Hello there,

I try not to talk directly about the current president of the U.S. all that much here. But I had the thought recently that he might end up becoming America’s foremost climate-action president because his idiotic and illegal war on Iran is leading millions of Americans to finally realize that clean energy is better, cheaper, and not as prone to supply shocks as fossil fuels. Thanks, Worst Person Alive!

Here’s some art, ideas, and internet for you:

1. “When I searched my phone for texts I’d sent with ‘lol’ in them, there were thousands. Most of them were just ‘lol’ by itself, or ‘lol ok’, ‘lol no’ or ‘lol hahaha’, and very few of these messages had anything to do with laughter or jokes. ‘For like two years at uni I wrote one shite poem per week lol.’ ‘I’m genuinely so sorry lol I shouldn’t have said anything.’ ‘Lol I was mega lonely hahahaha.’ I realised that I had sent a lot of messages like these while actively crying.”

2. Some basic rules for AI-use etiquette.

3. This month’s Science (!!!!!) Corner: A new mouth-swab test will get us closer to eradicating TB; we finally have an effective treatment for sickle-cell anemia, thanks to gene therapy; scientists are using the blood of pediatricians to develop treatments for RSV because their antibodies are up to 25 times better at blocking RSV.

4. Ryan Coogler on how he thinks of his films like croissants: He bakes in intricate sets of layers for those who will appreciate them—but the thing will taste good whether you register the layers or not.

5. New Tana French (the third and final book in her Cal Hooper series); new Zach Galifianakis show that really could have been called “Among Many More Ferns.”

6. Show us your cats, a Minneapolis tradition. Can we get a Brooklyn version of this?

7. Six go-to phrases for disengaging from barn gossip (works for other kinds of gossip too).

8. What fighting cancer can teach us about fighting authoritarianism; I thought Amanda Peet’s essay about being diagnosed with breast cancer as both her parents were in hospice was incredibly good.

9. Looking forward to: this summer’s woke Supergirl, though they really have to stop imperiling that dog; an upcoming documentary about Mary Oliver.

10. Watch MTV.

11. An interview about mutual aid as organizing in a recent Illinois congressional primary. This follows, of course, a long tradition that includes the Black Panthers’ free breakfast and other community survival programs of the 1960s.

12. My household is really enjoying Shoresy, which is basically if the Paul Newman movie Slap Shot was Canadian and a lot dirtier. It’s largely directed by Jacob Tierney, the “Heated Rivalry” creator. No, Jared Keeso’s voice doesn’t actually sound like that. Find it on Hulu.

13. In the Union Square subway station nearly fifteen
    years ago now, the L train came clanking by
    where someone had fat-Sharpied a black heart
    on the yellow pillar you leaned on during a bleak day
    (brittle and no notes from anyone you crushed upon).
    Above ground, the spring was the saddest one
    (doing work, but also none). What were you wearing?
    Something hopeful to show the world you hoped?
    A tall man was learning from a vendor how to pronounce
    churro. High in the sticky clouds of time, he kept
    repeating churro while eating a churro. How to say
    this made you want to live? No hand to hold
    still there it was: someone giving someone comfort
    and someone memorizing hard how to ask for it again.
    
    —”While Everything Else Was Falling Apart,” Ada Limón

Bye,

Laura

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