Warms some poor name that never felt the sun
Hi fam, I had a good week and we’re up to 63 degrees here in Boston today so I decided to give myself the day off. No thinky stuff up top but I wanted to send you something just so nobody freaks out and sends out a search party or anything. So here are some links and other bitlets. I will say briefly that, regardless of any specifics of the bill or your feelings about either party’s lawmakers and their actions, the sheer size and scope and overwhelming popularity of the stimulus seems to be an encouraging sign that, at least mid-pandemic if not post, we may have found a greater appreciation for the need to take care of each other and the limits of America’s go-it-alone mythology. Maybe! Regardless, a lot of people are going to get some of the help they need and that is a good thing let’s allow ourselves to be happy about it for a sec.
Links
- Arizona legislature introduced two dozen measures to restrict voting, including one that would allow legislators to overturn election results. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”
- Readers may know my feelings on “cancel culture” and this is a strong argument that part of the ridiculous hysteria is carryover from adolescent Gen X sentiments of free speech absolutism during the early days of the web.
- Continuing with Biden admin’s approach to putting a little of climate into everything, the stimulus bill is kind of a climate bill too.
- Fighting Putin is becoming increasingly dangerous. “Femdacha” is a secret getaway outside of Moscow for feminist protestors to decompress. A dacha is a weekend country house.
- One recurring theme that is emerging post-Texas blackouts—investor owned utilities have way, way too much power.
- Why the pandemic is making us all stupid.
- Mars is a hellhole and Elon Musk’s obsession with colonizing it is dumb.
- Chicago residents are on hunger strike, protesting a planned scrapyard in an already overburdened Latino neighborhood.
- Zillow maps inadvertently show “ghost neighborhoods,” outlines of lots that no longer exist after neighborhoods were razed for urban highways.
- I love this 5-year-old’s description of why he likes to play Breath of the Wild, which is mainly to make Link eat gross food.
- I liked WandaVision but of course I love Kathryn Hahn. This interview isn’t that great tbh, but her vibe in the photos are worth the price of admission.
- NASA named a Martian landing site after Octavia Butler.
- I found this profile of Soleil Moon Frye to be delightful.
Watching
Still on You’re the Worst. This is purportedly a show about awful people but really it is a show about empathy. I love it.
And here is a poem I like by Emily Dickinson:
Glory is that bright tragic thing
1660
Glory is that bright tragic thing
That for an instant
Means Dominion—
Warms some poor name
That never felt the Sun,
Gently replacing
In oblivion—
Listening
Slothrust Boston represent.
That’s all do something nice for yourself, be safe, let yourself feel good about something. See you next week.
Tate