It’s Wednesday, and there’s lots to share. Ferguson, MO is weighing heavy on me, for it’s a terrible exemplar of how far we have not come in 50 years. Lots of material out there, but I do try to find what you won’t read elsewhere. Here’s Driving While Black in Ferguson, written by Victoria Bekiempis on August 14 for Newsweek. (Who knew Newsweek still existed?) The story repeats itself in too many places around the country, with government as a business, trying to figure out how to make as much money as it can, and the public be damned. Everyone should be outraged when they finish this story!

Here’s Has an Ebola Corner Been Turned? One Perspective:  “No, No, No, No” from National Public Radio on August 15. I heard this story and thought, “Emily Veltus could be my daughter, or one of my readers’ children.” So much to do, and so many challenges that make improving lives harder!

I read Sharon Otterman’s piece, A Rabbi’s Departure Manifests a Challenge for Jews in America, from the August 15 New York Times, about Rabbi Andy Bachman leaving his congregation to work with poor people. Mixed emotions, but if religion means anything that matters, it means making lives better! Rituals are important, for sure, but they’re mighty empty without an underlying purpose. Read the article and see where you come down. Christians welcome, too, for this issue surely relates to you all too.

This August 15 post by Amanda Marcotte for Slate, Employers Now Making It Impossible to Be a Poor Working Mom, touched me. It’s about companies and how they schedule low wage workers. Not sure I’ll see a barista in the same light again. (I was rolling change over the weekend and told Ms. Jane I didn’t have as much change as I used to, for I tend to drop it all in tip jars. The change adds up, but the money matters more to the recipients than it does to us. If you can, tip large; your extra money matters!)

In closing, I’m sure you all sit around wondering about how jam, jelly, preserves, conserves, etc. differ. (Had you ever even heard the word conserves?) Here are the answers you’ve been waiting for from Serious Eats. The piece is titled What’s the Difference between Jam, Jelly, Compote, and Conserve? It was written by answer lady Marissa Sertich Velie, and was posted on August 19. And, finally, here’s a delightful story about food (and family, really) from New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers, written for the Times on August 11. It’s titled From Scraps of Bass, Ceviche is Born and it’s a pleasure. (I got this last piece by way of Michael Ruhlman, who may be the best cookbook writer/food writer in the world.)