Reading List: Passing Private Lives

NASA’s latest class of astronauts is 50 percent female and that is freaking awesome. Even more awesome is some of them may be the first team to go to Mars. So cool.

Alan Rickman passed away from of cancer at the age of 69. It’s a loss for the artistic community. I haven’t been that emotionally impacted by a celebrity death since Heath Ledger - seriously, no snark on that one - but Rickman’s obit gave me pause. In 2001, I saw Alan Rickman as Elyot in ‘Private Lives' in London’s West End and he was absolutely spellbinding, and for a theatre-obsessed Canadian teenager on her first transatlantic trip, it was pretty damned impactful. #FuckCancer

And related to the previously mentioned glorious Per Se review by Pete Wells, Slate’s Jordan Weissmann explains why Wells’s takedown speaks to a larger issue of value. Mainly, Weismann points out that, by calling it one of the worst deals in NY dining, Well reminds us that some of the patrons of restaurants like Per Se are normals like you and me, folks visiting the restaurant for a birthday, anniversary, holiday splurge, etc., and a downright mediocre experience at that price point is rude AF. Is he a ‘populist hero’ as the headline suggests? Probably not. Is he telegraphing how downright farcical some luxury institutions are becoming? Perhaps.