue to provide health care for military families and Department of Defense workers.”

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  14. LAMary said on July 11, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    Scout, you must have been in the Valley or somewhere inland. Here near downtown LA it wasn’t hot. High seventies? Maybe low eighties? Zip humidity. It’s supposed to stay in that range until the end of the week.

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  15. Scout said on July 11, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    LA Mary, their major cross streets are La Brea and Melrose, and you’re right, it wasn’t hot at all! It was gorgeous. But the guys are apparently part polar bears. They keep their house a/c at 70. We wore socks and sweaters and slept under a weighted quilt!

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  16. Deborah said on July 11, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    Scout, how did you like the Academy Museum? I’ve wondered if the exhibits are well designed? And is that part of LA where your sons live called Hancock Park or am I way off?

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  17. Scout said on July 11, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    LA Mary – their neighborhood is called Melrose Village. It is just southeast adjacent to West Hollywood.

    I loved the museum, and I think any movie buff would. The Black Cinema floor was not available to us as it only opens in August, but everything else is open and is really well done. We felt there was a comprehensive representation of all the aspects of the industry that are awarded Oscars, and all the video displays and compilations were very well executed.

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  18. Scout said on July 11, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    I’m sorry, Deborah, that last comment was to answer your questions!

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  19. LAMary said on July 11, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    Maybe where I live it’s leafier and breezier so we get a few degrees knocked off the temperature. I know where Melrose Village is.

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  20. Deborah said on July 11, 2022 at 7:51 pm

    More free Covid tests are being offered https://www.covid.gov/tests I would encourage everyone to get them. First infections and Reinfections be damned.

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  21. Julie Robinson said on July 11, 2022 at 9:18 pm

    Also you can get eight/month through Medicare. Ours are going to expire next month; here’s hoping we don’t have to use them.

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  22. Sherri said on July 11, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    I went to a cool event today: the formal investiture of a Federal judge! The Honorable Tana Lin, serving in the western district of Washington, formally took her oath and had her robing ceremony today.

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  23. Sherri said on July 11, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    I haven’t read Where The Crawdads Sing, because I’m inherently dubious of immensely popular novels set in the South, but this story about the author is wild.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/07/where-the-crawdads-sing-delia-mark-owens-zambia-murder/670479/

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  24. basset said on July 12, 2022 at 6:41 am

    Worked one of my irregular, retirement-time freelance gigs yesterday and don’t have anything else booked, everything on my calendar is either recreational or medical… that’ll change soon but for right now I really feel retired. Maybe the weather will cool off a little today and I can go fishing.

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  25. alex said on July 12, 2022 at 7:42 am

    Recreational or medical…

    Nice choices to have in retirement, even if you have to drive across state lines.

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  26. LAMary said on July 12, 2022 at 11:46 am

    GMTA Alex. That’s what I thought too. In LA we can have either delivered.

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  27. basset said on July 12, 2022 at 11:48 am

    Been looking at a trip down to the North Georgia mountains… the lodge offers “mountain view” rooms, but we’re thinking we might ask for “dumpster view” to increase our chance of seeing bears.

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  28. Icarus said on July 12, 2022 at 12:38 pm

    I need to rant. on June 27th a recruiter reached out to me about a role I’m perfect for, yadda, yadda. didn’t want to get my hopes up but sent them my resume. Didn’t hear anymore, though it was 4th July holiday so on Friday of the following week (July 8) just asked for feedback. Did they see something in my resume they didn’t like? Recruiter said he’d try to get feedback but I wasn’t holding my breath.

    Today recruiter says, get this, they want to interview me next week. This isn’t the first place to string me along and I just wish the people on the other end of the interview would respect the candidate as a person, not someone you can treat anyway you like.

    I mean yeah I’m not getting paid for these interviews and it delays any potential start date if they do hire me, which is seeming less and less likely as I seem to be unhirable at my age.

    /end rant.

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  29. LAMary said on July 12, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    Icarus, recruiters working for agencies mine resumes from LinkedIn, Indeed, and any specialized sites that apply to certain jobs. Dice was the big one for tech back when I paid attention to tech jobs. A recruiter will contact you, get you interested, then contact a company that has a publicly posted job that your resume fits. They negotiate a contract with that company and submit your resume. If the company is interested, the recruiter will get the interview set up. Not defending the recruiter in your situation, but often they’re dealing with multiple people at the employer end of the equation and getting the interview set up can be like herding cats. I used to be a recruiter who worked that way, finding people first, an employer later and going back and forth on the fee the employer will pay if they hire you. It’s usually 20-25 percent of the annual compensation. The actual recruiter will get 15-25 percent of that fee if you get hired and stay in the job for a while. I get two or three calls a day from recruiters, many of them in India using US phone numbers. Some are legit, some iffy.

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  30. Julie Robinson said on July 12, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    Icarus, I’ve seen the hiring process from in the inside multiple times, and with extremely rare instances, they don’t share your sense of urgency. Usually there are several layers of people who have to sign off. When my sister worked for WIC she had to evaluate each resume on an 80 point questionnaire. Even if she tore through it because the person was lacking the requisite degrees, it took an hour apiece on top of all her other work.

    So sorry it’s taking so long for you.

    More bombshells we already knew this afternoon from the Jan. 6 committee, along with word of attempted witness tampering from TFG.

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  31. Suzanne said on July 12, 2022 at 7:05 pm

    The hiring process is a mess on both sides. Potential workers strung along, recruiters setting up interviews only to have a bunch of no shows. A retired friend of mine was head of development at a university. She told me about a time that her dept needed to replace an administrative assistant. They gathered resumes, interviewed, and narrowed it down to the top 3. The top choice turned them down but did they go to the 2nd choice? No. They started the process over. She said it took 6 months to finally hire someone; my thought was that this position was obviously not a priority for them if they could leave it unfilled for that long.
    Several years ago, I had 2 phone interviews with a company with the assurance that they would call me to set up an in person interview. They never did. I found out later that the expansion they were planning on was delayed but they never bothered to call or email me the information. They just left me hanging.

    I watched the hearings today. Pretty damaging but will it make a dent? The 2 former Oath Keepers stood out because I felt like I was watching people from my community. Both seemed like hard working, decent guys who were shocked that things went as they did. In other words, they were, like so many people I know, very naive. They thought they were joining a group of patriots who wanted what is best for the USA & seemed truly remorseful, but how did they not know who these terrorist groups were? Naive, sheltered, living in a bubble is how.

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  32. Deborah said on July 12, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    Each one of these hearings I watch I’m more flabbergasted by what they have on Trump already. The one today was a doozy. I was especially impressed by Raskin’s final statement. And Murphy’s made me tear up. I worry about the former Oath Keepers guy, I hope they have him on a witness protection program. I heard John Dean say on CNN that he was on witness protection for 18 months during the Watergate hearings.

    Trump must be bouncing off the walls.

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  33. LAMary said on July 13, 2022 at 12:28 am

    The company I just left had almost all remote positions. All the interviews were virtual. Hiring managers would review resumes and my notes on applicants and request I set up an interview. Then I would ask, “anyone other than yourself participating?” Usual answer? five, six, seven other people. Find a day and time when those people and the applicant are all available for a half hour chat on Webex. It’s bullshit. Back when interviews were in person usually it was one manager interviewing. Maybe two. When managers requested more I knew I could push back and I would be supported by my manager. The exception would be when we had all day interviews for new grad RNs. Six managers, half hour interviews. Meeting at the end of the day deciding who we would hire. Everyone, hired or not, got a phone call or an email from me thanking them and referring them to other recruiters I knew were still in the new grad process.

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