Friday link dump, partially annotated
[Alt text: A tree ornament of Lucille Ball playing the saxophone.]
Sorry I've been AWOL for a bit. Nutshell: I quit my job, flew across the country and back for another friend's funeral, and now I'm trying to figure out what's next, other than daily trips to the basement where the elliptical lives, and bookmarking a million things from the internet. Here are a few from the last couple weeks. Sharing before they get too stale.
My friend made these spinach artichoke enchiladas. I demanded the recipe and made them yesterday. So good. (Cookie and Kate)
The water pressure in my kitchen is so weak that there is no point in using the dishwasher; I wash everything by hand. A friend raved about this dishrack. I was like, "A hundred dollars for a dishrack is fucking insane." And then caved and ordered the smaller, $80 version. The surface is treated so that water never collects anywhere (DC water is gross to begin with); the whole thing is pleasant to look at; and now I look forward to doing dishes. "Worth every single penny," says boring old woman. (Simplehuman)
This is several weeks old, but the Balenciaga fashion show (YouTube), specifically the last minute and a half of the video, where the model is kind of hunched over and stomping through the mud/runway. It was fodder for SO many imitation videos. (TikTok)
Someone put together an interactive map with links to mutual aid groups all over the country. You won't get the tax write-off, but you will help people who need it. Directly. (Mutual Aid Hub)
Research shows that when people disappear or go missing, the amount of media attention their cases get depends on their race, gender, and location. The Columbia Journalism Review is trying to make a point about how fucked up this is, with a new tool that shows you just how many news stories your disappearance would generate. I am worth 19 stories. If I was less than half my age, I'd be worth 120 stories. And somehow I'm still grateful I'd get 19. (AreYouPressworthy.com)
Book rec: The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela, which has just been long-listed for the National Book Award. He writes with incredible precision, and his descriptions of NY suburbs are just brutal. (Bookshop)
There is, finally, a list of 125,284 names of Japanese Americans who were put into internment camps in WWII. For now it is a tangible book that you can go see in LA. (Atlas Obscura)
All the Twitter drama is mesmerizing. First, a thread (Twitter) where people shared their most favorite tweets, in advance of Musk coming in and destroying everything. Speaking of which: Musk asked engineers to show them their code (Platformer). To PRINT IT OUT and show it to him. Which prompted someone to create Elon Code Review, where the "testimonials" are comedy gold. A few hours or days later, Musk decided anyone could have a "blue check mark" — the check mark that verifies people, so you know the tweet you are reading was in fact sent by the president, or a specific journalist, or Lizzo — for $8 a month. Once that mark was for sale, all comedy hell broke loose (Twitter). A fake Eli Lilly (Forbes) account posted “we are excited to announce insulin is free now." That, of course, went viral, and apparently Lilly's stock took a massive hit. There's so much more. Irony? "Twitter no longer has a communications department." (The Verge) There's a lot more I won't bore you with, but if you like this kind of thing, get in there now, before Musk allows the former president to start posting again and inciting more mob violence.
London's balls are on the loose. (Telegraph)
Some satisfying before and after photos of people's rooms. (Demilked)
This girl helping a stuck baby elephant. (Reddit)
For DC people, a very useful thread about what you can and can't recycle. (Twitter)
Chuck Grassley facing toughest election challenge since Reconstruction. (Onion)
Smiling Fetterman asks Oz if he’d mind slowly repeating concession For 5th time. (Onion)
NIMBY Bingo. I almost posted this to my neighborhood listserv. (McSweeneys)
Cutest purse for, uh, crabby people. (Nicoletta Carlone)