“We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer’s wreckage. We will welcome summer’s ghost.”
– Heny Rollins

It’s the weekend, piglets! A short intro from me because I’m technically supposed to be on holiday…even through the reality of my job means I’m still doing a bunch of work this week, I’m annoyed to say. Hey ho, such is life. Jeff is in a similarly grim set of circumstances and we’ve agreed therefore that a long Christmas break, possibly to include foreign travel, will therefore be justified. Win some, lose some.

It’s a rainy sunday here, so that means I’m going to log off, make a couple of batches of soup, drink copious amounts of tea and alternate between Agatha Christie’s Poirot and my newest love, Schitts’ Creek by way of relaxation. Tell me your plans in the comments!

Happy weekend to JLo and literally no one else. This is what fashion and media types call “a moment.”

What an awful scam on every level, do not @ me.

One of the Founding Mothers of NPR has passed away. RIP Ms Roberts.

*screams into the void* I’m (sadly) not at all surprised by this at all, only angry and depressed. Sometimes I think about how the vast majority of sexual crime statistics track almost perfectly over my closets female friend groups and myself and I just want to set something on fire.

And as a follow up, the pertinent question. (My own question about what the Kavanaugh hearings really ask remains: are women acceptable collateral damage on someone else’s journey?)

Hook ’em on Shakespeare young.

This investigative piece on the harshness of live on the high seas (an excerpt from a forthcoming book) is hard to read but is evidence of how many industries have horrifically out of date practices and next to no labor protections. We’re not nearly as advanced as Silicon Valley would have us think, sometimes.

Hm. This seems super not great for us as a species…

I will read anything by Anne Helen Petersen, and we were blessed with another gem this week.

Seriously, guys. Let’s just try some ideas. Let’s run the experiments.

Highly relevant to my interests.

In case you’re looking for your next book read.

Smoking is bad, team. Smoke if you’re a grown up and damn well please, but there is no need to relitigate the health hazards.

I’m for Boleyn-core, 100%.

The kids are going to save us. They shouldn’t and we shouldn’t have to ask them to, but they are. And I hope that leaders around the world are doing a bit of demographic math in their heads in response to the images and headcounts of the marches this week. Kids grow up and they vote.

Data is fascinating, and useful. We need more of it and less punditry.

A pet theme of mine is how much I wish Americans could see their news through the lens of another nation’s media. It’s enlightening, whatever your political bent.

I know it’s only the latest in a long list, but this is a really serious allegation. In normal times, we would never even have gotten to this point, and yet here we are and I’m not convinced there will be any consequences. How bloody GRIM is that?

And finally, please enjoy my favorite new Twitter account.