Reading List: It’s Been A Week Since We’ve Talked And I Still Think You Should Drink Some Water.
DARLINGS! My goodness, I have been MIA this week. Between crazy pre-holiday weekend busyness and me re-activating my Restaurant Roulette dinner series whilst much of the city is away in the desert, I have been burning the metaphorical candle at both ends. And nothing convinces me of the frailty of the aging human body like the food hangovers I’ve been having after going out for dinner every night this week - I gave up booze 7.5 years ago, but I’m waking up puffy and achey anyways after I have some pizza and a dessert? This human meat sack needs to pull itself together already.
But on the flip side, it has been a joyous week of introducing friends to friends, and watching as people I adore from across my social spectrum get to meet IRL and get raucous on a San Francisco patio. Connecting awesome people with other awesome people is one of the great joys of my life, and I am grateful to everyone who’s taken a chance on showing up to eat having zero idea who their dining companions will be. THANK YOU.
OK, there’s so much to read this weekend - load up those Kindles and let’s get to it!
Ed Zitron, 'Quiet quitting' is nothing but pro-boss propaganda (Insider) - Believe me that I started hooting in agreement at this barn burner of a takedown of the reemerging insistence on hustle culture, especially here:
Bosses bank on people working harder for a nonspecific reward. Managers fail to set realistic expectations for what a worker does, which means the worker never truly knows what "enough" is. This works very well for the company, as it's able to start piling nonspecific expectations upon you, rationalizing them as "being a team player" and "proving you want it.”
David Moscrop, Opinion - Rage has poisoned public life in Canada (Washington Post) - Mum of the Missive sent this in and it gives me absolutely no joy to share it with you, especially considering how much we’ve talked about how, in the age of instant information, rage and hatred respect no borders. Sigh.
Andrew Wallenstein, Will Smith Apology Video Botches His Image Rehab (Variety) - If you’re interested in learning a bit about what goes into crisis communication, and how important it is that every entre in an apology tour must be considered from the absolute most critical perspective, read this piece on how the sausage is made.
Josh Gondelman, Getting Away From It All in Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse (Slate) - Gondelman is one of my all-time favorite Twitter follows and while I haven’t finished this piece yet due to the aforementioned craziness of this week, the comparison of Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous virtual selfie to “a frame from a language-learning program for elementary school students in 1998” made me snort in recognition.
Jessica Valenti, Sex Isn't Consent to Pregnancy (All In Her Head) - This. Just, this:
No one would say that if you cook dinner, you consent to be burned by a hot stove. Or that if you drive a car, you consent to getting in an accident… Sex is treated differently, especially if you’re a woman. Once a woman has sex, all bets are off. She has given up any claim to her body, and any right to complain about what might come next.
Brent Lang, Billy Eichner Is Here to Fight Hollywood Homophobia and Fulfill Your Gay Rom-Com Dreams (Variety, again!) - I love Billy Eichner and aspire to be yelled at him on the street someday, and this interview in anticipation of his big studio release has me SO excited for Bros!
Karrie Jacobs, We’ll Miss You, MetroCard Machine (Curbed) - I LOVE LOVE LOVE this affectionate retrospective on how the machine I thought was the coolest thing EVER when I lived in NYC in 2006-2007 (I had limited life experience, y’all!) is a joy to get through.
And finally
Chris S. Burns, I’ll Drink This Pumpkin Spice Latte Before Labor Day, But Only Because Demons Are Making Me (McSweeney’s) - I include because of the below:
I adore you all. I hope you can log off early today, drink some water, enjoy nature, toss your electronics into the nearest body of water and decompress this weekend. Be kind to yourself, I’ll see you next week.
xoxo Amy