My dearests! You’ve made it to Friday in a midterm election week, so you deserve a hearty list of longreads to power you through the weekend.

But as a wee amuse bouche to start us off, did you know that the Satanic Temple is suing Netflix for their depiction of a Baphomet statue in the Riverdale-like edgy remake of Sabrina the Teenage Witch? OH YEA, THAT IS HAPPENING IN 2018, FRIENDS.

To the reading!

Choire Sicha, Your Office Doesn’t Have Nap Time Because You Are Not a Child (The New York Times) - Sicha, editor of the NYT Style section and former editor of Gawker, is now delivering snappy and snarky advice in column form, and as the kids say, I am HERE FOR IT. For example, in answering a question from a man who keeps putting off having a kid with his 35-year-old wife because of “student loans,” Sicha writes: “You don’t actually want children and you’re wasting her time and she will hate you forever.” Which means I've now decided the only way I'll ever purchase an Alexa is if it comes in Choire edition.

Rebecca Traister, The New Face of Power Is Taking Shape (The Cut) - Tuesday was a strong day for Democrat women, and especially women of color, in politics. The inimitable Traister looks at how an “historic number of women on the Democratic side won their primaries in House, Senate, gubernatorial, and state legislative races” this year, and what that means for Democrats, and politics writ large.

Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin, How the House Fell: Republican Chaos and Democratic Focus (The New York Times) - I’m kinda leaning into stereotype by sending you two NYT pieces this morning, but if you read one piece about the midterms, I really like this one on the race for the House. Also a reminder that Nancy Pelosi keeps her soldiers in line and is the gosh darned GOAT of Congress, and to say otherwise is silly. Come at me, subscribers ;)

Anne Helen Petersen, Beto Voters In Texas Aren’t Heartbroken — They’re Ready For The Next Fight (BuzzFeed) - I LOVE this profile of energized Texas Democrats, and how they are reacting to Beto O’Rourke’s (close) loss to Ted Cruz. It’s an affectionate profile of a state, and the liberal voters who, to this point, have felt left out of politics, whether it be through decades of GOP domination or the decades of low voter turnout.

Charles P. Pierce, The Constitutional Crisis Is In Sight (Esquire) - Yea, this piece won’t help you sleep at night…

Matt Simon, The Entourage Effect: Cannabis Science Is Getting Hairy (WIRED) - … but this one might! Medical cannabis helped me get off prescribed narcotics very soon after my major surgery a few years ago, so my friends know that I am an avid evangelist of CBD-based blends for all that ails ye. Thing is, due to to cannabis remaining a federal schedule 1 drug, there isn’t nearly as much medical research into its effects as there should be. WIRED looks the burgeoning research into how, when and what blend you take is the difference between whether you have your pain alleviated, or find yourself sitting in the corner swearing that the friend of a friend sitting across a room at a party DEFINITELY knows how fucking stoned you are, and is definitely texting the FBI from his phone, and then you're wondering omg, can the U.S. government revoke citizenship if you consume marijuana in a state that has legalized its use?

And on that note, just because we need The Onion in these dark days, “Inconsolable Jeff Sessions Tries To Commit Suicide By Smoking Joint”

I really do enjoy all of your company. Be kind to each other.

Amy