Back on July 6, I published another cartoon on this same issue. A sketchy developer is asking for Fredericksburg to zone an area for homes, apartments, retail space, and for it all to be anchored by a “specialty” grocery store. The catch is, the city won’t be allowed to know which grocery store it’s getting. And now, they’ve taken a closer step to approving it.
Nader’s is a downtown grocery store in Fredericksburg, and it’s an institution. But over the years, I’ve heard complaints about it being the only grocery store downtown. It’s probably Fredericksburg’s version of a Bodega. A Bohemian friend of mine wrote a song about the place. I think Nader’s name has changed, but it’s always going to be known as Nader’s. It is by the Purina tower and the train station.
Creative note: I came up with this idea while on the train to my convention last Thursday. Because of all the shenanigans happening here, I wasn’t able to finish the cartoon until Friday afternoon. I drew this in the lobby so I could spend more time with my colleagues, and a LOT of them were looking over my shoulder watching me draw this. That would have been intimidating a few years ago, as most of them are better artists than I am, but they’re really the coolest people and are super supportive.
During the awards ceremony Saturday night, the president of the AAEC, Marc Murphy, mentioned that the winner of the Rex Babin Award was drawing (a local cartoon) in the lobby with friends watching. And that’s how I knew I had just won the award. More on this soon. (snip)
I think Cosmos has found other evidence of burying tools with women, in the very early days. I remember posting something several months ago.
Tools buried with women challenge Stone Age stereotype
September 14, 2025 Velentina Boulter
Stone Age tools. Credit: University of York
Researchers have discovered that women and children were just as likely as men to be buried with stone tools at a Stone Age grave site, challenging the assumption that such tools were associated only with men.
Working with the Latvian National Museum of History, the team analysed artefacts and stone tools found in the Zvejnieki cemetery in Latvia – one of the largest Stone Age burial sites.
Zvejnieki cemetery was used for more than 5,000 years and contains over 330 graves.
The researchers focused their study on stone tools made from materials like flint and quartz, which date to between 7500 and 2500 BCE during the Neolithic period. These kinds of tools are often dismissed by researchers as utilitarian and uninteresting.
“The site in Latvia has seen numerous investigations of the skeletal remains and other types of grave goods, such as thousands of animal teeth pendants,” says Dr Aimée Little, from the University of York in the UK.
“A missing part of the story was understanding, with greater depth, why people gave seemingly utilitarian items to the dead.”
The researchers analysed the tools using a multiproxy approach which involved considering technological, spatial, depositional and geological information about the stone tools.
Despite the long-standing belief that women in the Stone Age played more of a domestic role, while men did the hunting, the analysis found that women were just as, if not more, likely to be buried with stone tools.
“Our findings overturn the old stereotype of “Man the Hunter” which has been a dominant theme in Stone Age studies, and has even influenced, on occasion, how some infants have even been sexed, on the basis that they were given lithic tools,” says Little.
The results also showed that children were the most likely age group to have been buried with these tools. The full analysis of the burial site has been published in PLOS One.
The researchers suggest that these stone tools must have played a more significant role in Stone Age society than previously assumed.
While some of the tools discovered were used to work animal hides, others seemed to have been specifically made and then broken – almost as though they were a part of a mourning ceremony or ritual.
“This research demonstrates that we cannot make these gendered assumptions and that lithic grave goods played an important role in the mourning rituals of children and women, as well as men,” says Dr Anđa Petrović from the University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Previous studies have uncovered similar traditions of deliberately breaking tools before burying them with the deceased across the eastern Baltic region, suggesting some sort of shared ritual tradition. Comparable funerary practices have also been observed in graves from a similar time period in Finland.
“The study highlights how much more there is to learn about the lives – and deaths – of Europe’s earliest communities, and why even the seemingly simplest objects can unlock insights about our shared human past and how people responded to death,” says Little.
I saw a few headlines about it on Monday, and meant to post it but didn’t get it done, then Tuesday was what it was. So, it’s been a week, but here it is: there is universal childcare in New Mexico, and they are heroes for getting that done. -A
New Mexico will be the first state to make child care free
In an unprecedented move, New Mexico is making child care free.
Beginning in November, it will be the first state in the nation to provide child care to all residents regardless of income, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced this week.
The state has been working to lower child care care costs since 2019, when it created the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and started to expand eligibility for universal child care. This latest change removes income eligibility requirements from the state’s child care assistance program altogether and waives all family copayments.
The initiative is expected to save families $12,000 per child annually.
“Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation and New Mexico’s future prosperity,” Lujan Grisham said in her announcement. “By investing in universal child care, we are giving families financial relief, supporting our economy, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive.”
The United States allocates some federal funding to states to lower the cost of child care for low-income kids, but eligibility for that funding is very limited and by and large, most families are paying an average of $13,000 on child care annually. It’s much higher in many states.
In the absence of a federal universal child care system, some states have worked to build their own systems, and New Mexico has been a leader in that effort over the past several years.
The state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department got a budget increase of $113 million in the most recent legislative session, taking its total operating budget to nearly $1 billion. Half of that money goes specifically to child care payment support.
The state also established a fund in 2020 with money earmarked for early childhood education. Thanks to tax collections from the oil and gas industries, the fund has grown from $320 million to $10 billion. Latinas in New Mexico led the charge in 2022 to help pass a constitutional amendment in 2022 that ensured a portion of that fund went specifically to universal child care. Funding for the new initiative will come at least in part from there, and Lujan Grisham will also be requesting an additional $120 million in state funding next year, a spokesperson for the governor said.
The news also comes with improvements for child care facilities and, potentially, raises for their staff. As part of the rollout, the state will establish a $13 million loan fund to construct and expand facilities, launch a recruitment campaign for home-based providers and incentivize programs to pay staff a minimum of $18 an hour.
The state hopes the initiative will lead to the creation of 55 new child care centers and 1,120 home-based child care options.
Still, response to the initiative so far has been mixed. Republican state Rep. Rebecca Dow told the Albuquerque Journal that she believes child care vouchers should be reserved for children most at risk for child abuse and neglect. Since the state’s child care assistance program expanded eligibility over the past five years, fewer low-income families have participated in the program, the Journal reported.
But Thora Walsh Padilla, the president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, praised the initiative, saying during a press conference Monday that it addresses various challenges the tribe has struggled with, including raising wages for providers. There are only three child care facilities on the 463,000 acre reservation.
“It is so timely and it answers so many needs,” she said. “A building? Oh my goodness, we’ll be one of the first to apply.”
Sorry struggling to function. Spent the entire morning barely watching news unable to deal with everything. Decided to instead do what I enjoy. I took one of my computers apart to check it, and did a clean on both. I wish I could explain. Hugs.
were we? I did, anyway. I received the video recipe below from Wendy The Druid (who does the LBGTQ+ history posts) today. Enjoy-I’m always there for hard sauce on spiced tart apples! Video and transcript on the Substack page; you need not subscribe to see.
The Gay Baker–Apple Mystery Dessert by Brandon Ellrich
Heat oven to 350° F. Grease 9-inch pie pan. In large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, mace (or nutmeg), and cinnamon; mix well. Stir in vanilla and eggs; blend well. Add apples and walnuts; mix well. Pour into greased pan.
Bake at 350° F for 20 to 30 minutes or until browned and firm to the touch.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine all hard sauce ingredients. Beat at high speed until well blended. Shape into 2-inch-thick roll or spread into butter molds (you may have to refrigerate the hard sauce before you’re able to roll it). Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm.
When serving, top each serving of dessert with slice or mold of hard sauce. The hard sauce will melt on top of the warm dessert.
Scottie's Playtime 