Statement

I am, in general, less fond of the Vorkosiverse books post-_ACC_ Nonetheless, I just finished rereading _Cryoburn_. I found my reading speed drastically slowing when I hit Chapter 20 - I really didn't want to read the end of that chapter. Needs must, though...

One thing occurred to me as I finished the book. One of the pallbearers at Aral Vorkosigan's funeral was the nephew of one of the victims of the Solstice Massacre. That, friends, is a Statement. (I do wonder what the Komarran-on-the-street thinks of Duv, if they've heard of him at all.)

Antibully

In the Questionable Content forum, there's some ongoing discussion of middle school (what we called "junior high" in my time and place) and bullying. I guess my experience was exceptional; I only recall two instances when someone tried to bully me. Both occurred in shop classes. One of them isn't particularly interesting, except that teacher intervention did resolve it. The other...

This was a wood shop class. There was a small classroom attached to the shop, and we would meet there for five or ten minutes before getting to work. On one particular day, the teacher not being in the room, Mitch Collins decided to pick on me. Mitch was plumpish, but had a fair amount of muscle, and I was a skinny little kid, an obvious target. We exchanged words, and he threw a punch - a light one, and I dodged most of it, but still a punch.

The teacher came into the room, and a few minutes later sent us into the shop. As we passed through, a guy named Alwin Holman - black kid, nobody I knew in particular, physically well-built - came over to me and asked why Mitch hit me. I mumbled something noncommittal, and Alwin walked away. I went to my station to work on my project, and a few minutes later Alwin came by again and said, "Mitch won't bother you any more." And he never did.

Alwin, if you're out there, I remember, and am grateful.