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Just realized we should start talking about the chapters and authors in "So Long, Dental Plan!"

First up, we have an article by @erikloomis.bsky.social: The Simpsons and the Working Class: Clintonian Liberalism Meets American Popular Culture.

Next, in "A Workers’ State Without Workers?" @davidabanks.online looks at that beloved episode of Star Trek DS9 where the boys from the Federation of Planets help the Quark's workers form a union. Come for the reminder that Worf's a strikebreaker, stay for the speculation that USSR inspired Trek.

.@fredbjacob.bsky.social offers a delightful take on the episode where Nanny Fran Fine refused to cross a picket line for Mr. Sheffield. "The Nanny as Labor Activist: Fran Fine, Fran Drescher, and Working-Class Solidarity."

In “'I’m the Business Agent.' Garden (State) Variety Union Corruption in The Sopranos" @shaunrichman.org disentangles all the Italian surnames and construction sites to lay out the union plot points, explains how corruption starts (and ends) in real life and speculates on Chase's meaning.

In "Pushing Agitators Out of Airlocks: The Class Politics of Battlestar Galactica" @benburgis.bsky.social argues the ostensibly pro-union episode where mechanics go on strike squeezed the workers into a Obama-esque meritocratic framework.

In "Krusty Krab Unfair: Labor in Kids’ Shows Matters," Alina Sipp-Alpers argues that a 25 year old cartoon episode had an inordinate influence on the left-leaning Millennial generation, and that left-leaning creative types should take children's entertainment much more seriously.

We get some @leftistteendrama.bsky.social and more crustacean-based unionism from @mariadip.bsky.social in “'Your [Organizing] Matters. It’s What Got Me Here.' One Tree Hill’s Brooke Davis as a Role Model for Millennial Union Workers."

Is wrestling "fake?" Well, Vince McMahon's (Anti?) union storylines were real, as @pgagliardi.bsky.social explains in "Monday Night (Labor) Wars: Representation of Union Movements in Televised Professional Wrestling."

.@terrigerstein.bsky.social gives us “'Everybody Hates Minimum Wage': An All-too-realistic Depiction of What Happens When Low-Wage Workers Assert Their Rights." From the introduction (an excuse to quote one of Chris Rock's best jokes):

Was Spacey's "teachers unions are stupid and evil" plot made to secure $$$ from Netflix's charter-boosting CEO? You might think that. @jennyhunter.bsky.social thinks it shows how bosses don't even think of workers as people. “'We Strike at Midnight Tomorrow': Workers as NPCs in House of Cards."

In "The Class Struggle at Superstore" @ericdirnbach.bsky.social expands on his earlier @labornotes.bsky.social review of what is becoming a classic TV touchstone on union organizing.

Kelly Diaz writes about one of the more recent shows in “'We Feed You, Now Help Feed Us': Depictions of FGLI Students at Elite Institutions and the Essex College Food Workers Strike on The Sex Lives of College Girls." Here's a delightful quote/footnote combo.