{"id":35366,"date":"2026-04-27T20:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35366"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:12:01","slug":"is-there-something-in-the-south-carolina-water-i-hate-that-i-have-to-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35366","title":{"rendered":"Is There Something in the South Carolina Water? I Hate That I Have to Ask…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can anyone explain to me why the Hagia Sophia — the former basilica built by the Emperor Justinian, now a mosque in Istanbul — is a campaign issue in South Carolina’s Senate race?<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

Anyone? Anyone? No?<\/p>\n

My inner historian is scratching his head and biting his lower lip in abject confusion. Constantinople fell to the Turks in, if I’m remembering correctly, 1453, and the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque by the conquering Turks shortly thereafter. Except for a recent period where it was treated as a museum, Justinian’s great basilica has been a working mosque for the last eight hundred years. I don’t want to do the math, but it has probably been a mosque for just as long as it was a Christian basilica. Mark Lynch’s demand to return the Hagia Sophia to the Greek church is about eight hundred years too late.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I think Lynch’s opponent in South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, needs to be retired from the Senate — he’s an odious toady for Donald Trump — but I really struggle with why<\/i> the ownership of the Hagia Sophia would be a voting issue with South Carolina voters. Pocketbook issues, like the cost of gas and food and health care, would be of more relevance.<\/p>\n

As a matter of history, I wish the Patriarch of Constantinople could still conduct services in the Hagia Sophia. I wish the medieval artwork within were not covered. I wish the Church of the Holy Apostles still stood. (It had fallen into disrepair and was torn down after the Turks took the city.) But we do not live in the world of my wishes, and the Hagia Sophia no longer belongs to the Christians.<\/p>\n

I am just baffled. This is going to move, what? A dozen votes? Maybe?<\/p>\n

\n

My job search, like Celine Dion’s heart, will go on.<\/p>\n

I actually received a rejection today from Disney for a job I had applied for at Marvel Comics. Disney laid off a number of people at Marvel Comics, including some I know, a few weeks ago, and I was not so much rejected<\/i> for this job as the job no longer exists to be filled. When I heard about the layoffs, my thoughts went first to those affected, and then I considered that it probably meant this job wasn’t happening, either.<\/p>\n

I applied for a few more jobs today, a few on Saturday, a few on Friday. I didn’t feel like applying for anything yesterday. It can be hard. I saw some posts on Twitter in recent days that describe the kind of struggle I’m going through.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

It is<\/i> demotivating. It often feels like I’m bashing my head against the wall.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

I’m feeling that<\/i>, Big Timi. I don’t think anyone thinks I’m lazy, and my application total is closer to 300 at this point, but the system just sucks<\/i>. It does.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

I’ve felt each of these over the last nine months (since the layoff<\/a>) and the last (since Diamond filed for bankruptcy<\/a>), some more than others, and almost always at least three or four.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to say I’m not scared. I sometimes feel, especially with my medical issues (and rationing my blood pressure meds), that finding a job is a matter of life and death, and each rejection amounts to a message telling me I don’t deserve to live. Sometimes I envy my colleagues who got out early, who landed on their feet. Sometimes I feel Diamond left me with no useful skills at all. There’s only so many times you can read a rejection email that ends with, “We wish you luck with your job search,” and feel completely that, as Lord Melchett said in Blackadder II<\/i>, “As private parts to the gods are we, they play with us for their sport!”<\/p>\n

And that’s not a good mental place to be.<\/p>\n

Still, we carry on, boats beating against the current. I have a list of jobs to apply for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

It’s tough out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can anyone explain to me why the Hagia Sophia — the former basilica built by the Emperor Justinian, now a mosque in Istanbul — is a campaign issue in South Carolina’s Senate race? Anyone? Anyone? No? My inner historian is scratching his head and biting his lower lip in abject confusion. Constantinople fell to theContinue reading “Is There Something in the South Carolina Water? I Hate That I Have to Ask…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[4137,5431,5439,5440,5227,5438,467,4420],"class_list":["post-35366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-blackadder","tag-constantinople","tag-hagia-sophia","tag-istanbul","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-ottoman-empire","tag-south-carolina","tag-turkey","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}