The Bluestocking, vol 173
A new dawn has broken, has it not?
Happy Friday!
I wrote and then deleted a whole intro about Joe Biden’s “wokeness”, because I am weary of beef. A new dawn has broken, has it not? Still, the relative shortness of this email will please the person who replied to the Pratchett edition with “this is too long”.
Helen
PS. Two entries in the self-plug zone this week: Radio Browser on Artemisia Gentileschi, and The Spark with Linda Scott on the Double X Economy.
I thrived on the tension and drama of British politics. Then I had a heart attack
My wife drove me to the hospital, staying heroically focused at the wheel while I wound down my window, chasing the oxygen that seemed to be fleeing my lungs. The roads were empty, it being New Year’s Eve. I tried to walk into A&E and explain the situation to reception, but found instead that collapsing on the floor communicated the necessary data more efficiently. “Next time, call an ambulance,” I heard someone say. Pro tip, I thought, but I’m not planning on making this a regular gig.
I told myself that everything would be all right; that heart attacks are not always the death sentence they used to be, thanks to advances in medical technology. But it also occurred to me that there is a moment in every parent’s life when we see our children for the last time, and that I might already have passed that moment without knowing to say goodbye.
It will not surprise you to learn that some of the Twitter Left reacted to this wonderful piece by Rafael Behr on his heart attack by instead relitigating Corbyn’s anti-semitism problem.
SEX AND THE CITY REVIVAL IN WHICH SAMANTHA IS REPLACED WITH FRAN LEBOWITZ
CARRIE (V.O.): And just like that, after years of lunches turning into phone calls, and phone calls turning into the all-too-occasional text, I suddenly looked up and realized how far apart my friends and I had drifted. It was nobody’s fault, really; Big and I were traveling, Miranda was climbing the career ladder with a new role in the mayor’s office, and Charlotte was busy having her children pose for fake rowing photos to get them into Columbia. It took the worst to finally bring us back together: [[failed contract negotiations]] Samantha’s death.
INT. FUNERAL HOME
CARRIE, MIRANDA, and CHARLOTTE, all dressed in black, stand in a room full of men.
CHARLOTTE: When I heard Samantha wanted an open casket I didn’t think she meant the bottom half.
(Thanks to Hadley for suggesting this piece, which cracked me up, particularly the Jane Krakowski joke.)
Quick Links
“When Makai Powell-Demeuth, 51, joined the group she was upset that she didn’t have pearls in which to take a photograph of herself. ‘I don’t really wear that kind of jewelry or fit in with the pearls thing, but I wanted to because I love how these women are supporting each other,’ she said. But then she remembered that she had received a bag of jewelry that belonged to her best friend, who died in July from complications from diabetes. After joining the group she went through it, and sure enough, there were two strands of pearls inside.” The women wearing pearls in honour of Kamala Harris (New York Times).
This thread on the current text-reading capabilities of AI is amazing. Though this is the ur-example of a noted phenomenon in genius studies, which is that framing the question is half the battle. (Twitter)
Very moving. (BBC)
Damn, I want to write the piece on how Arnold Schwarzenegger is on a mission to make progressive stuff super-manly to reach the kind of guys who think that liberals are unbearably girly. I watched a whole documentary about vegetarianism a while ago and instead of going like “oh, it’s less cruel to the beautiful animals and you should do it to be a good person”, it was Arnie going “plant-based diets are better for muscle-building, also your sperm count”. Anyway, here he is again on why being an anti-vaxxer is for Medicosocial Girly Men.
Someone correctly pointed out that it was unfair to call Dear Prudie the worst advice columnist in the world when Mariella Frostrup exists. Point taken.
This video of London accents from the 14th century to now suggests things got very Welsh for a few decades.
“One woman whose husband is a QAnon follower told the BBC that inauguration day had been "the most disappointing" of his life. She's hopeful Wednesday's events may have shaken his faith in the conspiracy, but fears what comes next. ‘I’m not a told-you-so kind of person and never seek to belittle or humiliate,’ she said, adding that his beliefs had put a strain on their marriage in recent months.” The BBC on the meltdown of QAnon believers when, instead of finally busting open the cannibal cabal, Donald Trump just flew to Florida to the strains of My Way.
Say goodbye to Trump with this thread of his most mental moments. I had forgotten he stared directly into the sun.
You show those koi carp who’s boss
