Consider This Your Reminder To Book Your Vacations In 2022 (And Yes, This Is Typed After Only A Week Back At Work)

My dearests, it’s nearly the weekend, and I am so proud of us for getting through it. And to each and every one of you who responded with approval of the Elmo clip yesterday… toot toot!

TO THE LONGREADS!

Lauren Lyon, We need to talk about pregnancy at work sooner–even when it ends in miscarriage (Fortune) - Everyone needs to read this piece - Lyon contextualizes her own heartbreak in the current war on reproductive rights, the inherent and perceived stigma of discussing women’s health at work, and how so often devastating losses like miscarriages are suffered in silence, not allowing for mourning. 

Ed Yong, Omicron Isn’t Mild for the Health-Care System (The Atlantic) - I’m sure we’re all having some variation of this conversation everyday; we’re all going to eventually get Omicron, so shouldn’t we all just get it over with? And despite my nearly two years of being careful, I’m getting to that point: exhausted and ready to get back to some semblance of the “normal” of before. And considering I know SO many people who caught it over the holidays, had a super mild case, and are back at it, it can be really easy to think “meh, this is like a cold” and run out to get coughed on by strangers, if only to get it over with. But then you read articles like this one and are reminded that we are at a structural breaking point in our medical system, and that this “is the most important difference about this surge: It comes on the back of all the prior ones. COVID’s burden is additive.” So stay home if you can, wear a KN95 (or the like) mask, and stay safe.

Liz Lenz, Dingus of the Week: Nate Silver (Men Yell At Me) - Thank you Friend of the Missive Alex for tweeting this passage from Lenz’s piece this morning, because it is BEAUTIFULLY crafted, and this entire newsletter had me hollering in agreement at my computer: “We don’t need a dingus, who is mildly influential, going around tweeting that shutting down schools is akin to an act of war.”

Olivia Nuzzi, The Political Life of Dr. Oz (Intelligencer) - Y’all know this newsletter is an Olivia Nuzzi Stan account (did I approach her at a party at the DNC in 2016, interrupt her conversation and awkwardly blurt out how much I love her writing? MAYBE). And like her other stuff, this one’s a doozy - the fact she caught Dr. Oz and his wife talking shit about her because they couldn’t hang up their phones… woof.

Aaron Blake, Ted Cruz grovels to Tucker Carlson over Jan. 6 ‘terrorist attack’ remark (Washington Post) - Not a long read, per se, but a great recap of one of the greatest acts of televised sniveling weaselry ever witnessed. But before you laugh at the misfortune of the man once destined to be Human President—and believe me, I did—let’s also mark just how terrifying and fascistic Tucker Carlson is and remember that millions of people watch him every night. TL;DR, we are so thoroughly screwed.

You’re swell. Drink water, double-mask up, be kind to yourself.

xoxo Amy