somehow, suddenly, it's spring again
Hi there,
Reader, I’ve been sneezing, just a little bit. It’s not a cold (I yearn for the levels of human contact required to get one of those, but I fear them too), it’s… a touch of hayfever. I don’t get it too badly, just a bit, that worsens year on year. Poor me!
The start of hayfever season is the start of the best season of the year though; yes, it’s spring. After 100 years of lockdown, it’s finally spring!
While the clocks are springing forward into British Summer Time this weekend, we are still, alas, in lockdown. But hear me out. Twitter has already decided that it’s August. We’re obsessing over a ship stuck in the Suez Canal. It’s pure Silly Season fodder, and it’s uniting us beautifully.
When I said ‘we’,' I meant we. I’m in it too. Look what I went and did:
Yeeeeeah. I got a bit creative.
It’s just so nice to be part of something bigger than ourselves right now, something that unites us, that isn’t work or downbeat or enraging, but fun and silly. Of course, this is actually a disaster and is already affecting global trade.
From the distance of Twitter, though, the ship has become The Main Character, but in a sympathetic mode. It was a ship and a captain and a crew, all trying to do their jobs, in a global pandemic, and now look what’s happened. It’s terrible and silly and sad and funny all at the same time. We’ve been kept indoors and online too long and everything’s been awful, but to identify with a trapped ship in a manmade canal is to identify with each other, and it’s the feeling we get in the doldrums of August, when life is on hold and not quite relaxed and not quite back to normal, but it’s in April. We’ve got August in April.
What a surprisingly lovely, silly way to enter spring, the best time of year, and the gateway, hopefully, to greater freedom over the next few months.
Links of the week
Looking forward to the LMAO-naise comedy show tonight! The first comedy-newsletter-turned-comedy-show that I’ve heard of, this has a magical line-up and is on tonight! Great work from Zoë Paskett
Rest in peace, Jessica Walter - here’s a sweet post from her Arrested Development granddaughter, Alia Shawkat:
This edition of Today in Tabs does a great round-up of all the very funny, silly stuff doing the rounds of Twitter et al at the moment. It’s Silly Season!!
Gráinne Maguire has a newsletter! Best subscribe, then.
Greta Thunberg is very funny (click through for the full experience):
What I’ve been up to
I’m on the latest episode of The Week Unwrapped and it’s a really fun one, although we do discuss the scams and the stock market elements seriously. The bit on men’s skirts shows how fashion can hold a mirror up to society and politics, even if I’m often one of the first to deny its role in defining the times.
Here’s The Politics of Pockets article that I reference during my ‘pockets rant’, it’s a great read from Chelsea Summers on Vox.com, and is as applicable now as it was in 2016 when she wrote it
I taught the March Personal Essays Masterclass with London Writer’s Salon on Wednesday and it was a real delight - here’s some feedback:
What I’m getting up to
I’ve got four comedy gigs lined up this month - all online - because it’s time to get some practice in! First up, I’ve got a spot next Saturday at Tickled Pink Comedy from 8pm: tickets available here
Thank you so much for reading!
I’m a freelance journalist, podcaster and comedian based in London, England.
You can find me over on Twitter and Instagram and YouTube and - yeah, that’s plenty.
If you enjoy my work & fancy buying me a virtual coffee, I’d be delighted (and will hopefully experience a virtual caffeine rush):