Days of the Week Are Confusing Now
is it Wednesday? I think it's Wednesday!
Feeding the pets is very soothing. They always know what time of day it is. They have no idea about what’s going on, they’re just excited we’re always home. Maybe get two kittens? Maybe get a 2-year-old dog, if you can afford to look after an animal. I don’t know your situation. They keep you moving. Be careful not to touch everything at the shelter and keep your physical distance from the employees (they’ll be grateful). A lot of people will be surrendering pets because of layoffs. Maybe you’ll be a good forever home. Maybe that’s not something you can do! That’s fine. You’re doing great. Jeez, you’re doing so well.
Again, please tell Twitter that the newsletter is free content only now. I just want people to have something to read and a place to hang out, and I’m keeping all posts available for non-subscribers to comment unless we get hop-ons. You have to watch for hostile hop-ons.
I am closely following a very low-stakes Canadian curling shakeup which, because Canada, remains on the CBC front page. They done Lisa wrong! What is the Homan Team THINKING?
This isn't about four friends coming together. It's all business now.
In the span of a few days, Canada's curling landscape has shifted dramatically.
The country's past women's and men's Olympic teams and last year's women's world champion representative team have all split.
"It's harder in Canada to compete with teams in other counties that are picking from the entire country. They pick all-star teams. There are no boundaries. It's a little tricky here," said Kevin Koe's lead Ben Hebert.
"The Canadian teams are aware and they're doing everything they can to keep up."
Last Thursday, it was announced Rachel Homan's Ottawa foursome was "parting ways" with Scotties first-team all-star Lisa Weagle.
In related news, my sports-oriented cousin Phil texted to say he could deal with the NHL season ending and the NBA season ending and golf going away and MLB being a pipe dream, but he is really struggling with the loss of the ladies’ curling championships. An ally!
My period was ten (10!) days late and I was like “no no no I am done and also coronavirus, this is not ideal” and I found a test that expired in 2018 and it said I was not pregnant but my period continued not to arrive so I did the one guaranteed period-summoning spell and put on a pair of snow-white Cosabella underwear and now my uterus and my butt are enthusiastically expelling the contents of my body. I am very sorry if you are trying to get pregnant and this is upsetting in any way. I want you to have everything you want.
If you are American, you may not be familiar with the very tragic case of Jennifer Pan. I am currently reading a book about it, but it first came to my attention when my friend, the brilliant Karen Ho, wrote about it for Toronto Life (TRUE CRIME WARNING, I selected a very calm passage but the piece has a lot of murder):
A close observer might have noticed that Jennifer seemed off, but I never did. I was a year behind her at Mary Ward Catholic Secondary in north Scarborough. As far as Catholic schools go, it was something of an anomaly: it had the usual high academic standards and strict dress code, mixed with a decidedly bohemian vibe. It was easy to find your tribe. Bright kids and arty misfits hung out together, across subjects, grades and social groups. If you played three instruments, took advanced classes, competed on the ski team and starred in the school’s annual International Night—a showcase of various cultures around the world—you were cool. Outsiders were embraced, geekiness celebrated (anime club meetings were constantly packed) and precocious ambition supported (our most famous alumnus, Craig Kielburger, pretty much ran his charity, Free the Children, from the halls of Mary Ward).
It was the perfect community for a student like Jennifer. A social butterfly with an easy, high-pitched laugh, she mixed with guys, girls, Asians, Caucasians, jocks, nerds, people deep into the arts. Outside of school, Jennifer swam and practised the martial art of wushu.
The r/BDSMAdvice and r/Polyamory subreddits are spiraling, I am sending love. Sending less love to r/Adultery, which is whining about not feeling like their adultery is “safe” anymore.
Sending a great DEAL of love to the people at r/Stopdrinking, many of whom are finding the isolation and anxiety to be extremely challenging to their sobriety. If that’s you, I’m so sorry and I am cheering for you.
I love a great catch. Rank that subreddit by top and all time and you’ll have a real good experience. It is not just sports, it’s a variety of things which qualify as “next fucking level”.
That’s…something:
A friend sent me this:
An absolute unit:
Great piece by a great writer about some damn American heroes:
And recently they nailed it. The test worked for incoming patients. The results were duplicated. Soon after, UNMC received permission to use the test in their own work with COVID-19 patients.
The race must have seemed won by Dr. Broadhurst and her team.
Wasn’t it?
“Have you ever been hiking in the mountains?” she asks. “Are you familiar with a false summit?” I can figure it. “You look up as a climber and think you see the end of your climb, only to discover the true peak has been obscured by your perspective.”
So begins, for Broadhurst and her team, the race for accelerated approval of the UNMC clinical lab test procedure by the FDA. Normally this would be a matter of years. A distant summit. This time it has to be a matter weeks before they see the top of their climb.
I ask her what courage means, and how it applies to her and her team.
“I don’t think anybody would use the word courage, but it takes courage to come to work here. But you trust your team and the people you work with, and you move forward,” she says. “Everybody puts the mission first.”
Okay, I moved out of my playlists into the depths of my phone to bring us some different music today:
Liz Phair. I came SO LATE to “Exile in Guyville” (I was living in La Grave, France, with my then-boyfriend, now-Steve) but I learned fast. Letters and sodas. Letters and sodas:
Never! Stop! Playing! A Tribe Called Red!
I have already played their “Sisters” video for you but it’s honestly so pure and good:
Loretta Lynn, a SELECTION (her husband was pretty crap but he was hers!):
Loretta got her some FUCKING BIRTH CONTROL and you can’t hold her back anymore!
And, personally, her album with Jack White is just wall to wall genius:
Okay, now my fav duet:
Thanks, Loretta! We’re moving on to Jeannie Riley and the eternal jam, “Harper Valley PTA”:
Melanie’s got a brand new pair of roller skates:
You know how I feel about Ben Affleck (I hold him in low esteem) but this was my high school (Canadian Content) jam:
ABBA:
We all know about Prince, but none of us listen to him enough, except for my dear friend Jaya Saxena:
Dr. Hook’s “Cover of the Rolling Stone”, a perfect song (this live version has what I HAVE to describe as strong queer energy):
Darlene Love’s “Today I Met The Boy I’m Gonna Marry” is one of the greatest songs ever written or sung:
I must say now, in all earnestness, that “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights” is terminally underrated. Chuck Klosterman once said that if Bruce Springsteen had written it it would be one of the most famous arena rock songs of all time, but Meat Loaf’s terminal uncoolness allows us to write it off.
Neil Young and Emmylou on “Star of Bethlehem” is my happy place:
Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” cover is better than Old Crow Medicine Show, I’M SORRY, I AM WHO I AM:
Oh, how you have astounded and impressed me. I knew you were great, but you’re even better than I knew. I love you, individually, like I love Kate Bush. You’re running up that road! You’re running up that hill! You’re running up that building!
xooxooxxoxo
nicole
Woke up to a 5.7 earthquake, it’s all over the state. My LDS friend Steve just texted “the Bible isn’t literal, right?”
I just wanted to tell you how much I love your newsletter. I have deeply missed you on Twitter, despite understanding and fully respecting why you left. Thank you for making the world suck so much less.