Reading List: Happiness Is A Costco-Sized Bag Of Pistachios, And Other Things I Am Staring At In My Kitchen.
Poppets! It’s Friday of a week in which I swore Wednesday was Thursday for a good hour, so needless to say I am grateful for the end of the week. I am making sous vide coffee-braised oxtails tomorrow, which will happily sit in a warm bath for 24 (!!!) hours, so let’s get to those long reads because I need them to marinate throughout the day before I pop them in the sous vide at 4 pm, and nothing makes a girl happier than 6:30 AM mise en place.
An Anonymous Biden Administration Official, I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Biden Administration (Slate) - Before you flip out, this is a parody and the lede photo is perfect. Just click the damned link already (h/t Colin)
Shannon Keating, The World Is Going Back To “Normal.” For Many People, That Isn’t A Good Thing. (BuzzFeed News) - As an extrovert who happily discovered during this past year that I very much enjoy my own company, and may prefer it to (GASP) the company of others, I feel this piece in my bones.
Samantha Michaels and Lil Kalish, “VC Lives Matter”: Silicon Valley Investors Want to Oust San Francisco’s Reformist DA (Mother Jones) - Look, San Francisco isn’t perfect. And the San Francisco legal/political scene is far from perfect, in fact it’s downright dysfunctional (want historical context? See Season of the Witch). But nothing makes me want to ignore an opinion more than a well-off person who has moved out of the city co-opting social justice language to argue that venture capitalists aren’t listened to. OK, JAN. And full disclosure: I have spent 12 years loving this silly place, and have good friends who work for the DA’s office and go in every day working hard to make this city a better place - and they stick around to do so. So get off my lawn or get to work making things better beyond throwing money at a stupid recall.
Katie Benner and Michael S. Schmidt, Justice Dept. Inquiry Into Matt Gaetz Said to Be Focused on Cash Paid to Women (The New York Times) - Oh my goodness, this Matt Gaetz story just gets more and more ridiculous. This story evolution is chock full of jaw-dropping moments, and not necessarily for these new crimes, because I’m of the mindset that two consenting adults exchanging “gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances” in a consenting relationship without coercion is none of my business (sex with minors, however, is very much awful and illegal and if I hear the victim referred to as a 17-year-old woman again, I’m going to scream. And if the above doesn’t make any sense, you should probably read Molly Jong-Fast’s The Strange Saga of Matt Gaetz, or How Not to Handle a Crisis h/t Mum) No, it’s jaw-dropping for me because a sitting congressperson decided to pay for sex via the most paper trail method possible, the Cash app! BTW, it’s 2021 and I CAN STILL SEE Y’ALL’S VENMO PAYMENTS, so change your privacy settings if you don’t want me or anyone else seeing a payment note w/ emojis that can only signify cocaine. You know who you are.
Joachim Steinberg, Please do not host a “Christian seder” (Forward) - I am a week late, and this piece is a year old, but pretty please don’t do this…
Have a fabulous weekend. Stay safe, wear your mask, and be kind to yourself, ok?
Xoxo Amy